Akram Zaatari
- Akram Zaatari
- Work
Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg, 2022
Akram Zaatari (b.1966, Lebanon) has produced more than fifty films and videos, all sharing an interest in writing histories, pursuing a range of interconnected themes, subjects, and practices related to excavation, political resistance, the lives of former militants, the legacy of an exhausted left, the circulation of images in times of war, and the play of tenses inherent to various letters that have been lost, found, buried, discovered, or otherwise delayed in reaching their destinations. Zaatari has played a critical role in developing the formal, intellectual, and institutional infrastructure of Beirut’s contemporary art scene. As a co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation, he has made invaluable and uncompromising contributions to the wider discourse on preservation and archival practice. Zaatari’s represented Lebanon at the Venice Biennial in 2013 with his film LETTER TO A REFUSING PILOT. His work has been featured at Documenta13 in 2012.
His work is part of institutional collections such as the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; K21 Dusseldorf; MACBA, Barcelona; MoMA, New York; Serralves Foundation, Porto; Tate Modern, London and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
| Selected Solo Exhibitions | |
| 2022 | three snapshots and a long exposure, Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg |
| 2019 | Against Photography. An Annotated History of the Arab Image Foundation, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE Photographic Currency, La Vitrine, Beirut Art Residency, Beirut, Lebanon The Script, Modern Art Oxford, UK |
| 2018 | Akram Zaatari, Turner Contemporary, Kent, UK The Fold - Space, time and the image, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA The Third Window, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon Against Photography. A annotated history of the Arab Image Foundation, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea Letter to a Refusing Pilot, Modern Museet, Malmö, Sweden The Script, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK |
| 2017 | Against Photography. A annotated history of the Arab Image Foundation, Kunstsammlung NRW, K21 Ständehaus, Düsseldorf, Germany Double Take: Akram Zaatari and the Arab Image Foundation, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK Against Photography. A annotated history of the Arab Image Foundation, MACBA: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain Unfolding, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg, Germany |
| 2016 | Tomorrow Everything Will Be Alright, Galpao VB: Associação Cultural Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil This Day At Ten, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland The Archaeology of Rumour, British School at Rome, Rome, Italy Letter to a Refusing Pilot, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, UK |
| 2015 | Unfolding, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden |
| 2014 | Akram Zaatari, SALT, Istanbul, Turkey This Day at Ten, WIELS: Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, Belgium Akram Zaatari: The End of Time, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada |
| 2013 | Letter to a Refusing Pilot, Lebanon Pavilion, 55th International Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy Project 100: Akram Zaatari, MoMA, New York, USA This Day at Ten, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon All is Well, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston University, Ontario, Canada |
| 2012 | This Day at Ten, Magasin - Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France Tomorrow Everything Will Be Alright, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA The End, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg, Germany The Uneasy Subject, MUAC, Mexico City, Mexico Akram Zaatari, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, USA Composition for Two Wings, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania |
| 2011 | Composition for Two Wings, Kunsternes Hus, Oslo, Norway The Uneasy Subject, Museo del Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain This Day, Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia |
| 2010 | Akram Zaatari, Laboratories of Aubervillliers, Aubervillliers, France |
| 2009 | Earth of Endless Secrets, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon; Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon; Kunstverein München, Munich, Germany |
| 2007 | ART Statements, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland |
| 2006 | Hashem el Madani: Pomenades and Studio Practices, La CaixaForum, Barcelona, Spain |
| 2005 | Mapping Sitting, in collaboration with Walid Raad, Grey Art Gallery, New York, USA |
| 2004 | Unfolding, Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany Mapping Sitting. On Portraiture and Photography, in collaboration with Walid Raad, Centre Pour l’Image Contemporaine, Geneva, Switzerland |
| 2002 | Mapping Sitting. On Portraiture and Photography, in collaboration with Walid Raad, SK Die Photographische Sammlung, Cologne, Germany Mapping Sitting. On Portraiture and Photography, in collaboration with Walid Raad, KunstenFestivalDesArts, Brussels, Belgium |
| 2000 | The Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt |
| 1999 | Darat al Funun, The Kahlid Shoman Foundation, Amman, Jordan |
Selected Group Exhibitions | |
