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ssef Nabil began his photography career in 1992 by staging tableaux in which his sub- Cairo Binnale 13th 2019
jects acted out melodramas recalling film stills from the golden age of Egyptian cinema. Lat-
er in the 1990s, he began photographing artists and friends, producing both formal portraits
as well as placing his subjects in the realms of dreams and sleep, on the edge of awareness,
far from their daylight selves.
Since moving to Paris and New York in 2003, he started producing self-portraits that reflect
his dislocated life away from Egypt. This series that has evolved over the past sixteen years
is characterised by liminal scenes in which he lingers between worldly realities and serene
dreams, loneliness and fears of death.
Nabil’s distinctive technique of hand-coloring silver gelatin prints removes the blemishes
of reality. Nabil disrupts prevalent notions of color photography and painting, as well as
assumptions about the aesthetic sensibilities associated with art and those identified with
popular culture. His hand-colouring evokes a sense of longing and nostalgia and allows his
photographs to flicker between our time and another era.
The artist presented his first video in 2010 entitled “You Never Left” which featured the ac-
tors Fanny Ardant and Tahar Rahim. It is set in an allegorical place that is a metaphor of a
lost Egypt, sketching an intimate and solemn parallel between exile and death.
In 2015, Nabil produced his second video, “I Saved My Belly Dancer”, with actors Sal-
ma Hayek and Tahar Rahim, a narration around his fascination with the tradition of belly
dancers and the disappearance of the art form that is unique to the Middle East. The video
explores shifting perceptions of women in the Arab world and the tensions between the
amplified sexualisation of their bodies and the continued repression of women in modern
Arab society.
Nabil’s work has been presented in solo exhibitions at venues including The Villa Medici,
Rome; Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City; Nathalie Obadia Gallery, Paris; The Third Line
Gallery, Dubai; Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town; Savannah College of Art and De-
sign, GA; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Rencontres Internationales de la
Photographie, Arles and The Pérez Art Museum, Miami.
Group exhibitions at venues including The Centre Pompidou, Paris; The British Museum,
London; Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LAC-
MA; Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcas-
tle; Aperture Foundation, New York; Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Museum
of Photography, Thessaloniki; North Carolina Museum of Art; Victoria & Albert Museum,
London; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C; Centro Andaluz
de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla and Centre de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona.
Youssef Nabil is part of various international collections including Collection François Pin-
ault, Paris; LACMA Museum, Los Angeles; The Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris; Sindika
Dokolo Foundation, Luanda; La Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; the joint col-
lection of The British Museum and The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; SCAD Museum
of Art, Savannah, GA; Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City; Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern
Art, Doha; the Guggenheim Museum, Abu Dhabi;The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
and Pérez Art Museum in Miami.
Youssef Nabil was born in 1972 in Cairo and currently lives and works in Paris and New
York.
You Never Left, 2010 - Hand colored gelatin silver print. - Courtesy of The Third Line Gallery, Dubai;
and Nathalie Obadia Gallery, Paris/ Brussels.
344
jects acted out melodramas recalling film stills from the golden age of Egyptian cinema. Lat-
er in the 1990s, he began photographing artists and friends, producing both formal portraits
as well as placing his subjects in the realms of dreams and sleep, on the edge of awareness,
far from their daylight selves.
Since moving to Paris and New York in 2003, he started producing self-portraits that reflect
his dislocated life away from Egypt. This series that has evolved over the past sixteen years
is characterised by liminal scenes in which he lingers between worldly realities and serene
dreams, loneliness and fears of death.
Nabil’s distinctive technique of hand-coloring silver gelatin prints removes the blemishes
of reality. Nabil disrupts prevalent notions of color photography and painting, as well as
assumptions about the aesthetic sensibilities associated with art and those identified with
popular culture. His hand-colouring evokes a sense of longing and nostalgia and allows his
photographs to flicker between our time and another era.
The artist presented his first video in 2010 entitled “You Never Left” which featured the ac-
tors Fanny Ardant and Tahar Rahim. It is set in an allegorical place that is a metaphor of a
lost Egypt, sketching an intimate and solemn parallel between exile and death.
In 2015, Nabil produced his second video, “I Saved My Belly Dancer”, with actors Sal-
ma Hayek and Tahar Rahim, a narration around his fascination with the tradition of belly
dancers and the disappearance of the art form that is unique to the Middle East. The video
explores shifting perceptions of women in the Arab world and the tensions between the
amplified sexualisation of their bodies and the continued repression of women in modern
Arab society.
Nabil’s work has been presented in solo exhibitions at venues including The Villa Medici,
Rome; Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City; Nathalie Obadia Gallery, Paris; The Third Line
Gallery, Dubai; Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town; Savannah College of Art and De-
sign, GA; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Rencontres Internationales de la
Photographie, Arles and The Pérez Art Museum, Miami.
Group exhibitions at venues including The Centre Pompidou, Paris; The British Museum,
London; Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LAC-
MA; Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcas-
tle; Aperture Foundation, New York; Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Museum
of Photography, Thessaloniki; North Carolina Museum of Art; Victoria & Albert Museum,
London; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C; Centro Andaluz
de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla and Centre de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona.
Youssef Nabil is part of various international collections including Collection François Pin-
ault, Paris; LACMA Museum, Los Angeles; The Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris; Sindika
Dokolo Foundation, Luanda; La Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; the joint col-
lection of The British Museum and The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; SCAD Museum
of Art, Savannah, GA; Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City; Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern
Art, Doha; the Guggenheim Museum, Abu Dhabi;The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
and Pérez Art Museum in Miami.
Youssef Nabil was born in 1972 in Cairo and currently lives and works in Paris and New
York.
You Never Left, 2010 - Hand colored gelatin silver print. - Courtesy of The Third Line Gallery, Dubai;
and Nathalie Obadia Gallery, Paris/ Brussels.
344
