Walid Raad /
Eva Respini ; with a contribution by Walid Raad and an essay by Finbarr Barry Flood.
Catalog of an exhibition held at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Oct. 12, 2015-Jan. 31, 2016, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Feb. 24-May 30, 2016, and the Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Oct. 13, 2016-Jan. 14, 2017. Hasar/Tedbir
I thought I'd escape my fate, but apparently / Slippery delays and optical mysteries: the work of Walid Raad / The Atlas Group -- Scratching on things I could disavow -- Staging traces of histories not easily disavowed / Walid Raad -- Eva Respini -- Finbarr Barry Flood.
Lebanese artist Walid Raad is an influential voice in art from the Middle East. Published for his first comprehensive exhibition in the US, this catalogue surveys three decades of Raad's practice in photography, video and performance. Beginning with his groundbreaking project The Atlas Group (1989-2004), to his recent work on the history of art in the Arab world (2007-ongoing), it offers an overview of Raad's career and features his most momentous bodies of work. Raad explores the ways we represent war and history, casting doubt on the veracity of photographic and video documentation. Essays by scholars place Raad's art in the context of contemporary photography and video, as well as art made in Lebanon since the 1960s; provide an overview of Raad's performance lectures; and examine Raad's most recent bodies of work made in the Islamic galleries at the Louvre and Metropolitan Museum of Art, which explore the history, collecting and display of historical and modern art and artifacts from the Arab world and Iran. A special contribution by Raad presents a fictional interview with multiple artists, curators and writers.