Walid Raad2007

Well-known for "The Atlas Group," a 15-year project about Lebanon's contemporary history, Walid Raad works in video, photography, and performance. Raad's fictional universe, "The Atlas Group", examines some of the social, cultural, political and psychological dimensions of the Lebanese wars of the past thirty years.

With regards to these wars, Raad has stated: "My formative years belong to the years of the Lebanese wars. These events conditioned who I am, how I feel, think, and move in the world. It remains difficult for me to comprehend what war means, and how it affects (materially, psychically, socially) those who live it, directly and indirectly.

Well-known for "The Atlas Group" a 15-year project about Lebanon's contemporary history, Walid Raad works in video, photography, and performance. Raad's fictional universe, The Atlas Group, examines some of the social, cultural, political and psychological dimensions of the Lebanese wars of the past thirty years.

With regards to these wars, Raad has stated:

"My formative years belong to the years of the Lebanese wars. These events conditioned who I am, how I feel, think, and move in the world. It remains difficult for me to comprehend what war means, and how it affects (materially, psychically, socially) those who live it, directly and indirectly.

...I try to be sensitive to the material as well as the immaterial effects of the wars—how time and space are affected, about the notions of private and public, inside and outside, urban and rural, citizenship and equality that are defined by and define the wars. This can be of consequence not only for Lebanon, but also possibly for Baghdad, Ramallah, Tel Aviv, New York, Madrid, Bali or London."