Renowned Lebanese artist and film producer Akram Zaatari will be the next presenter in the Wavelength lectures series on January 26 at 8pm online.
During the lecture – a collaboration between Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar) a Qatar Foundation partner university, VCU Richmond, and VCU Institute for Contemporary Art – Zaatari will discuss his major works of the last 15 years, addressing some of the crucial questions informing his approach to video, photography and the politics of documentary representation. 
Zaatari and his film Letter to a Refusing Pilot represented Lebanon at the prestigious Venice Biennial in 2013. Some of his more recent solo exhibitions include The Script, Modern Art Oxford; Photographic Currency, La Vitrine, Beirut Art Residency, Beirut; Akram Zaatari, Turner Contemporary, Kent, UK; Against Photography. An annotated history of the Arab Image Foundation, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; and Letter to a Refusing Pilot, Modern Museet, Malmö. 
His creative productions have found places of prominence at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; K21 Dusseldorf; MACBA, Barcelona; MoMA, New York; Serralves Foundation, Porto; Tate Modern, London and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
The Lebanese artist is the co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation, and has played a crucial role in developing the formal, intellectual, and institutional facets of Beirut’s contemporary art scene. He has also made invaluable contributions to various discussions focused on preservation and archival practice.
Zaatari’s works reflect the evolving political dynamics in the Middle East. Having produced more than fifty films and videos, he has explored themes as diverse and controversial as writing histories, excavations, political events, the lives of former militants, the circulation of images in times of war, and the stories of various letters that have been lost, found, buried, discovered, or otherwise delayed in reaching their destinations. 
The lecture will be moderated by Noah Simblist, associate professor and chair of Painting + Printmaking, at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, Richmond.
Wavelength is an online series that invites celebrated artists, designers, curators and scholars in different art and design fields from across the world.





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