Titled "ChaösGnösis: The Quest for the KöreKösmu" Tarek Naga's multimedia installation opened in Cairo. His brother, actor and MIME favourite Khaled Abol Naga sent us the conceptual text, along with some images.
"In the year 3039 CE, YaxaTao, Xander and Zein embarked on a long arduous quest to unlock the mysteries of the KöreKösmu. Their chance encounter was/will be in the faraway future of humanity. Their journeys are essential and critical to the transformation and evolution process of the human race. The emulsification of the purest substance in the known universe(s), the Kosmu(s), is at the heart of their quest in the 31st century. The substances of their future world is essentially biomorphic and our three heroes must obtain and liquefy the cellular essence of a crystalline comet, “Rosebud 13/31”, that transverses billions of galaxies.
In the year 1239 CE, in post-Crusader, post-Mongol, destructive wars, three mystics telepathically embarked on a parallel quest for the esoteric “KöreKösmu”. Hermetically sealed in Toth’s myth, the ancient Egyptian recorder of wisdom and history and guarded by Maat’s venerable order of justice and Nut’s eternal universes, their journeys in the 13th century led them to the mythological Simurgh bird in ancient China. The hoopoe attempted to lead 30000 birds into the Simurgh’s hidden nest, across the seven magical valleys, ended up with just 30 believing birds that awakened the slumbering and forgetful Simurgh; hence the Si/Murghs, the 30 birds!
The two parallel worlds, of the exoteric and the esoteric mythological tales are the projections, past and future, of a humanity that is on the cusp of a fundamental evolutionary transformation in order to morph into a new species. In this self-induced chapter in human evolution, Homo Sapiens emphatically re-emerge as ‘Trans-Homo-Gnosis’.
Artificial Intelligence, genetic engineering and the mysteries of ancient gnostic wisdom are the fundamental catalysts for such transformative and evolutionary leaps.
What you are about to witness are the amalgamated tales and myths of those entangled worlds and the rise of a new human at their vortex.
A phoenix; a TransHomoGnosis, that encapsulates ancient mysteries and the future/past of long forgotten truths."
If it sounds fascinating, and also just a touch esoteric, it is. We love the poster and catching some of the exclusive photos from the opening night, which happened this past week.
About the artist, Tarek Naga was born in Cairo, Egypt. He obtained a Bachelor of Architecture from Ain Shams University in 1975 and a Masters from the University of Minnesota in 1982. He is based in America, where he has lived since 1979. He has published works on architecture and has taught in America and been a guest academic at the American University in Cairo. He regularly enters design competitions. He has created installations for exhibitions and has been involved in a variety of ongoing design projects in Egypt and Dubai. Naga also participated in the first TEDxCairo, delivering a presentation entitled: "Of Phantom limbs: Sycamores, Towers, and the Return of the Prodigal Son" at the American University in Cairo. His work has been exhibited at La Biennale di Venezia, in Tokyo, around the USA and in France.
Check out the Kodak Passageway here.
