WALID RAAD, ‘Miraculous Beginnings’
MIRACULOUS BEGINNINGS
Size: 26.7 x 21.2 cm
Pages: 144
Published by Whitechapel Gallery, 2011
Walid Raad: Miraculous Beginnings was curated by Achim Borchardt-Hume, the Chief Curator of Whitechapel Gallery. The exhibition was a collaboration between Whitechapel Gallery and Bildmuseet, Umeå University. and was accompanied by this fully illustrated catalogue.
The publication brings together three major bodies of work: the photographic and video works produced under the fictional collective name The Atlas Group; various series of seemingly “straight” photography of his native Beirut titled Sweet Talk: Commissions (Beirut); and his most recent project, Scratching on Things I Could Disavow: A History of Art in the Arab World.
This catalogue includes an exchange between the artist and curator Achim Borchardt-Hume; an essay on conceptions of truth by poet and writer Alan Gilbert; a text on Raad’s use of photography and its ties to Beirut by Blake Stimson; and an essay by Hélène Chouteau-Matikian.