I AM WITH HER
“Aucun homme n’a reçu de la nature le droit de commander aux autres. La liberté est un présent du ciel, et chaque individu de la même espèce a le droit d’en jouir aussitôt qu’il jouit de la raison.”
— Denis Diderot, Autorité Politique, Encyclopédie
I AM WITH HER. Tapestry made in collaboration with Bokja Design for Lost in the Right Direction, an exhibition curated by Art Design Lebanon. Varied textiles. 250X200CM. 2022.
I AM WITH HER is the first in a series of twenty-eight tapestries, called “The River of Life,” an ambitious project whose title, borrowed from the “Book of Revelations,” is inspired by the renowned medieval Tapisserie de l’Apocalypse (Apocalypse Tapestry).
Born from a collaboration with Bokja Design, a Lebanon-based design company, the first tapestry of the series focuses on the word ‘nature’ and was conceived for Lost in the Right Direction, an exhibition curated by Art Design Lebanon in the midst of the Deir el-Qalaa ruins (The Monastery of The Fortress).
ABC: A LESSON IN HISTORY
The Protest and The Recuperation
ABC: A Lesson in History. The Protest and The Recuperation, Columbia University, Wallach Gallery, NY, USA, 2021.
The Protest and The Recuperation, curated by Wallach director and chief curator Betti-Sue Hertz, is a tribute to those who have gathered in solidarity to voice demands that the status quo must change and hails the messages and inventive creativity that have come to define the culture of progressive protest and dissent. The exhibition presents art that reveals the visual and performative aesthetics of these varied collective actions in the public sphere. It was developed as an exploration of what art can contribute to our understanding of this performative form and of the necessity of public gathering as a strategy for effecting change.
This exhibition is a survey of artistic perspectives and responses on the global phenomenon of mass protest, as well as recuperative strategies of resistance. In these times, contemporary art has the capacity to focus our attention differently to what we learn from various media sources, or even our own experiences in protest. This exhibition presents a focused selection of works that register the power of mass protest from a deeply human perspective. It highlights the individual-to-individual connection in the collective spaces of the mass protest, recovery and care.
Dear Truth, HASSELBLAD FOUNDATION
Part of a larger series described as “poetic politics,” ABC: A Lesson in History is an Arabic alphabet of revolution inspired by 1950s propagandist educational books. It is an ABC Primer which offers artistic perspectives on the core concepts inherent to revolting.
Dear Truth: Documentary Strategies in Contemporary Photography. Installation view and catalogue pages. Hasselblad Foundation. Gothenburg, Sweden. 2021.
All twenty-eight letters from the Arabic alphabet are printed on watercolour paper using the traditional cyanotype photographic process and paired together with one word and one icon selected from various revolutions and/or protests across history.
These cyanotype prints, reminiscent of the blueprints of engineering drawings, inscribes the ABC as the core language—and structure—to engineer a revolution.
In January 2011, Baladi was one of the hundreds of thousands of people across Egypt who took to the streets in protest against President Hosni Mubarak. “In the context of Tahrir Square, in a country where photography had been banned in most public spaces until 2011; where if you were photographing you were assumed to be a spy; where (anti-camera) propaganda helped generate paranoia, fear, and mistrust between people… literally overnight, the camera became one of the most efficient ways to counter the state and its security apparatus.” Her work is inspired by images of political uprisings, social movements and protests. Online activism, and how the camera works as a tool to confront dominant governments, are recurrent themes.
ABC: A Lesson in History. Me, Family, online exhibition, MUDAM, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, 2021.
ANATOMY OF REVOLUTION
Anatomy of Revolution. 3’30'’ video animation. Artwork commissioned by MUDAM, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, for the online exhibition Me, Family. 2020.
Anatomy of Revolution. 3’30” video animation. Still. Artwork commissioned by MUDAM, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, for the online exhibition Me, Family. 2020.
WATCH OUT FOR ZUZU
MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATION
Watch Out for Zuzu weaves historic correlations between the Arab uprisings and other global social movements through a wide range of iconic and archetypal images, videos, articles, and more. The third of a series of four installations, the installation focuses on the notion of exile at large—from prisoners, death toll, disappeared, political refugees to political assassinations in the current post-revolution status quo.
READ MORE
IMAGINED BORDERS, GWANGJU BIENNIAL
Watch Out for Zuzu. Site Specific multimedia installation. LED tickers, murals—paintings by Eric Busch, video installations, web based open source Vox Populi database/timeline. Installation views. Imagined Borders, Gwangju Biennial, co-curated by Christine Y. Kim and Rita Gonzalez. © Lara Baladi, 2018.
Vox Populi, Archiving a Revolution in the Digital Age. Web based open source archive. Ongoing since 2011. Gwangju Biennial, South Korea, 2018. © Lara Baladi.
