The window as a mirror
Marwan Bassiouni’s photographs explore the intersection of Islamic identity and Western culture.
By Taco Hidde Bakker
Born in Switzerland to an American mother and an Egyptian father, Marwan Bassiouni (b. 1985) exemplifies the contemporary diaspora. He came to study at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 2014 and has since called the Netherlands home. It was around that time that he became interested in Islam and how it is perceived in Western societies. From a desire to engage with that perception, he alighted upon the concept, as brilliant as it is simple, of photographing mosques in the Netherlands from the inside out. He places his camera inside a mosque facing a window and photographs the exterior view and the interior elements that frame it separately. He later merges the photographs in what he calls “documentary composites”. Because both the interior and exterior views are in sharp focus, they demand equal attention, which makes for a slightly surreal viewing experience.
For a Western audience the view is familiar, while it is framed by something less so. This is not to suggest that Westerners do not engage with Islam specifically, but rather that increased secularisation has reduced engagement with religion generally. Thus, the window also turns into a mirror, reflecting the reality of mosques and Islam as integral parts of the European landscape. This tension has been made beautifully visible in Bassiouni’s work. The mosques function as a sort of camera, in which the viewer is hypothetically placed, looking at a familiar view within an unfamiliar frame. For a non-Western Islamic audience, this works the other way around.
After his New Dutch Views series, Bassiouni expanded his project to include views from mosques in Switzerland and Britain, under the umbrella title New Western Views. More recently he has also been working in the US and Canada. Bassiouni’s exhibition at the Lawrie Shabibi Gallery in Dubai (September 18 to November 5) will be his first solo show in the region, featuring
photographs from New Western Views.
“These striking photographs make you look twice because there is a dissonance of two images seemingly out of sync—yet they are an everyday reality for millions of people,” says Asmaa Al-Shabibi, director of Lawrie Shabibi. “Marwan’s meticulous journeys to discover these mosques is enthralling, so we felt compelled to put up an exhibition of his work.”
Taco Hidde Bakker is a writer and curator based in the Netherlands.
Marwan Bassiouni, New British Views #06, England, 2021.The mosques function as a sort of camera, in which the viewer is placed, looking at a familiar view within an unfamiliar frame.
Courtesy of the artist and Lawrie Shabibi Gallery.
