Press
"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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"From an all-round terrific presentation by the Beirut- and Hamburg-based Galerie Sfeir-Semler, three works deserve special mention. A yellow embroidered tent by Mounira Al Solh immediately captures one’s attention but unlike Tracey Emin’s famous tent detailing everyone she ever slept with, Al Solh’s tent bears sewn testimonies of abuse from Arab women interviewed by the artist. Along with these quotes of suffering, al Solh has embroidered uteruses in a celebration of womanhood and female resilience."
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"‘Havana Syndrome’, the mysterious condition which purportedly resulted from attacks such as this one, is the topic of Tieu’s upcoming film, Moving Target Shadow Detection (2021), commissioned for this year’s Frieze Artist Award, having fascinated the artist since she first heard about it in 2017."
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"Dineo Seshee Bopape (b. 1981, Polokwane, South Africa) presents a suite of new, ICA-commissioned work spanning video, sculpture, installation, and animation, curated by Amber Esseiva. Celebrated for her research-intensive explorations of place, history and spirituality, Bopape often roots her work in the material and metaphysical qualities of earthly elements like soil, clay and dust. She continues this practice in “Ile aye, moya, là, ndokh … harmonic conversions … mm,” gathering clay and soil samples from four sites and incorporating them into each of her new works."
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"My project for the Preis der Nationalgalerie builds on my exhibition ›Multiboy‹ at GfZK in Leipzig. That exhibition was based on a flight list that showed which Vietnamese contract workers went to which factories in East Germany. I then collected the original products—from tampons and condoms to shoe polish and detergent—that were produced by these workers. My aim was to lay open the various forms of invisible labour that went into these goods."
Read here [German]