Please note this is a free, offsite event, taking place at The Photographers’ Gallery. RSVP is not required.

Artist Mahmoud Khaled and designer Marwan Kaabour will be in conversation with Brett Rogers, Director of The Photographers’ Gallery about their collaboration on the new artist book Fantasies on a Found Phone, Dedicated to the Man Who Lost it, co-published by BookWorks and The Mosaic Rooms. Learn more about the publication which accompanies Mahmoud Khaled‘s first UK solo exhibition Fantasies on a Found Phone, Dedicated to the Man Who Lost it.

Drawn from an unlocked phone, found in a public toilet, the images and texts present a portrait of a stranger. Moving between the erotic, intimate, baroque and everyday, the compulsive sequence of images references the dissonant and voyeuristic experience of scrolling through social media and swiping in dating apps, and the clash of hyper-capitalist forces of productivity and technology with the intimacy of a queer male gaze.

This event is presented in partnership with The Photographers’ Gallery.

Mahmoud Khaled was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and currently works in Berlin. His practice is both process oriented and multidisciplinary, can be regarded as formal and philosophical ruminations on art as a form of political activism, and a space for critical reflection. He has presented in international solo shows and group shows such as Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2019), Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam (2018), Istanbul Biennale (2017), Sharjah Bienniale (2017), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2016). He was a guest artist at the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin programme in 2020.

Marwan Kaabour is an independent graphic designer and visual artist from Beirut. He moved to London in 2011 to pursue a master’s degree in Graphic Design from the London College of Communication, then joined Barnbrook – one of the UK’s most formidable and celebrated design agencies – as Designer and later Senior Designer. He founded his own design practice in 2020, where he continues working and collaborating with artists and art institutions. In 2019, he founded Takweer, a platform that explores and archives queer narratives in Arab history and popular culture. More about Marwan Kaabour

The Photographers’ Gallery is the UK’s foremost centre for the presentation and exploration of photography in all its forms and home to an international community of photographers.

Images:
1.Mahmoud Khaled, Fantasies on a Found Phone, Dedicated to the Man Who Lost it, 2022, multimedia installation. Installation view at The Mosaic Rooms. Photography: Andy Stagg. 
2-9. Excerpts from the publication Fantasies on a Found Phone, Dedicated to the Man Who Lost it, 2022. Courtesy of the artists, BookWorks and The Mosaic Rooms.
10. Portraits of Mahmoud Khaled and Marwan Kaabour. Courtesy of the artists.