"This Show is My Business", started during a
residency in London in 2008 where Mahmoud
Khaled began a research project investigating the
careers of male belly-dance performers based in
London. The project takes as its point of departure
Khaled’s accidental discovery of Khaled Mahmoud, a
popular London-based belly dancer born in Cairo,
whose identity emerged from the field of search
results generated by the artist after trying to ‘google’ his own name.
"This Show is My Business", based on a meeting with Ozgen, a London based
Turkish performer who has performed, taught, choreographed and directed for the
last 14 years. His reputation as a male belly dancer and teacher has taken him
across Europe.Khaled takes an interest in belly-dance performers as artists
confronting issues related to gender identity and notions of cultural ‘authenticity’ in a
field located outside the boundaries typically claimed by contemporary art.