REVOLUTIONIZE! MYSTETSKYI, ARSENAL, KIEV, UKRAINE
Watch Out for Zuzu. Site Specific multimedia installation. LED tickers, murals—paintings by Eric Busch, video installation, web based open source Vox Populi database/timeline. Installation views. Revolutionize! Mystetskyi, Arsenal, Kiev, Ukraine © Lara Baladi, 2018.
ABOUT WATCH OUT FOR ZUZU
Hromadske, watch the TV interview for the exhibition, Revolutionise! here, Kiev, Ukraine
The Gwangju Biennale Is Overly Ambitious, ArtNet News, by Hili Person, 2018
Looking for a Needle in Gwangju Biennale’s Haystack, Korea Times, by Kwan Mee-yoo, 2018
DON'T BE TOO CANDID
MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATION
Don't Be Too Candid weaves historic correlations between the Arab uprisings and other global social movements through a wide range of iconic and archetypal images, videos, poetry, articles and more data. The multimedia installation focuses on the present post revolution context and the shift of power (represented by the lion), from the state to the protester, and back to the state.
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Don't Be Too Candid. Site Specific multimedia installation. LED tickers, murals—paintings by Eric Busch, video installations, web based open source Vox Populi database/timeline. Installation views. #WhatIf, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark. Photos by Karim Hanna and Lara Baladi © Lara Baladi, 2018.
ABOUT DON'T BE TOO CANDID
I Revolutiones Mave, Weekendavisen Kultur, by Pernille Albrechtsen, March 2018
#WhatIf, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen — Intervista a Irene Campolmi, by Giulia Morrucchio, May 2018
Kunst er Ikke SoMe, Informationen, by Ida Marie Hede, March 2018
Dokumentariske Utopier For an Grumset Verden, by Kristian Handberg, March 2018
Lidt Kunsth - Meget Politik, Berlinske, by Torben Weirup, March 2018
BE REALISTIC, ASK FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE
MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATION
Displaying a timeline of events traversing from BC until today, Be Realistic, Ask for the Impossible is anchored in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and its aftermath. The multimedia installation weaves historic correlations between this uprising and other global social movements through a wide range of iconic and archetypal data including images, texts, and more.
Be Realistic, Ask for the Impossible. Multimedia installation. LED ticker, murals —drawings by Selma El Balouty—, videos installations including the Vox Populi open source web based database/ timeline. Affect Me. Social Media In Art. KAI10 | Arthena Foundation, Dusseldorf, Germany. © Alexandra Höner and Lara Baladi 2017.
Ana Masri, (Arabic, I Am Egyptian), 7 minutes single channel video, part of the multimedia installation, Be realistic, Ask for the Impossible, KAI10| Arthena Foundation, Dusseldorf, Germany, 2017. © Lara Baladi.
[...] Glory to Satan, god of the winds
Who said no to the face of those who said "yes"
who taught Man to tear apart nothingness
He who said no, thus did not die
And remained a soul eternally in pain [...]
[...] Which you can mould into a cup for your strong wine
And if you do as I wish
Should they ever ask you
about my martyred blood
whether you granted me life just to snatch it away from me?
tell them he was not resentful towards me when he died
and this cup
made from the bones of his skull
is my absolution
My killer!
I have pardoned you
The moment after you were relieved of me
I was relieved of you!
Translation of voice over from the above video, Ana Masri. Excerpt. The Last Words of Spartacus, poem by Egyptian writer, Amal Dunqul, 1962.
Vox Populi, Archiving a Revolution in the Digital Age. Web based open source archive. Ongoing since 2011. Stills, 2018. © Lara Baladi.
About BE REALISTIC, ASK FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 'Affect Me' exhibition review by Georg Imdahl, 2018.
[...] The show focuses on the latest viral turns of the "iconic turn," including works by nine artists. With photos, videos, sculptures and installations, but also with simple billboards, the exhibition examines the massive use of the "meme" phenomenon, i.e., the changing setting and expression on the internet—without entering into cultural pessimism. After all, the affect-laden picture is also indisputably an evidence, which is the thrill for the philosopher Slavoj Žižek in Lara Baladis three-channel video "Alone, Together... In Media Res.”
The collage combines recordings of the Egyptian uprising in winter 2011 with snippets from feature films, music clips, political speeches. In the disturbing compilation Žižek speaks about the TV pictures from Tahrir Square. Again and again, he raises his arm and hammers it down to emphasize his words: a "real and honest universal event" can be seen here, not some "boring Unesco universalism" from books with titles like "World Cultures." The images of freedom and solidarity are immediately understandable, he says, which is why one can identify directly with them.
That's how it is. This is precisely why in some terrible scenes one no longer even asks who is actually exerting violence in whose name, pulling bodies, dragging them across the street. Lara Baladi, not only develops her project of a "Vox Populi" in videos, she also gives the stream of images an archival form in fresco-like murals. As iconic as many pictures of contemporary events may be, we do not know their authors and have no further interest in them [...]
Excerpt and translation. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, exhibition review by Georg Imdahl, 2018.
