Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show Files
- Artist: Wael Shawky
- Date: 2010
- Medium: Video, high definition, projection, colour and sound (stereo)
- Dimensions: unconfirmed
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show Files” by Wael Shawky. In this 2010 high‑definition video, the artist pulls history back on stage, recreating the first Crusades from 1095 to 1099. He builds elaborate sets by hand – embroidered costumes, miniature palaces that look like they belong in a 12th‑century palace. What’s striking is the use of 200‑year‑old Italian marionettes, borrowed from the Lupi family collection. They move on visible strings, a deliberate reminder that the puppeteers, not the puppets, are in control. The marionettes speak in classical Arabic, giving the characters a voice that echoes the very voices that once debated power in Jerusalem. Shawky’s work asks us to question agency, power and the spectacle of conflict. The sound and colour add to the theatrical feel, turning the past into a living cabaret that confronts us with the horror and spectacle of war.
See it in person
Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show Files is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
