About the Artist: Akram Zaatari

Lebanese Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale
May 19, 2013 8:30PM

“My work has always been a constant displacement between documentation, film, photography, and gesture,” says Akram Zaatari. In his diverse practice, Zaatari reflects on image production and circulation, as in his video In This House (2005), a mediation on the search for a buried letter; he has also co-founded the Arab Image Foundation to collect, preserve, and research the photographic history of the Middle East. Unlike traditional archivists, Zaatari strives to preserve emotions and intangible ties as a “means of resisting death.” For instance, Time Capsule (2012)—a project commissioned for dOCUMENTA(13) involving an abstract video and a physical time capsule buried somewhere in Kassel, Germany—stands “against speculation on photographic archives and extends archive-related practices into making objects, film, architecture, and painting,” as he describes. Other works, such as the videos crazy of you (1997) and How I love you (2001), explore representations of sexuality and intimacy. Zaatari cites filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard as an influence.

Photo credit: The Making of Time Capsule Karlsaue Park, Kassel, 2012.

Lebanese Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale