Kader Attia

A conversation between Maria Hlavajova and Kader Attia To engage with the subjects of the 2021 Bratislava BAK Summer School, this conversation takes as a starting point the current project Fragments of Repair (17 April–1 August 2021), convened by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht with artist Kader Attia and decolonial forum La Colonie, Paris. In Fragments of Repair, Attia proposes decolonial repair as a tactic to engage with the urgencies brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, and in particular the urgencies of collective mental health, chronic uncertainty, social isolation, exhaustion, fear, and loss. The concept of repair has been key across Attia's practice, especially in relation to the material and immaterial injustices of colonial violence that persist into the present. Understanding repair not as a return to past ways, but a forward-looking process shaped by demands for decolonization and the politics of restitution, the conversation asks what pathways can repair offer to life in and out of the viral and psychological pandemonium? Maria Hlavajova is the founder and artistic director of BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht since 2000, an institution that advocates for the critical role of art in society through various programmes of education, exhibitions, and publishing. Hlavajova is also initiator and artistic director of FORMER WEST, an eight-year long transnational research, education, exhibition, and publication project organised and coordinated by BAK. She regularly contributes to numerous critical readers, catalogues, and magazines internationally. In addition, Hlavajova is co-founder of tranzit, a network established in 2002 that supports contemporary art practices and exchanges in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania. She serves on the Advisory Board of Bergen Assembly, Norway. Kader Attia is an artist who explores the wide-ranging effects of western cultural hegemony and colonialism. Central to his inquiry are the concepts of “injury” and “repair,” which he uses to connect diverse bodies of knowledge, including architecture, music, psychoanalysis, medical science, and traditional healing and spiritual beliefs. Throughout his multimedia practice—ranging from sculpture to film installation—“reparation” does not mark a return to an “intact” state, but instead makes visible the immaterial scars of psychic injury. This approach is informed by Attia’s experience of growing up between Algeria and the Paris banlieues. Attia’s work has been shown in biennials such as the Shanghai Biennial; Gwangju Biennial; Manifesta, Palermo; Venice Biennial, Venice; and Documenta, Kassel. Notable solo exhibitions include The Museum of Emotion, The Hayward Gallery, London, 2019; Scars Remind Us that Our Past is Real, Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona, 2018; Roots also grow in concrete, MAC VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine, 2018; Repairing the Invisible, SMAK, Ghent, 2017; The Injuries are Here, Musée Cantonal des Beaux Arts, Lausanne, 2015; contre nature, Beirut Art Center, Beirut, 2014; and Continuum of Repair: The Light of Jacob’s Ladder, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2013. Attia has shown in group exhibitions at venues such as MoMA, New York; Tate Modern, London; and Centre Pompidou, Paris. Attia has been awarded the Marcel Duchamp Prize (2016), the Joan Miró Prize (2016), and the Yanghyun Art Prize (2017). Attia lives and works in Berlin.

In this first episode, artist Kader Attia introduces his new work Repair & Listen, a gradually unfolding podcast and sound installation in twelve parts, created during and as part of the multi-part project Fragments of Repair (17 April–26 September 2021). Drawing on transcultural epistemologies and lived experiences, the podcast investigates “repair” as a concrete practice to counter the psychological impact of living through a pandemic. Episodes are based upon one-on-one conversations between the artist and Utrecht or internationally-based academics, students, or activists from fields such as philosophy, history of science, economics, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, and social epidemiology. The project Fragments of Repair is convened by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht with artist Kader Attia and decolonial forum La Colonie, Paris. and features an exhibition, a collective study program, and a series of gatherings.

