13 Essential Rules for Understanding the World
Basim Magdy
Egyptian, born 1977
2011
A 5‑minute Super 8 film transferred to video in which Basim Magdy stages brief, tongue‑in‑cheek vignettes—small theatrical gestures and instructions—that propose and gently parody a set of ‘essential rules’ for understanding the world.
What hits you first is the grainy, dusk‑lit Super 8 color and casual framing (with black letterbox edges), turning a woman balancing on a suburban boulder into something both humorous and quietly melancholic.
By using the look and rhythm of amateur film to deliver poetic, didactic fragments, the work participates in contemporary video art that reclaims lo‑fi moving image aesthetics to question authoritative narratives and remake documentary intimacy into poetic critique.
Medium
Super 8mm film transferred to video (color, sound)
Dimensions
5:16 min.
Classification
Department
Credit
Fund for the Twenty-First Century
Accession
1774.2015
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