| 2023 | History Tales. Fact and Fiction in History Painting, Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria Logos. Images Talk, FMAV – Palazzo Santa Margherita, Modena, Italy Beirut: Eternal Recurrence, SAW, Ottawa, Canada Becoming Van Leo, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA In the Heart of Another Country: The Diasporic Imagination Rises, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE Beyond Ruptures, a Tentative Chronology, Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon Love, CAM Cameron Art Museum, Washington, USA Rooms with a View. Aby Warburg, Florence and the Laboratory of Images, La Gallerie Degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy |
| 2022 | In The Heart of Another Country, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany |
| 2021 | For The Phoenix To Find Its Form In Us, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany Enjoy - die mumok Sammlung im Wandel, mumok, Wien, Austria |
| 2020 | Me, Family: Portrait of a Young Planet, Mudam, Luxembourg Masculinities: Liberation through Photography, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany |
| 2019 | Mara’ina, King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture - Ithra, Saudi Arabia Phantom Limb, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE Making New Time, Sharjah Biennial 14, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE |
| 2018 | Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands What is Utopia?, Galleria Civica, Modena, Italy 9th Arab Film Festival Berlin - ALFILM, Berlin, Germany The Dictionary of Evil, Gangwon International Biennale, Gangwon, South Korea Truth is black, write over it with a mirage’s light, Darat al Funun, The Kahlid Shoman Foundation, Amman, Jordan Beirut, Beyrut, Beyrouth, Beyrout, Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, Norway Unboxing Photographs. Working in the Photo Archive, Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, Germany Fast Forward Festival Five, ONASSIS Cultural Center, Athens, Greece |
| 2017 | In Rebellion. Female Narratives In The Arab World, Valencia Museum of Modern Art, Valencia, Spain Letter to a refusing pilot, MOMENTA I biennial de l’image - What Does the Image Stand For?, Quebec, Canada No to the Invasion: Breakdowns and Side Effects, CCS Bard, New York, USA The Written Language of Reality, CCS Bard, New York, USA Home Beirut. Sounding the Neighbours, MAXXI, Rome, Italy Forms of Resistance, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, Ireland Between Two Rounds of Fire, The Exile of the Sea: Arab Modern and Contemporary Works From The Barjeel Art Foundation, Katzen Arts Centre, Washington D.C, USA How Close Could We Get to the Light and Survive?: Why Are We Here Now?, Curated by Rabih Mroué, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin, Germany ISelf Collection: The End of Love, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK A Cross Border Selection of the Artium Collection, The Artium Museum, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain |
| 2016 | Between Myth and Fright. The Mediterranean as conflict, Institut Valencia d’art Modern, Valencia, Spain The Human Document, Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, UK In Search of The Present, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland Question the Wall Itself, Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, USA Art From Elsewhere: International Contemporary Art from UK Galleries, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK An Imagined Museum: Works from the Centre Pompidou, the Tate and the MMK, Museum Fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany A History: Contemporary Art from the Centre Pompidou, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany |
| 2015 | Gallery 3010, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon Arte Fiera Collezionismi - Too Early Too Late. Middle East and Modernity, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Bologna, Italy |
| 2014 | 4th International Canakkale Biennial, Çanakkale, Turkey 10th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, Japan Here and Elsewhere, New Museum, New York, USA (Mis) Understanding Photography Works and Manifestos, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany A Guest Without a Host is a Ghost, Contemporary Image Collective & Townhouse, Cairo, Egypt |
| 2013 | fALSEfAKES, Centre de la Photoraphie, Geneva, Switzerland ‘Ici, Ailleurs (Here, Elsewhere)’, Belle de Mai, Marseille, France Regen Project, Los Angeles, California, USA |
| 2012 | Mediacity Seoul 2012, Seoul, South Korea When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco, California, USA Six Lines of Flight: Geographies in Contemporary Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, USA The Unexpected Guest, Liverpool Biennial, UK dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany Arab Express: The Latest Art form the Arab World, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Private, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany Subversion, Cornerhouse Manchester, Manchester, UK |
| 2011 | Mapping Subjectivity, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Distant Star, Kurimanzutto Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico; Regen Projects, Los Angeles, California, USA Beirut, Kunsthalle Wien project space, Vienna, Austria Seeing is Believing, KW Berlin, Berlin, Germany 17th International Contemporary Art Festival, SESC & Videobrasil, Sao Paulo, Brazil Jean Genet, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK 12 Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey Told - Untold - Retold, Mathaf, Doha, Qatar Photography: New documentary forms, Tate Modern, London, UK Mapping Subjectivity, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Sharjah Biennial 10, Sharjah, UAE |