Autor: Gampert, Christian Sendung: Kultur heute Hören bis: 19.01.2038 04:14

Kader Attia, artiste a lancé depuis deux ans le lieu LA COLONIE (barré) dans le 10ème arrondissement de Paris. Photo by Camille MillerandKader Attia grew up in Paris and in Algeria. Preceding his studies at the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré and the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and at Escola Massana, Centre d'Art i Disseny in Barcelona, he spent several years in Congo and in South America.The experience of living between different cultures, the histories of which over centuries have been characterised by rich trading traditions, colonialism and multi-ethnic societies, has fostered Kader Attia’s intercultural and interdisciplinary approach of research. For many years, he has been exploring the perspective that societies have on their history, especially as regards experiences of deprivation and suppression, violence and loss, and how this affects the evolving of nations and individuals — each of them being connected to collective memory. His socio-cultural research has led Kader Attia to the notion of Repair, a concept he has been developing philosophically in his writings and symbolically in his oeuvre as a visual artist. With the principle of Repair being a constant in nature — thus also in humanity —, any system, social institution or cultural tradition can be considered as an infinite process of Repair, which is closely linked to loss and wounds, to recuperation and re-appropriation. Repair reaches far beyond the subject and connects the individual to gender, philosophy, science, and architecture, and also involves it in evolutionary processes in nature, culture, myth and history.Following the idea of catharsis, his work aims at Art’s re-appropriation of the field of emotion that, running from ethics to aesthetics, from politics to culture, links individuals and social groups through emotional experience, and that is in danger of being seized by recent nationalist movementsIn 2016, Kader Attia founded La Colonie, a space in Paris to share ideas and to provide an agora for vivid discussion, that extends his praxis from representation to action. Focussing on decolonialisation not only of peoples but also of knowledge, attitudes and practices, it aspires to de-compartmentalise knowledge by a trans-cultural, trans-disciplinary and trans-generational approach. Driven by the urgency of social and cultural reparations, it aims at reuniting which has been shattered, or drift apart.Kader Attia's work has been shown in group shows and biennials such as the 12th Shanghai Biennial; the 12th Gwangju Biennial; the 12th Manifesta, Palermo; the 57th Venice Biennial; dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel; Met Breuer, New York; Kunsthalle Wien; MoMA, New York; Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris, or The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York - just to name a few. Notable solo exhibitions include “The Museum of Emotion”, The Hayward Gallery, London; “Scars Remind Us that Our Past is Real”, Fundacio Joan Miro in Barcelona; “Roots also grow in concrete”, MacVal in Vitry-sur-Seine; „The Field of Emotion“, The Power Plant, Toronto; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; SMAK, Gent; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Musée Cantonal des Beaux Arts de Lausanne; Beirut Art Center; Whitechapel Gallery, London; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.In 2016, Kader Attia was awarded with the Marcel Duchamp Prize, followed in 2017 by the Prize of the Miró Foundation, Barcelona, and the Yanghyun Art Prize, Seoul.Schizophrenic Melancholia, 2018, Exhibition view “The Museum of Emotion”, Hayward Gallery, London, UK, 2019 Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Photo : Marc DomageShifting Borders, 2018, 3-channel HD digital film on 4 screens, 16:9, colour, sound each, vintage chairs and leg prosthesis. “The Paradoxes of Modernity”, 43:19 min., “Recycling Colonialism”, 32:12 min., “Catharsis: The Living and the Dead are Looking for Their Bodies”, 48:53 min.,

In this Magazine Programme, our Editor and Presenter, Mounira Chaieb features Kader Attia a French-Algerian artist who exhibits his work for the first time in the UK; The Exhibition is called “The Museum of Emotion”. He uses sculptures, collections, videos and photographs to show case the control put by western societies and how colonialism continues to shape how Western societies represent and engage with non-Western cultures and offers a passionate critique of modern Western systems of control that define everything from traditional museology to the design of modernist social housing’. The Artists captures moments experienced in the course of a precarious and difficult existence and explores strong emotions such as joy, fear and humiliation as a way of healing rather than a source of conflict. Photo:Kadar Attia/Facebook

Bienvenue dans Un podcast, une œuvre, le podcast du centre Pompidou qui explore les œuvres à la lumière de questions de société.L'art peut-il rendre heureux ? Peut-il soigner l'artiste comme le spectateur ?La saison 5 de l'émission "Un podcast, une œuvre" explore ces questions à travers 4 œuvres et 4 artistes apportant chacun un éclairage singulier sur les rapports entre art et thérapie.Pour Kader Attia, « l’art est une psychothérapie autant pour le spectateur que pour l’artiste ». C’est un élément crucial dans le processus de reconstruction d’une mémoire collective meurtrie. Confrontant des images de gueules cassées et d’objets africains restaurés, son œuvre The Repair lie le souvenir de la guerre à celui de la colonisation et interroge la notion de réparation.Écriture et réalisation : Elsa Daynac Habillage musical : Nawel Ben Kraiem et Nassim KoutiLectures : Vincent SchmittExtraits musicaux : La Rumeur, Rocé, Gaël Faye, Laurie Anderson et Orelsan Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

e-flux journal editor Brian Kuan Wood speaks to Kader Attia, artist and founder of La Colonie, a space in Paris for sharing ideas and discussion. Focussing on decolonialisation not only of people but also of knowledge, attitudes and practices, it aspires to de-compartmentalise knowledge by a trans-cultural, trans-disciplinary and trans-generational approach. Driven by the urgency of social and cultural reparations, it aims to reunite which has been shattered, or drift apart. Kader Attia (b. 1970, France), grew up in Paris and in Algeria. Preceding his studies at the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré and the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and at Escola Massana, Centre d’Art i Disseny in Barcelona, he spent several years in Congo and in South America. The experience with these different cultures, the histories of which over centuries have been characterised by rich trading traditions, colonialism and multi-ethnic societies, has fostered Kader Attia’s intercultural and interdisciplinary approach of research. For many years, he has been exploring the perspective that societies have on their history, especially as regards experiences of deprivation and suppression, violence and loss, and how this affects the evolving of nations and individuals—each of them being connected to collective memory. His socio-cultural research has led Kader Attia to the notion of Repair, a concept he has been developing philosophically in his writings and symbolically in his oeuvre as a visual artist. With the principle of Repair being a constant in nature—thus also in humanity—, any system, social institution or cultural tradition can be considered as an infinite process of Repair, which is closely linked to loss and wounds, to recuperation and re-appropriation. Repair reaches far beyond the subject and connects the individual to gender, philosophy, science, and architecture, and also involves it in evolutionary processes in nature, culture, myth and history. Attia's solo exhibition The Museum of Emotion at The Hayward Gallery, London recently closed. Upcoming 2019 exhibitions include a solo show opening in September at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and group shows at Rubin Museum of Art, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, and The Phillips Collection.