Be Realistic, Ask for the Impossible, installation review, Springerin Magazine, 2018
Affective Societies, Affected Scientists!, 5 Questions to Lara Baladi, June 2018
Facing the Sniper, Frankfurter Allgemeine, online article on the exhibition Affect Me, KAI 10, Arthena Foundation, Dusseldorf, Germany, by Georg Imdahl, 2018
Affect Me: Wie plötzlich Reales zur Fiktion wird, 2017
Affective Societies Blog, 2017
WDR 5 Aktuelle Kultur (1/2), German Radio, 2017
WDR 5 Scala Aktuelle Kultur (2/2), German Radio, 2017
DARK ROOM
This work in situ was made in collaboration with MIT’s Spring 2017 Advanced Photography & Related Media course students.
Site specific artwork. Transforming a former prison cell into a camera obscura. Fort Revere, Hull, MA. Photos by Lara Baladi & Andre Aboulian © Lara Baladi, 2016.
While modern photography really began with the discovery of how to chemically fix images in the 19th century, the phenomenon of the camera obscura, has been known for many centuries. This works is a direct response to the return of censorship in post revolution Egypt. It is inspired by the early discoverer, Arab scientist, mathematician, and philosopher Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (b. c. 965 – c. 1040) who, while under house arrest for a decade, observed the pinhole phenomenon and developed an entire theory of optics while living in Cairo, Egypt, .
ABOUT DARK ROOM
DON'T TOUCH ME TOMATOES & CHACHACHA
VIDEO INSTALLATION
Don’t Touch Me Tomatoes & Chachacha is an immersive, surround sound, video installation and a direct response to the ill-concealed misogyny which has been surfacing around the world, and which was in Egypt in particular, between 2011 and 2013, amplified by the use of sexual abuse as a counter-revolutionary tool.
Excerpt from the video and 7.1 surround sound installation. 940 X 300 CM. 180 degrees projection. Production Image Urubu Films. Artwork commissioned by Dior. © Lara Baladi, 2013.
Viewer experiencing the video and 7.1 surround sound installation. 940 X 300 CM. 180 degrees projection, 2013. © Lara Baladi. Production Image Urubu Films. Artwork commissioned by Dior.
Still from the video and 7.1 surround sound installation. 940 X 300 CM. 180 degrees projection. Production Image Urubu Films. Artwork commissioned by Dior. © Lara Baladi 2013.
Made with YouTube videos I collected over a period of two years during the 2011 Egyptian revolution and its aftermath, the work is a tribute to the creative and transformative part, women play in history, a role too often denied, in the Middle East and in the world at large.
This enchanting audio-visual experience, titled after one of Josephine Baker’s songs, Don’t Touch Me Tomatoes & Chachacha, is a ‘carousel’ of fireflies in which iconic women –anarchists, activists, artists such as Louise Michelle, Isadora Duncan, Alice Guy, and many more, are fireflies and, if only for a moment, illuminate the world.
ABOUT DON't touch me tomatoes & CHACHACHA
Lara Baladi: Narrator of Invisible Things, Dior Magazine, #12, 2015
ALONE TOGETHER,... IN MEDIA RES
VIDEO INSTALLATION
Alone, Together,..., In Media Res, (Latin, ‘in the midst of things’). 42-minute three-channel video installation by Lara Baladi. Installation view, Cairo Open City, Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany. © Lara Baladi, 2012.
In January 2011, just as the YouTube video “Tiananmen-Cairo Courage in Cairo” went viral, a friend posted on Facebook a speech Jean Paul Sartre had delivered to an audience of striking French autoworkers 40 years earlier. As the political tension grew, more images and videos of a packed Tahrir Square were uploaded to the Internet. They echoed footage from other uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the sights and sounds of a vast array of past social movements. It was as though Sartre was protesting with us in Tahrir.
I started an on-going archival project called “Vox Populi.” I gathered videos, articles and photographs related to the events unfolding on the ground while also collecting material on major events taking place around the world since #Jan25. I researched and amassed footage that resonated with Tahrir Square and everything that followed, from historical footage to philosophical speeches, to banned cartoons, and more.
Alone, Together… In Media Res is the first artwork derived from this archive – a narrative that weaves video excerpts together to reflect on many of the questions raised during the Arab uprisings. These revolutions signal the beginning of the unraveling of a major historical period, in the middle of which I, like Alice in Wonderland, fell into a hole: YouTube.
39-minute three-channel video installation. © Lara Baladi 2012. Research: Lara Baladi. Archive -videos, articles, photos: Lara Baladi and Amina Diab. Max/Msp/Jitter Programming: Michael Carter. Egypt, 2012.
Still from the 39-minute three-channel video installation. Cairo Open City, Installation view, Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany. © Lara Baladi 2012.
About ALONE, TOGETHER,…IN MEDIA RES
These Cameras Stay On, Anastasia Patsey, Arctic Moving Image & Film festival
Alone, Together,… Tahrir, 2 years Later, Creative Time Reports