Hyperopia: A Visual Performance by Menna El Shazly

Wekalet Behna hosted Hyperopia, a distinctive visual and performative work by visual artist Menna El Shazly. The evening featured a multidisciplinary piece combining an art installation with a live stage performance, accompanied by a live orchestral ensemble led by a group of prominent musicians. Menna El Shazly drew inspiration from the principles of Sudan’s Crystalist School, a significant artistic and philosophical movement that emerged in the 1970s. The performance embraced the school’s pursuit of dissolving the contradictions between appearance and essence. Through this philosophical lens, the work deconstructed the “value of the image’s disappearance,” transforming everyday, excessive digital interactions—such as scrolling, zooming, clicking, and dragging—into tools for revealing cyclical patterns and infinite extensions interconnected at both microscopic and macroscopic scales. This complex cinematic and theatrical performance was accompanied by a live musical score led by violinist and composer Meredith, alongside musical composition and arrangements developed in collaboration with a group of prominent musicians and creatives from the independent arts scene.