Radio Papesse

As part of a wider project called Shaping Perceptions: The self as an affective and effective work of art, Khaled Hafez has contributed to Manifesta8 with two radio programs that deal with the arabic cultural legacy in Spain and the history of those Muslim scholars from Spain who chose to live in Alexandria, in Egypt, as Muslim Spain gradually fell under the domination of hostile Christian forces.

The first chapter, divided in two parts, is dedicated to Abul Abbas Al Mursi, the second one to Ibn Arabi, both born in Murcia, Andalusia.

Al Murci Abul Abbas was born in Murcia in Andalusia in 616 H (1219 AD). His family was into the trading business and he was well educated in the Quran & Sunna (aka the prophet Muhammad’s teachings). He left Spain with his family in 640 H (1242 AD) fleeing the gradually declining Islamic empire in Spain.
The family was destined to go and settle in Mecca, Hijaz - today’s Saudi Arabia -; Abul Abbas (Shahab) accompanied his father, brother and his mother in this trip, however, the family never made it to their destination.
Their ship capsized near the shores of Tunisia, Only Abul Abbas and his brother Muhammad survived.
Both brothers made it to the shores of Tunisia where they lived briefly: Muhammad taking trade and commerce as a profession, while Abul Abbas taught reading and religion to locals.

In Tunisia, Shahab heard about El Sheikh Abu El Hassan El Shazly and he accompanied him in his journey to Alexandria, where many Spanish immigrant scholars chose to live after the collapse of the best part of Andalus, and the gradual domination of Christian forces over Spain. Abu al-Abbas became one of his best students.


I state nothing that has not been projected toward me;
I write nothing except what has been inspired in me.
I am not a prophet, nor a messenger, simply an inheritor, and I labour for my coming life”
Ibn Arabi, Fu??? al-?ikam (The Bezels of Wisdoms)

Ibn Arabi remains one of the most important free thinkers of Sufi Islam of all time, throughout the Mediterranean region, from Spain to Alexandria, from Syria to Palestine, Anatolia to Egypt and Iraq. 


Khaled Hafez, born in 1963, Cairo, Egypt. Lives and works in Cairo.
His videos and installations from the past eight years test the complex nature of the Egyptian identity, probing issues of political history, migration, visual memory and shifting social behaviour. His is an ironic approach that transcends genre and traditional video medium. To enhance his narrative, Hafez uses stock footage as well as utilising images to create an alternative story, while recycling actual elements from past historical events. In his paintings, Hafez reveals a similar approach through recycling and manipulating advertising imagery and altering the iconography of ancient deities to explore the tangential points between the sacred and the profane, creating a sense of déjà vu. His works have been shown at the Dakar Biennale, Singapore Biennale, Sharjah Biennale, Thessaloniki Biennale and at the Guangzhou Triennale, and included in groups shows at MuHKA, Antwerp, Kunstmuseum Bonn and the Queens Museum, New York.