The project, curated by Beatrice Merz and Laura Barreca, is part of the large programme of initiatives that has the Mediterranean as its theme and which will be taking place in the Sicilian capital throughout the month of February 2017.

Wael Shawky’s films will be presented within the picturesque area of the Monte di Pietà in the sixteenth-century Palazzo Branciforte, headquarters of the Fondazione Sicilia. It is here that Cabaret Crusades: The Path to Cairo (2012) will be installed, while his newly-produced Al Arab Al Madfuna III (2015-16) will be visible in the seventeenth-century church of S.S. Euno e Giuliano, located in the Kalsa, right in the Arab heart of the historic centre of Palermo.

A relator of the historical events concerning the Crusades and the Arab poetic culture, Wael Shawky offers a narrative but non-Western point of view, and by analogy provides an alternative view of the complex contemporary geo-political situation which determines the equilibrium not only of the Mediterranean, but also of Europe and the entire world. This work finds its ideal location and a highly topical showcase in Palermo, a cultural and geographical centre that unites East and West.