Akram Zaatari

Letters in war times – lost, found, buried, discovered or delayed in reaching their destinations – are the subject of several works by the Libanese artist, guest of the British School at Rome.

Akram Zaatari’s lecture and exhibition “The Archaeology of Rumour” is the second event in “Meeting Architecture: Fragments” curated by Marina Engel.

The lecture and exhibition “The Archaeology of Rumour” focuses on the theme of the letter in war times, which Akram Zaatari uses both as the subject (the document) and as the form of his works. Letters that have been lost, found, buried, discovered, or otherwise delayed in reaching their destinations is the subject of several of the artist’s works.

The BSR show presents two videos: In this House (2005) which is about the excavation of a letter and Letter to a Refusing Pilot (2013) which is addressed to an Israeli former pilot.

Akram Zaatari often refers to the way his architectural training influences how he looks at the world, and the attention he gives to objects and documents in writing his histories. Archaeology is frequently invoked as a metaphor for connecting to the past and to the collection of fragments: stories, rumors, personal recollections, images, photographs and documents from across the Lebanon. One of the artist’s concerns in amassing this wealth of material is to investigate the nuances between the official and the politicised versions of events and how histories can be retold and rebuilt on a more personal level by the people who lived through them.

“Fragments” will consider how memories, emotions and ideologies are constantly tied to ruins, buildings and their contents. To this end the programme will focus on the concept of the fragment, defined as an urban ruin, a house and/or its remaining contents, personal vestiges, images, photographs, and documents. Architects, visual artists and historians will examine and revaluate the fragment in an attempt to reconstruct personal or collective identities in zones of conflict or former conflict, demonstrating how the meanings and memories we attach to our experiences are to a greater or lesser degree tied to their physical manifestation.

12 February – 4 March 2016
12 February h. 18, Lecture
Akram Zaatari – The Archaeology of Rumour
The British School at Rome
via Gramsci 61, Rome

Akram Zaatari

Letters in war times – lost, found, buried, discovered or delayed in reaching their destinations – are the subject of several works by the Libanese artist, guest of the British School at Rome.

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