N7276.8.Z33A47

- all is well - works exhibited - how's life in lebanon?? especially on akram zaatari's missives

The Lebanese-born photographer's practice involves unearthing, collecting and re-contextualizing documents that represent his country's complex history. Through film, video and photography Akram Zaatari explores the precarious status of archives in times of war, as well as their discursive limits as narrators of Lebanon's history. Through his investigations, we become witness to powerful accounts of a period marked by the violence and disorientation of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). Zaatari's works provide a glimpse what has been concealed from view and hidden inside bodies, and exhumes what has been buried in the earth: letters written in code passed through censors, tiny letters swallowed and delivered after defecation, instantaneous chats between lovers presented as a letter, and reassuring letters enclosed within mortar casings. Akram Zaatari is a video artist and curator who lives and works in Beirut. Along with with photographers Fouad Elkoury, Walid Raad, and Samer Moadad he founded the Zaatari Arab Image Foundation, and he is the author of numerous videos exploring issues pertinent to Lebanese postwar condition, including "All is Well on the Border" (1997), “This Day” (2003) and “In This House” (2005). Zaatari has also been exploring representations of male sexuality particularly in "crazy of you" (1997), and later in "How I love you" (2001). Zaatari regularly contributes to scholarly journals such as Third Text, Bomb, Framework, Transition, and Zawaya. His works have been exhibited internationally, most recently at, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Modern Art, 55th Venice Biennial, and MIT List Visual Arts Center.