Walid Raad: Festival of (in)gratitude

Lebanese-American artist Walid Raad presents a selection of recent works rooted in the wars that have affected the Middle East over the past 40 years. The exhibition brings together photographs, collages, drawings, texts, sculptures and videos, accompanied by commentary from the artist.

Raad’s work draws on a significant period in recent history – 1982–83, marked by the Israeli occupation of Lebanon, the massacres at Sabra and Shatila, and the exile of the Palestine Liberation Organization to Tunis – to explore its contemporary resonances across different spaces and periods. During the guided tours he leads, Raad, as both archivist and storyteller, recounts stories that are invented, transmitted or found.

The artist often works with these hybrid formats, which provide a space for reflection on art and history, emotion and memory. The works presented in the exhibition span a wide geographical and historical territory – from Lebanon to Tunis via Ljubljana – addressing the war and reconstruction of Lebanon, as well as the history of art in the Arab world.