Clowns, 2014

For around a decade, Basim Magdy has been using a particular technique for the processing of film which he calls ‘film pickling’. It is indeed a genuine pickling of the photographic material, which for a certain length of time is steeped in corrosive liquids for domestic use such as vinegar or Coca-Cola. Contact with such liquids triggers a series of chemical reactions that he only manages to foresee in part and which, depending on the length of the pickling period, the quality of the film and of the acid used, determine the degree of deterioration and the colouring that will come out in the final image. In a historical moment defined by the obsolescence of analogical techniques, the artist turns his gaze back to the most material qualities of film. [...]