Thursday, October 19, 2006, 6pm
Akram Zaatari in person!
In 1982, 16-year-old Akram Zaatari watched the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon from his balcony in Saida, documenting the bombings in a diary of snapshots. The resulting images—at once beautiful and terrifying—make up his stunning 2004 video Saida, June 6, 1982 and have haunted his work ever since. One of the founders of the Arab Image Foundation, the internationally renowned artist and curator has devoted himself to capturing, collecting, and archiving the everyday history of the region. Tonight, Zaatari will screen Saida and his 2003 feature, This Day, an elegant meditation on the photography of the Middle East—from exotic portraits of nomadic Bedouins in the Syrian Desert to television clips of Beirut today. Special thanks to Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and Department of Art History, the Fulbright Visiting Specialist Program, and SAIC’s Department of Art & Technology Studies for helping to make Zaatari’s appearance possible. 2003-04, Akram Zaatari, Lebanon, ca. 90 min, various formats.