| 2010 | Play van Abbe Part 3. The Politics of Collecting - The Collecting of Politics, Van Abbe Museum Eindhoven, Eindhoven, Netherlands Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany The Tradition of the Future - The Future of Tradition, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany |
| 2009 | Closer, Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon Tarjama / Translation, Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA EN TODAS AS PARTES. Everywhere. Sexual Diversity Policies in Art, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, A Coruña, Spain Indicated by Signs, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany |
| 2008 | Bursts of Borders: New Acquisitions, FRAC Provence-Alpes, Cote d’Azur, France The worried: five artists under the pressure of war, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France In the Middle of the Middle, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon Torino Triennale 2008, Torino, Italy Scenes of the South II: Eastern Mediterranean, Carré d’Art, Nîmes, France Art Now in Lebanon, Darat al Funun, The Kahlid Shoman Foundation, Amman, Jordan |
| 2007 | Oh Girl, It’s a Boy!, Kunstverein München, Munich, Germany 52 Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy MEDITERRÀNIA(ES), Centre d’Art La Panera, Lerida, Spain Geopoetics, Centro José Guerrero, Granada, Spain Thermocline of Art - New Asian Waves, ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany Thessaloniki Biennale 1, Thessaloniki, Greece |
| 2006 | 27 Sao Paulo Biennale, Sao Paulo, Brazil 6th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea 15th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Out of Beirut, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK |
| 2005 | Leaps of Faith, An international arts project for the Green Line, Nicosia, Cyprus Masculinities, NBK Berlin, Berlin, Germany Flight 405, Sfeir Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon |
| 2004 | SENI, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore Nam June Paik Award exhibition, Dortmund, Germany LIFT, Part of the exhibition: Laughter, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and the Bargehouse, London, UK |
| 2003 | Substream, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway Worldwide Video Festival, Amsterdam, Netherlands The Possible Narratives, Videobrasil, Sao Paulo, Brazil Disorientation, Haus der Kulturen der Werlt, Berlin, Germany |
| 2002 | HomeWorks, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebanon Haunted by Detail, Die Appel, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| 1998 | Ayloul Festival, Beirut, Lebanon |
Public Collections | |
| Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA Tate Modern, London, UK Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Arco Foundation, Madrid, Spain Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Kadist Foundation, Paris, France TBA21, Vienna, Austria Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA MMCA, Seoul, Korea Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland Jameel Arts Center, Dubai, UAE Barjeel Collection, Dubai, UAE | |
| Publications | |
| - Rifat Chadirji: Architecture Index, edited with Mark Wasiuta, published by the Arab Image Foundation, Khaph Books, 2018 - Against Photography, Macba - MMCA, 2018 - Akram Zaatari, Tomorrow Everything Will Be Alright, Texts by Farkas, Solange - Bogossian, Gabriel – Dos Anjos, Moacir – Westmoreland, Mark. Videobrasil, Sao Paulo, 2016 - Akram Zaatari, All Is Well, Texts by Vicky Moufawad Paul and Judith Rodenbeck. Published by the Agnes Etherington Art Center, and The Carleton University Art Gallery, Kingston and Ottawa, 2014 - Snauwaert, Dirk & Dumalin, Caroline: Film as a Form of Writing. Quinn Latimer Talks to Akram Zaatari., Publishied in English, French and Ducth by Wiels and Motto Books, Brussels, 2014 ISBN: 978-9-078937-22-7 - Akram Zaatari, Time Capsule Kassel, Published in English, French and Italian by Mousse Publishing. Texts by: Texts by Yves Aupetitallot, Andrea Viliani, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, and Akram Zaatari Milan, 2014. ISBN 9788867490974 - Akram Zaatari, Conversation with an Imagined Israeli Filmmaker Named Avi Mograbi, Published in English by Sternberg Press, Laboratoire d’Aubervilliers, Kadist, Paris, Berlin, 2012 - Akram Zaatari, Conversation avec un cinéaste Israélien imaginé: Avi Mograbi, Published in French by Black Jack Press, Laboratoire d’Aubervilliers, Kadist, Paris, 2012 - Akram Zaatari, The Uneasy Subject, Edited by Juan Vicente Aliaga. Texts by Juan Vicente Aliaga, Stuart Comer and Mark Westmoreland. Published by Charta, Milan 2011 - Akram Zaatari & Karl Bassil eds. “AKRAM ZAATARI: Earth of Endless Secrets.” Texts by Hannah Feldman, Rasha Salti, Laura Marks and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie. Published by Portikus, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, and the Beirut Art Centre, Beirut, 2009 - Akram Zaatari and Karl Bassil, Hashem el Madani: Promenades. An Ongoing Project by Akram Zaatari, MTG & AIF, Beirut, 2007 - Akram Zaatari, Hashem el Madani: Promenades and Studio Practices, La Caixa Forum, Barcelona, 2007 - Akram Zaatari & Lisa Lefeuvre, Hashem el Madani: Studio Practices. An Ongoing Project by Akram Zaatari, the Arab Image Foundation, Mind the gap, and The Photographers’ Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon, 2004 - Akram Zaatari & Bassil, Karl, & Maasri, Zeina, Mapping Sitting: On Portraiture and Photography. A Project by Walid Raad and Akram Zaatari, the Arab Image Foundation , and Mind the gap, Beirut, Lebanon, 2002 - Akram Zaatari, The Vehicle; picturing moments of transition in a modernising society, the Arab Image Foundation, and Mind the gap, Beirut, Lebanon, 1999 - Akram Zaatari, Portraits du Caire, Actes Sud, France, 1999 | |