Press
"Lawrence Abu Hamdan is a Turner Prize-winning artist based in Beirut who’s known for his provocative sound installations. His latest project, 45th Parallel, explores how arbitrary international borders can be. It’s his first Canadian commission with the Toronto Biennial of Art and it’s on display now. Hamdan spoke with Tom Power about the project and how sound connects to his past as a punk musician." (via CBC)
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"Paris des Nahen Ostens. In keiner Rede über Beirut fehlt diese Floskel. Dass sie mehr als ein ausgeleiertes Klischee ist, zeigt jetzt die Ausstellung "Beirut and the Golden Sixties" im Berliner Gropius-Bau. Sam Bardaouil und Tim Fellrath lassen darin eine kulturelle Blütezeit wiederauferstehen, die Ende der 50er-Jahre begann und gegen die die Kunstmetropolen Paris oder New York plötzlich blass wirken: ein faszinierendes Nebeneinander von kosmopolitischem Lebensstil, ästhetischer Moderne und sexueller Libertinage." (German)
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"From the day the Lebanon War started on 12 July 2006, until the day Michel Aoun was finally appointed president on 31 October 2016, after more than 30 inconclusive elections, Beirut-born artist, director and playwright Rabih Mroué kept a unique diary of events in his home country." (Carina Bukuts via FRIEZE review "What to See in Europe this April")
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"Körperlich und metaphysisch, elementare Materialen und ephemeres Licht. Die südafrikanische Künstlerin Dineo Seshee Bopape zeigt unter dem Titel „Lerato le le golo (…la go hloka bo kantle)“ eine raumgreifende Installation im Untergeschoss der Secession in Wien. Ihre Kunst ist geprägt durch eine persönliche Suche nach einer bildlichen, klanglichen und materiellen Sprache, die mit politischer und symbolischer Bedeutung aufgeladen ist." (Quirin Brunnmeier via Gallerytalk)
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"Rayyane Tabet’s art is present all across the Whitney. It’s in the stairwells that connect the floors of the Biennial together, on its facade, and even on the glass wall of a third-floor staff conference room. In these pieces, fragments of text pose succinct questions: “What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?” “When do we celebrate Independence Day?” “What is the political party of the President now?” These simple queries give way to nuanced answers." (via ARTnews)
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"Walid Raad deals with the wars in Lebanon and their effects on the mind, body, community and culture of memory. It is important to look closely, because in his art a second look is crucial." Kassandra Da Silva on Walid Raad's current solo show at Kunsthalle Mainz via Schirn Mag.
Walid Raad: "We lived so well together"
Kunsthalle Mainz
On view until May 15, 2022
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Our booth at this year's Art Dubai 2022 was selected as a highlight by Rawaa Talass for Arab News.
On the occasion of the group show "Geometrische Opulenz" at Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Timo Nasseri and Sabine Schaschl talk about the artist's use of the so-called razzle-dazzle patterns, a camouflage painting used for boats in World War I that was intended to make it impossible for the enemy to determine their position and course.
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On the occasion of the artist’s first solo exhibition in Berlin at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Carina Bukuts writes about his 20-year practice of deconstructing the image politics of war
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An interview with Walid Raad about his show "We lived so well together" at Kunsthalle Mainz by Rudolf Schmitz (in German)
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Listen to the audio review of Walid Raad's show "We lived so well together" at Kunsthalle Mainz by Michael Köhler.
Walid Raad
We Lived So Well Together
February 11 – May 15, 2022
Kunsthalle Mainz
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"I saw Bettina’s work for the first time in a film portrait called Girl with Black Balloons (2010) that had been made by my neighbor, Corinne van der Borch. Bettina was already well known by a group around the Chelsea Hotel, but she was mostly keeping to herself. Her enigma was intact and even after knowing her for many years, I still have a lot of questions." (– Yto Barrada)
An interview on the artistic relationship between Yto Barrada and Bettina Grossman, who went by her single first name, Bettina.
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"Aref El Rayess was one of the most important modern artists in Lebanon. His work almost fell into disrepair. Rescued, it is finally comprehensively catalogued and soon to be seen in Europe." (– Lena Bopp via Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 8, 2022.)
AREF EL RAYESS (1928 – 2005)
Paintings, sculptures, collages, drawings
Curated by Catherine David
On view through January 15, 2022 at Sfeir-Semler Gallery Beirut
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"I found that one of the only traces of the translators in the process of translating was their control of two lights located on the witness stand and the judge’s podium: a yellow light to signal “slow down” and a red light that meant “stop altogether.” The rudimentary communication by way of these lights dictated a strange flow. I found the moments they went off to invariably be significant interruptions, revealing not only of what it means to try to arbitrate across these languages, but also of what it means to be a witness in these kinds of international trials." (Lawrence Abu Hamdan in Lawrence Abu Hamdan on translation, Nuremberg, and the juridical unconscious, October 12, 2021 via Artforum)
Interview with Camila McHugh
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"Marwan Rechmaoui’s Beirut by the Sea (2017–19) depicts the coastline of Beirut in 13 panels made of beeswax, brass, and cement. For the Lebanon-based artist, the work not only references geography but functions as an atlas of the city’s rich and troubled history. “Each curve, each corner has a story in it,” he has said. Recently, Paulina Pobocha—the associate curator in the department of Painting and Sculpture who helped bring the work to MoMA—spoke to Rechmoaui about mapmaking, Beirut in the 1990s, and the power of stories." (Paulina Pobocha in "New to MoMA", Marwan Rechmaoui’s Beirut by the Sea, November 18, 2021)
Interview with Paulina Pobocha, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture with the artist Marwan Rechmaoui about their new acquisition
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