Khaled Hafez at Safar Khan Art Gallery
‘On Codes, Symbols and Stockholm Syndrome’ is a painting project inspired by the events Khaled Hafez has lived through in
the year 2011; from the revolution to his kidnapping. The project’s
title evolved from Hafez’s particular interest in the work of Jean Baudrillard
who, in his seminal research of cultural specificities, wrote about ‘simulation’ and ‘simulacra’. We can look at those terms, simplistically, as
the ‘fake and the authentic’ in cultures. In what he addresses as the third
order he beautifully describes how societies identify themselves by codes
and symbols. Baudrillard argues that in a world where the original is always
preceded by the sign, where the simulated copy has superseded the original,
reality becomes a meaningless concept. Taking this thesis as a starting point,
this project explores notions of what is fake and what is authentic in a
contemporary culture loaded with codes and symbols of faith, ideology, wealth,
subjugation and the quest for power.