Edited with text by Eva Respini. Text by Finbarr Barry Flood, Walid Raad.
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. Walid Raad was born in 1967 in Chbanieh, Lebanon, and moved to Beirut as a child. In 1983, at age 16, Raad left Lebanon for the US. He enrolled at the Rochester Institute of Technology to study photography, and earned his PhD in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester. Raad currently lives in New York and Beirut, and has been an Associate Professor of Art at The Cooper Union since 2002.
Eva Respini is the Barbara Lee Chief Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and former Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Stuart Comer is the Chief Curator of Media and Performance Art at MoMA.
Barry Flood is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Humanities at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
Featured image is reproduced from Walid Raad.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Bookforum
Christopher Lyon
Walid Raad...makes elaborate artistic fictions with a wry and whimsical sense of humor delivered in a deadpan style worthy of Borges.
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Reproduced from MoMA's new Walid Raad exhibition catalog, The Atlas Group's Hostage: The Bachar tapes (English version) (2001) "is attributed to Souheil Bachar and is about the abduction and detention in Lebanon in the 1980s and early 1990s of Western men like Terry Anderson and Terry Waite by 'Islamic militants.' This episode directly and indirectly consumed Lebanese, US, French, German and British political and public life, and precipitated a number of high profile political scandals like the Iran-Contra Affair in the US. In Hostage this crisis is examined through the testimony of Souheil Bachar who was held hostage in Lebanon between 1983 and 1993. What is remarkable about Souheil’s captivity is that he was held for three months in 1985 in the same cell as five American men: Terry Anderson, Thomas Sutherland, Benjamin Weir, Martin Jenco and David Jacobsen. In 2000, Souheil collaborated with The Atlas Group to produce 53 videotapes about his captivity. Tapes #17 and #31 are the only tapes Souheil makes available outside of Lebanon. In the tapes, Bachar addresses the cultural, textual and sexual aspects of his detention with the Americans." continue to blog
"Like many around me in Beirut in the late 1970s, I collected bullets and shrapnel," Walid Raad is quoted in MoMA's new exhibition catalogue. "I would run out to the streets after a night or day of shelling to remove them from walls, cars and trees. I kept detailed notes of where I found every bullet and photographed the sites of my findings, covering the holes with dots that corresponded to the bullet’s diameter and the mesmerizing hues I found on bullets’ tips. It took me ten years to realize that ammunition manufacturers follow distinct color codes to mark and identify their cartridges and shells." Featured image is The Atlas Group's Let's be honest, the weather helped (1998/2006). continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 12 in. / 192 pgs / 200 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $55.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $72.5 ISBN: 9780870709739 PUBLISHER: The Museum of Modern Art, New York AVAILABLE: 10/27/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Edited with text by Eva Respini. Text by Finbarr Barry Flood, Walid Raad.
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.
Walid Raad was born in 1967 in Chbanieh, Lebanon, and moved to Beirut as a child. In 1983, at age 16, Raad left Lebanon for the US. He enrolled at the Rochester Institute of Technology to study photography, and earned his PhD in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester. Raad currently lives in New York and Beirut, and has been an Associate Professor of Art at The Cooper Union since 2002.
Eva Respini is the Barbara Lee Chief Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and former Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Stuart Comer is the Chief Curator of Media and Performance Art at MoMA.
Barry Flood is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Humanities at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
