The American-Lebanese artist Walid Raad presents a selection of recent works, rooted in the wars that have shaken the Middle East for 40 years. A stroll through photographs, collages, drawings, texts, sculptures and videos, commented on by their author.
The work of photographer and visual artist Walid Raad is grounded in a pivotal moment in history – the years 1982-1983, marked by the occupation of Lebanon, the Sabra and Chatila massacres and the exile of the Palestine Liberation Organization to Tunis – in order to explore its contemporary resonances across different spaces and temporalities. In the guided tours he offers, Walid Raad – both archivist and storyteller – recounts invented, transmitted or found stories.
The artist is familiar with these hybrid formats, a place for reflection on art and history, emotion and memory. The works he presents today traverse a vast territory – from Lebanon to Tunis via Ljubljana – and embrace war and reconstruction in Lebanon as well as the history of art in the Arab world.