Akram Zaatari
dal 25/11/2013 al 31/1/2014
Segnalato da
25/11/2013
Akram Zaatari
Thomas Dane Gallery, London
On Photography People and Modern Times. The exhibition will include two important installations that forensically examine Studio Sheherazade and other archival material held in the Arab Image Foundation.
Zaatari is amongst the most influential artists of his generation and has played a critical role
in developing the formal, intellectual and institutional infrastructure of Beirut’s contemporary
art scene. He is co-founder of the groundbreaking Arab Image Foundation (AIF) (1997) - an
expanding collection of over 600,000 images – with a mission to preserve and study vernacular
and studio photography from the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab diaspora.
Zaatari is widely known for his expansive practice in photography and filmmaking which
reflects on the collecting, archiving and dissemination of such images and the performative
role they play in the formation of individual and communal identities and histories. This
sensibility was formed in the course of living through fifteen years of war in Lebanon,
watching it unfold and recording it as a teenager. He has spent much of the last decade
excavating the archive of Studio Sheherazade, established in 1953 by Hashem al-Madani in
Saida, South Lebanon, Zaatari's city of origin.
The exhibition at Thomas Dane Gallery will include two important installations that
forensically examine Studio Sheherazade and other archival material held in the AIF. Both
bridge geographic and temporal boundaries and probe the nature of representation.
At 3 Duke Street, On Photography, People and Modern Times, 2010 is a 38 minute projection
installed in a cinema-like environment. This structurally complex work includes three
different temporal logics - that of the photograph, the video, and the time-lapse video. It is a
masterful meditation on the photographic archive, on the intimate moments captured within
and the technical apparatus that now ensures its preservation. This work was recently shown
at MoMA, NY as part of Projects 100.
The second installation 28 Nights and a Poem 2010, occupies the entire space at 11 Duke Street
and is articulated by video monitors, LCD screens, ipad videos, wall-based photography,
photographic cabinets, and projected super 8 film. Zaatari deploys this arsenal to engage the
viewer at every level with his evocation of Studio Sheherazade. Cameras, lenses, flashbulbs,
celluloid reels, archive boxes, negatives, developing agents, tools for retouching, colouring,
cropping, sealing, postcards of film stars for inspiration, test prints, final portraits of notables
and not so notables - Hashem al-Madani's universe is brought to life by Zaatari with both
scientific precision and the empathy that makes his work so universally engaging.
Zaatari represents Lebanon in the recent 55th Venice Biennale and featured in Documenta 13
(2012), Liverpool Biennale (2012), Istanbul Biennale (2011) and the Venice Biennale (2007).
His work is shown and collected all over the world, including at Tate, London; Bristol Museum,
Bristol; Centre Pompidou, Paris; SFMOMA, San Francisco; MoMA, NY; Kunstverein, Munich;
MUSAC, Leon; Kunsternes Hus, Oslo; TBA 21, Vienna.
Opening reception on Tuesday November 26th 2013 at 18 - 20h, across both gallery spaces
Thomas Dane Gallery
3 and 11 Duke Street St Jame's, London
Open hours: from Tuesday to Friday 10:00am-6:00pm, Saturday 12:00pm-6:00pm or by appointment
Admission: Free