Project Description

Over the past decade Walid Raad has been fascinated by the emergence of new art
museums, galleries, schools and cultural foundations in Arab cities, by way of which
the makers, sponsors, consumers, forms and histories of Arab art are becoming
more and more visible. While this visibility is welcome, it is often overdue and
infelicitous.Here, Raad presents a work from his ongoing project titled Scratching
on Things I Could Disavow: A History of Art in the Arab World, and puts forward
forms and stories that engage the history of art in Lebanon. The protracted wars
in Lebanon shape an unsettling yet rich ground for creative work. They shed light
on how art and culture in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Arab world are affected
materially and immaterially by various forms of violence.

Courtesy of Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Beirut/Hamburg. Produced by Sharjah Art Foundation

April 2011