From his early films, Ali Cherri has explored the contemporary history of his native Lebanon. Marked by the violence of years of civil war, the artist seeks to reconstruct stories by giving voice to places, traces and objects. More recently, he has been preoccupied with the study of archaeological and ethnographic materials and geological data, confronting practices of knowledge production in science, humanities and art. Combining a body of old films and recent productions, this screening session reflected the evolution of Ali Cherri’s practice over more than a decade.
The screening was followed by a conversation with the artist.
Pipe Dreams
(Arabic with English subtitles, 7’, 2011)
Un Cercle autour du Soleil
(English, 15’, 2005)
The Disquiet
(Arabic with English subtitles, 20’, 2013)
The Digger
(Arabic and Pashto with English subtitles, 24’, 2015)
Ali Cherri is a video and visual artist living in Paris. His recent solo exhibitions include Somniculus at Jeu de Paume, Paris and CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux (2017); Dénaturé at Galerie Imane Farès (2017); From Fragments to Whole at Jönköpings läns museum, Sweden (2017); Taxonomy of Fallacies Sursock Museum, Beirut (2016).
His work has been exhibited in several international exhibitions, among them But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise at Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan (2018), Anarchéologie at Centre Pompidou – Paris (2017); Lyon Biennial (2017); Le MACVAL, France (2017); Guggenheim New York (2016); MAXXI, Rome (Nov. 2017); Aichi Triennial, Japan (2016), Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Italy (2016); Le Centquatre Paris (2016); Sharjah Art Space (2016), and MACBA, Spain (2015).
