Cabaret Crusades

Since 2010, Shawky has embarked on a project chronicling the events of the Crusades. The project, titled Cabaret Crusades takes the form of a video installation divided into three chapters each describing specific scenes and happenings of these religious wars from the Arab point of view. What is inherently unique to these videos is the visualization of the characters. The actors of the films are custom made marionettes. In all three chapters, Shawky has used handcrafted marionettes to tell the stories of the aggressors and victims of the medieval religious strife.

The three films are seen as one monumental work, yet each one of them has its own signature aesthetics, speech, music, and scenography. “Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show File” (2010), the first of the series, was shot with 200 year old Italian marionettes. Using realistic-looking spaces and three-dimensional architecture, the film tackles the period of 1096 to 1099, spanning four years of critical events that changed the core of the Arab World and its relation to the West. “Cabaret Crusades: The Path to Cairo” (2012) was made with ceramic marionettes handcrafted by the artist himself. This part covers the period between the 1st and 2nd Crusades (1099-1149) using a scenographic landscape collaged from Persian miniatures. The third and final chapter of the series “Cabaret Crusades: The Secrets of Karbala” (2015) was made with translucent glass marionettes, with a clay stage set providing the background for the narrative.

In this third part, Cabaret Crusades: The Secrets of Karbalaa, the plot goes back and forth on the historical time line from the 7th century to the 12th century and describes the beginnings of the split between Muslims into Shiites and Sunnis in the battle of Karbalaa. Shawky created individual marionettes out of Murano glass, some taking the form of animals, others disfigured - all showing the grotesque brutality of war and aggression. This third part was produced in Murano and at K20, Düsseldorf.