Walid Raad Scratching on things I could disavow:
A history of art in the Arab world
[Visual Arts / Performance]
In 2007, Walid Raad initiated a research and art project about the history of contemporary and modern art in the Arab World titled Scratching on Things I Could Disavow:A History of Art in the Arab World. Raad’s project explores the recent emergence of a new physical infrastructure for the visual arts in the Middle East and the Gulf. In a context where cultural tourism has become an instrument of economic growth and power, Raad’s project leans on the ideological, economic and political dimensions of this phenomenon to ask whether and how culture and tradition in the Arab world may have been affected, materially and immaterially, by the various wars that have been waged there by native and external powers.
Scratching on Things I Could Disavow expands upon the intensive, research-based methodology of Raad’s 15-year art project The Atlas Group that examined the social, political, psychological, and aesthetic conditions of the Lebanese wars. This new project marks a critical juncture in Raad’s practice, at once a departure from The Atlas Group while expanding its historical and theoretical framework.
Credits
Scratching on Things I Could Disavow:A history of art in the Arab World
Concept and Performance, Walid Raad
with Carlos Chahine
Production Walid Raad
Executive Productor, Klein verzet vzw
Coproduction Festival d’Automne à Paris ;Wiener Festwochen ; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary(Vienne) ; Kunstenfestivaldesarts ; Les Halles (Bruxelles) ; Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin) ; Le CENTQUATRE ;
Public Commission by leministère de la Culture et de la Communication - Centre national des arts plastiques
With the support of Galerie Sfeir-Semler (Hambourg / Beyrouth), Anthony Reynolds Gallery (Londres), Paula Cooper Gallery (New York)
With the support of Zaza and Philippe Jabre and Sylvie Winckler
Thanks to réseau TRAM
Walid Raad benefited of an Artist residence at CENTQUATREand to the Couvent des Récollets.
With the support of la Ville de Paris and Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs under the aegis of artist Residence to the Récollets
This performance coincides with Walid Raad:Miraculous Beginnings : a major Exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery (Londres) du Octobre 15, 2010 to January 2, 2011 www.whitechapelgallery.org
An English-French Book, devoted to the artistic course of Walid Raad will be co-published by Whitechapel Gallery and Festival d’Automne à Paris.
With the support of Fonds de Dotation agnès b.