In our Women + Islam feature - we examine the rise of US political figures like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib; have a discussion with women from the Arab Diaspora; we uncover the practice of Islam shrouded in mystery - Sufism; and we hear from one of the writers in a seminal new essay collection called It’s Not About the Burqa. This month, we are in conversation with actor and rapper, Paigey Cakey, from Hackney, East London. Lastly, Stance reports from La Colonie - a radical art space and haven for young artists and intellectuals in Paris looking to open up the debate and challenge France’s post-racial stance, created by artist Kader Attia. Stance is an international award-winning arts, culture and current affairs podcast.  Stancepodcast.com @stancepodcast

Discreet Violence 1: Introduction by Kader Attia, Samia Henni, Léopold Lambert by The Funambulist

The Global Contemporary: Kunstwelten nach 1989 | Symposium 09/16/2011 - 09/19/2011 The Global Contemporary. Art Worlds After 1989 Untitled (Plastic Bags), 2008–2011 In Kader Attia’s most recent work Untitled (Plastic Bags) the plastic bag itself becomes the stuff of which dreams are made. For decades, this piece of polyethylene was left over at the end of each shopping session. Although the triumphal march of the plastic bag has meanwhile collapsed for ecological reasons, it still retains something of its erstwhile promise of being able to have everything – one simply goes to the shop next door. No less caught up with the image of the colored bag, however, are associations with those smoldering suburban conflicts of migrants; the plastic bag, especially in Germany, is also intimately connected to shopping at a Turkish supermarket, or at street vendors etc. In Untitled (Plastic Bags) Attia presented nine colored copies of this machine of (dis-) illusion, which he had collected in the Middle East, in Africa, South and North America and Europe. Before plastic became plastic it was filled with primary raw materials or basic foods: bottles of oil, rice, flour, cartons of milk etc. Once removed, the imprint of its former contents remains for a certain amount of time though begins to fade, until finally collapsing over the course of the exhibition. With a pronounced sense of irony, Attia develops his stance towards globalization and it’s all too frequently suppressed downside, to which belong the exploitation of raw materials no less than the presentation of the cultural preeminence of the West as opposed to the “other.” Only as imprint, as empty form, does, for example, rice leave traces of its identity on the global, everyday material of the plastic bag, per se, symbol of capitalist world order. (KB) /// Untitled (Plastic Bags), 2008–2011 In Kader Attias jüngster Arbeit Untitled (Plastic Bags) wird die Plastiktüte zum Stoff, aus dem die Träume sind. Am Ende jedes Einkaufs stand jahrzehntelang nahezu weltweit dieses Stück Polyethylen. Obwohl ökologische Erwägungen den Siegeszug der Plastiktüte mittlerweile beendet haben, ist und bleibt sie ein Stück des großen Versprechens, alles haben zu können – man muss nur in den Laden nebenan gehen. Im Bild der farbigen Tasche verfangen sich jedoch auch Assoziationen mit schwelenden Migrationskonflikten in den Vorstädten, ist die Plastiktüte doch insbesondere in Deutschland auch eng mit dem Einkauf im türkischen Supermarkt, an Straßenständen etc. verbunden. Attia präsentiert in Untitled (Plastic Bags) neun farbige Exemplare dieser (Des-)Illusionsmaschine, die er im Nahen Osten, in Afrika, Süd- und Nordamerika und Europa gesammelt hat. Bevor das Plastik zur Plastik wurde, war es mit primären Rohstoffen oder Grundnahrungsmitteln gefüllt: Ölflaschen, Reis, Mehl, Milchtüten etc. Wieder entfernt, bleibt der Abdruck der Inhalte für eine gewisse Zeit erhalten, verliert sich über die Zeit jedoch mehr und mehr, bis die Taschen im Verlauf der Ausstellung in sich zusammenfallen. Auf ironische Art und Weise nimmt Attia mit dieser Aktualisierung der Vergänglichkeitsmetapher Stellung zur Globalisierung und ihren allzu häufig verdrängten Kehrseiten, zu denen Rohstoffausbeutung genauso zählt wie die Vorstellung eines kulturellen Vorsprungs des Westens gegenüber seinem „Anderen“. Nur als Abdruck, als leere Form hinterlässt etwa der Reis Spuren seiner Identität im globalen Alltagsmaterial Plastiktüte, schlechthin Symbol der kapitalistischen Weltordnung. (KB)