Nothing matters
Ali Kays
2005
MiniDV
11 minutes
Mohammad gives up his passion for music, his sister, his two friends Helmi and Taoufic, the faculty of architecture, his despaired mother, and then later his first love Marie… He leaves everything, obsessed by the idea of him having the duty to fight in his society. The video portrays political and social shifts from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, the Proselytizing of Islam in far eastern countries during the 80’s fall of the soviet union and the re-rise of radical Islam. The narrative is written using Egyptian pocket novels, videos from Saddam Hussein’s music birthday clips on national television and an “Internationale” anthem polyphonic ringtone.
Born in 1978, lives and works in Montreal. Ali is a visual artist working with textual, analog, computer, digital and virtual narrative media. He is a Multimedia creative director and co-founder at The Council, a creative studio that takes a deep interest in art, visual technologies and design. Ali’s artworks has been exhibited and screened at festivals and galleries including Oberhausen film festival-Germany, Le Tarmac-Paris, Goethe institut-Istanbul, The Second Riwaq Biennale-Palestine, Tokyo Wonder Site-Shibuya, La Marechalerie contemporary art center-Paris, 16 Beaver Group-NewYork, AlmostReal Ashkal Alwan-Beirut and the Sursock Museum in Beirut.