A Nafas magazine profile of Dubai based Egyptian artist, Magdi Mostafa :
Mostafa creates site-specific, research-based sound projects, manifesting as multimedia installations or live performances. Highly sensitive to his surroundings, he makes field-recordings of the sounds, both prosaic and poetic, which to most of us are background noise. By mixing them into his work, he forces them into the foreground of our attention and vibrates them through our very core, creating oblique physical, aural and emotional responses with his intense, low frequencies.
ELEMENTS OF THE UNEXPECTED (sound sculpture + mixed media) - Art Dubai 2012
Fascinated by how sounds can trigger memories, both personal and cultural, at an elemental level, Mostafa seeks out-moded technologies to preserve and reanimate their acoustic qualities. These may be antiquated washing machines or industrial bread-mixers, existing unremarked beneath the skin of the city, waiting to be discovered by the artist. In his multi-layered practice Mostafa charts both the rapid changes and the eternal characteristics of the urban spaces that he experiences.
