Walid Raad

Walid Raad
Scratching on Things I Could Disavow: A History of Art in the Arab World / Part I_Volume 1_Chapter 1 (Beirut: 1992-2005)
At Paula Cooper Gallery

In 1975, Lebanon entered a period of brutal civil wars that would persist over twenty years. Since then, the small country has begun a sluggish process of rebuilding, although the political and social state of affairs still remains incredibly unstable. Born in Chbanieh, Lebanon in 1967, artist Walid Raad was surrounded by this volatile environment for most of his life and it would consequently infuse every aspect of his artwork later.
Like so many other examples throughout history, during its course of rehabilitation Lebanon experienced a kind of cultural resurgence, developing art festivals, galleries, museums, schools, publications, and much more. It was this cultural revival that inspired Walid Raad to begin The Atlas Group- an ongoing project that researches and records contemporary Lebanese history, with a particular focus on the civil wars and their after effects.
For a decade now, Raad has been documenting current Lebanese history and compiling it in The Atlas Group Archive. He does this by collecting documents, letters, videotapes, photographs, and objects. Raad then employs various methods of displaying his findings such as multi-media installation, video, essays and performances, all modeled after conceptual art, to exhibit this documentation in exhibitions across the globe.
His latest exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery, Scratching on Things I Could Disavow, is similar to many Raad has done in the past as an extension of or in association with, The Atlas Group. It is comprised of five works that include mixed media installation, sculpture and photography. Earlier this year the exhibition was shown at REDCAT in Los Angeles. Some of the key pieces were still included, however, the L.A. show was a bit larger.
The first work in the exhibition is located immediately upon entering the first gallery room to the right. It is a large low-lying model of what appears to be a gallery itself. This piece, entitled Part I- Chapter 1- Section 139: The Atlas Group (1989-2004), is peculiar and amusing. Within the model are miniature pieces of artwork (all from past exhibitions linked to The Atlas Group) hanging on the walls. Raad even included video projections- the artist installed tiny LCD screens with real audio playing. Part I- Chapter 1 is one of the crucial works representative of the exhibition, and Raad has repeated this piece several times.
To the left, one enters the much larger main gallery space with its towering wood- beamed ceilings. Beginning on the right, is an untitled installation that involves a replica of museum or gallery door frames. The sculpture is mounted to on the wall and is painted virtually the same color making it difficult to discern. Beside it, the artist has painted two grey gallery walls in realistic detail directly on the actual Paul Cooper Gallery wall. Both these works play with perspective and create an optical illusion when standing in front of them. Additionally, these three works are obvious references to the recent flourishing of galleries, museums and art spaces that have now become ubiquitous in Lebanon.
The center wall displays several sheets of paper, each a different color, with printed and handwritten text, lined single-file across the viewer’s eye-level. Here is where the connection to Raad’s Atlas Group is most apparent. Raad frequently includes a piece in the similar vein as this one- numerous documents displayed next to each other. He even included a miniature example of this in his model (Part I- Chapter 1).
The last work in the show is one that is scarcely noticeable until you are inches away from it. Running along the entire span of the white wall runs white adhesive text in both Arabic and English. The words are unreadable- a jumble of letters that at times resemble words or names, but always remain nonsensical. In one seemingly arbitrary spot, red Arabic letters appear floating above the rest. Again, Raad is using techniques of visual trickery. These last two works are more in line with the documentation style linked to the Atlas Group.
Presented with this exhibition and the information given about his history with The Atlas Group, it would almost appear that the title of artist for Walid Raad is a misnomer- “creative art historian” would be more akin to what he does. That is, if it weren’t for the fact that oftentimes his documentation is doctored, the stories he tells are invented and the characters he introduces are imaginary. One example from previous works is the use of a character named Dr. Fadl Fakhouri, a Lebanese historian who would carry around video cameras and expose a frame of film every time he thought the war had ended. This resulted in a montage of single shots of Beirut.
In doing this Walid Raad intentionally blurs these lines between fact and falsehood, causing confusion and frustration that is mirrored in the political and social changes in Lebanon. The artist himself described the five artworks in Scratching on Things I Could Disavow as “stage sets from a forthcoming play about the history of art in the Arab world,” emphasizing Raad’s play on reality and make-believe.
Moreover, by describing a Lebanese cultural history that is imaginary he is simultaneously demonstrating the fact that Lebanon does not truly have a cultural history due to the chaos and ravages of war and politics. His work then further becomes a commentary on the delicate, and often flawed, process of recording history, as well as the damage war can inflict on a country’s culture and traditions.
Thus, artist Walid Raad has a mission: to document contemporary Lebanese history via text and image, even if he has to invent some of it along the way. At the root of this mission reside strong feelings of frustration and loss of national history and culture. In Scratching on Things I Could Disavow, the artist successfully manages to express this exasperation through conceptual approaches. By creating pieces that depict an absence of reality, Raad is constantly forcing the viewer to confront it.
Walid Raad currently spends his time between Beirut and New York. He is an associate professor at Cooper Union.