Telematch, 2007

Telematch series, 2007-2009

The Telematch series is a film, video installtion, and drawing series consisting of Telematch Upper Egypt, Telematch Sadat, Telematch Suburb, Telematch Shelter, and Telematch Crusades. This series is a reference to Telematch, the famous German television program broadcast in the 70s and 80s, in which inhabitants of two different German towns faced off against one another in a series of elaborate and timed games. This concept of constructing a contest or clash between two factions to benefit the entertainment of a third group forms the basis of Wael Shawky's Telematch series concept, although his are completely staged interactions. He documents these happenings so as to frame them in an artistic context, one in which the entertained party is the audience. With this new frame the project stages an in depth examination of the relationships between genders, social classes, cultural, economic, and political models, and generations of people from the 1970s to today in Egypt. The gladiatorial-style match-ups function on multiple levels, from the initial clash to the layers of meaning between the subjects Shawky selects.