Marwan Bassiouni (b. 1985, Morges, Switzerland) is an artist and photographer living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
He began his formal training as a photographer by working as an assistant in a commercial studio in Geneva while following a photography apprenticeship at the Photography School of Vevey. He then worked in the media department of a human rights NGO focused on the Middle-East and North Africa. In 2012, Bassiouni travelled to Cairo and produced his first photographic series before pursuing studies at the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague, Netherlands.
Marwan’s images, often presented large-scale, lie at an intersection between documentary practice, fine art and intercultural mediation. In his photographs, he explores the poetics and aesthetics of documentary photography while focusing on the Western landscape and themes related to identity, spirituality, culture and the politics of representation.
Marwan holds a BA in photography from The Royal Academy of Art (KABK) and a photographer CFC from the Photography School of Vevey (CEPV). His work has been written about in publications such as the British Journal of Photography, The New Yorker, Artforum, EXIT Imagen Y Cultura, Lens culture, Aperture, ZEITmagazin and FOAM. In 2019, Marwan had a solo exhibition at the Hague Museum of Photography and published the photo book New Dutch Views. His work has been exhibited at The Photography Museum of the Hague (NL), The Netherlands photo Museum (NL), Kunsthaus Zurich (CH), The International Center of Photography (USA), Fotostiftung Schweiz (CH), Foam (NL), Museum Schloss Moyland (DE), The Deutsche Boerse Photography Foundation (DE), Kunstmuseum The Hague (NL), The Shanghai Center of Photography (CHN), Unseen Photofair (NL), Art Duesseldorf (DE), The Benaki Museum (GR), Festival Circulation (s) (FR), Kunsthal Helmond (NL), Bienne Festival of Photography (CH), Z33 (BE) and Cultuurhuis De Warande (BE) among others.
Marwan's work is held in private and public art collections such as Kunsthaus Zürich, Kunstmuseum Bern, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Nederlands Fotomuseum, The International Center of Photography, The Dutch Ministry of Foreign affairs, The Mondriaan Funds, Akzo Nobel Foundation, The Dutch National Bank, Amsterdam University Hospitals, KPMG and Menzis.
Bassiouni is the recipient of the W. Eugene Smith Student Grant, the Harry Pennings Prize, the Prix Circulation(s)-Fujifilm and several other awards and nominations. His book New Dutch Views was a finalist for the Aperture First Book Award at Paris Photo. Since 2020, his work has generously been supported by the Mondriaan Funds and Bassiouni has been awarded grants from the Mondriaan Funds in 2020, 2022 and 2024.