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Scratching on Things I could Disavow (Red)-Walid Raad-1

Walid Raad is fascinated with the emerging art museums, galleries, schools and cultural organizations in the cities like Abu Dhabi, Amman, Beirut, Cairo. The buildings designed by internationally renowned architects, such as Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi, Jean Nouvel’s Abu Dhabi Louvre Museum and Zaha Hadid’s Performing Arts Centre, are the most prominent among such infrastructure. For Walid Raad this is a distorted mirror, which shows how art and culture in the Arab world have been affected by the various conflicts that have ravaged the region in the past century. This print presents the interior view of a museum. The rooms are equipped with an elegant wooden floor, the doorframes are lavishly decorated, the walls appear in an almost golden glow. The empty space of the museum seems magical yet there is a sence of danger.

“ Over the past ten years, the Arab world has witnessed the emergence of a new infrastructure for the visual arts. Moreover, the planned construction of several large art museums and art schools in the Arab Gulf raises fascinating questions about how art will be conceived, made, distributed, and consumed in the future, not only in the Arabian Gulf, but in the Arab world in general, and beyond. „

Walid Raad