News and Media

Published: Feb 4, 2009

SAVANNAH, Ga. - The Savannah College of Art and Design will exhibit the first Savannah solo show of French artist Kader Attia, Feb. 13-March 22 at Red Gallery, 201 E. Broughton St. Attia will lecture Feb. 12, 7:30 p.m., at Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St. A reception will be held Thursday, Feb. 12, 8:30-9:30 p.m., immediately following the lecture. The exhibition, lecture and reception are free and open to the public.

"Signs of Reappropriation" will feature a site-specific installation of Attia's 2007 "Untitled (Skyline)" series and a newly commissioned body of photographs.

"Untitled (Skyline)" consists of 80 discarded refrigerators painted black and covered in tiny, geometric mirror "windows." This cityscape of customized household appliances addresses the impact of architecture and urbanism on people's everyday lives, and particularly examines the way power is used to oppress populations.

The photographic series explores the relationship between the concrete buildings of Attia's former Parisian neighborhood and a beach in Algiers where he spent time as a youth. Nicknamed Rochers Carres by locals, the beach is covered with huge concrete blocks, and its architecture resembles Baron Hausmann's city plan in Paris. Rochers Carres attracts Algerian youth, yet serves as the ultimate boundary that separates them from Europe and, by extension, their dreams of a better life.

Attia ultimately began to see similarities on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea. The hard existence of the young Algerians reminds him of the struggles of young people in his French neighborhood. The youth in both places express a lack of hope for a better future, a lack of social acknowledgement, feelings of failure and a sense of suffering.

Exhibition curator and SCAD Executive Director of Exhibitions Laurie Ann Farrell said, "The juxtaposition of the oversized photographs taken at Rochers Carres with Attia's 'Untitled (Skyline)' sets up a powerful visual and psychological landscape for gallery visitors to traverse."

This exhibition is sponsored by the Cultural Service-French Consulate in Atlanta. For more information, e-mail exhibitions@scad.edu or visit www.scadexhibitions.com. Media may call 912.525.5225 for interview and image requests.

Kader Attia Biography

Kader Attia (French, b. 1970) studied art in Paris and Barcelona before spending two years in national civil service in the Congo. His work explores the impact of Western cultural and political capitalism on the Middle East and North Africa, and examines how residual resistance to colonization impacts Arab youth, particularly in the French suburbs where he grew up. While he employs different materials, symbols and scale in each series, he continually looks at the poetic dimensions and complexities of contemporary life. Attia, who lives in Paris, exhibits regularly in France, and received widespread recognition for his work at the Venice Biennale (2003), Art Basel Miami Beach (2004) and the Lyon Biennale (2005). His most recent solo exhibitions have been at the ICA Boston and the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, Wash. (both 2008).