In his artworks, Raad explores how wars and decades of socio-political instability, such as those experienced in the Middle East, cause lasting physical and psychological violence that is reflected in bodies, psyches, spaces, traditions and memories. Through photography, video, installations, and performances, Raad's work engages the creation of history and its narratives, which are always biased, exclusionary and instrumental from positions of power. But instead of inserting marginal narratives into established histories, Raad reshapes the framework of historicization, centering it on ephemerality, ambiguity, and imagination.
Through created documents and stories related to the political and socio-economic contexts of Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, he imagines a surrogate world of violence against people, land and history, one filled with otherworldly doubt, idiosyncrasy, wit, and labyrinthine space and time. In this exhibition, Raad also expands his temporal, geopolitical, cultural, and epistemological frame by inserting aspects of the Slovenian and (post)Yugoslav worlds, which he tackles through new works created in dialogue with archival material from Moderna galerija.
At Moderna galerija, Walid Raad presents artworks from his three ongoing projects: The Atlas Group (1989–2004), Scratching on Things I Could Disavow, and Sweet Talk: Beirut (Commissions). Briefly: The Atlas Group (1989–2004) is Raad’s creation of documents engaging with the protracted wars in Lebanon; Scratching on Things I Could Disavow is his exploration of the infrastructures for the arts in the “Arab world”; and Sweet Talk: Beirut (Commissions) is a long-term documentation of Beirut (its buildings, streets, shopfronts, gardens, etc.).
