Swiss-Egyptian artist and photographer Marwan Bassiouni presents works from his ongoing photographic series New British Views as part of Backyard Biennial: East, Whitechapel Gallery's ambitious summer arts festival celebrating the cultural, social and creative histories of East London.
Developed in collaboration with more than forty local partners, Backyard Biennial: East reimagines the traditional biennial model through a community-led programme of exhibitions, performances, screenings, workshops and public events. Spanning venues across East London, the festival explores themes of place, migration, belonging and collective histories—ideas that resonate with Bassiouni's ongoing investigation into landscape and perspective.
For over a decade, Bassiouni has examined how contemporary Western landscapes are experienced, represented and understood. His acclaimed series New British Views reconsiders the conventions of landscape photography by presenting cities, suburbs, industrial zones and rural environments from viewpoints rarely encountered. Photographed from within mosques across Europe and North America, the surrounding landscapes are framed through windows, doorways and architectural openings, offering an alternative way of seeing places that are otherwise deeply familiar.
Rather than positioning the mosque as the subject of the image, Bassiouni uses it as a point of departure. The photographs propose a new perspective on the Western landscape itself, revealing how the act of looking is shaped by the position from which we view the world. By drawing on the visual language of classical landscape photography while subtly shifting its viewpoint, the series encourages viewers to reconsider assumptions about who belongs within these landscapes and how they are represented.
Central to the project is the relationship between perspective and place. Architectural elements of each mosque become part of the composition, creating layered images in which interior and exterior exist simultaneously. This framing invites reflection on the ways landscapes are constructed not only through geography, but also through personal experience, cultural memory and acts of observation.
Technically, the works are characterised by meticulous attention to light and detail. Using natural light and carefully balanced digital exposures, Bassiouni ensures that both the mosque interior and the landscape beyond remain visible with remarkable clarity. This allows each image to function as a unified composition, where architecture and landscape coexist rather than compete for attention.
While New British Views inevitably engages with questions of identity, migration and belonging, these themes emerge through the landscape itself rather than through direct representation. The series resists fixed narratives, instead proposing a more expansive understanding of the contemporary West—one that acknowledges the multiplicity of perspectives from which it can be seen.
Within the context of Backyard Biennial: East, Bassiouni's work contributes to broader conversations about East London's evolving cultural landscape and its histories of migration, exchange and transformation. His photographs invite viewers to look again at the environments they thought they knew, demonstrating how a simple shift in perspective can fundamentally reshape our understanding of place.
