French-Algerian artist Kader Attia spent much of his childhood straddling the Eastern and Western worlds of Algeria and France, and lived as a young adult in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Venezuela. With such a background, a key component of Attia’s work is the question of cultural conflict. An artist approaching his work with a multicultural lens, Attia is known for exploring the legacy of colonialism: the ongoing impact of Western culture and politics on the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the impact within Western countries themselves. Attia lived in the banlieues of Paris (suburbs populated by a high proportion of residents originating from former French African colonies) for some of his youth, and draws upon his first-hand experience to explore these themes and questions. He currently lives and works in Berlin and Algiers.
Read MoreWorking across a range of media, materials, scales and symbols, Attia’s many individual series at first appear self-contained. However, throughout his practice he continually returns to the overarching themes of the impact of politics, culture and cultural displacement, maintaining a sustained critical look at the complexities of modern life. Using unconventional materials—including couscous and plastic bags—Attia explores how non-Western people construct and shape their identities in the face of, in the knowledge of, or in the shadow of Western cultural hegemony. A notable aspect of his practice—one that enables an exploration of this dichotomy—is his focus on architecture: exploring the disparities and similarities between East and West in order to highlight—and even to rectify—the social and political divides between the two cultures.
Educated at the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré, Paris; the Escola Massana, Centre d’Art i Disseny, Barcelona; and the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, Attia has won numerous awards and exhibited internationally. Major international institutions showcasing his work in both solo and group exhibitions include Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Saatchi Gallery, London; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Leopold Museum, Vienna; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon.
He has also appeared in multiple biennials, including the 11th Cairo Biennale; Marrakech Biennales 5 and 6; dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel; the 50th and 57th Venice Biennales; the 2012 Liverpool Biennial; and the 8th and 13th Lyon Biennales. He was awarded the Cairo Biennale Prize in 2008, the Abraaj Capital Art Prize in 2010 and the notable Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2016. His work appears in numerous collections across the globe, including the Centre Pompidou. He is represented by Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin and Cologne; Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong; and Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna.
Georgia Messervy | Ocula | 2017
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