LARA BALADI

B21 is proud to present recent works of LARA BALADI, from February 18 th until March 13 th, 2008.

Born in Lebanon, of Lebanese-Egyptian origin, Baladi has lived in Beirut , Paris , London and Cairo, where she currently resides.

Wherever Lara Baladi goes, she observes and explores - frenetically accumulating images as she connects to each for an instant. In this way Lara has amassed a huge collection of photographs as well as images she has discovered while travelling. Obsessed with the concept of repetition and its broader application to the cycle of life, she approaches her images in the social and historical contexts from which they are drawn. Still seeking to push the boundaries of traditional forms and presentation, she constantly develops and adapts new media to her subjects.

Her work has been exhibited internationally at various spaces around the Middle East, the U.S. , Japan and Europe, and is part of a number of contemporary art collections including the Fondation Cartier in Paris , the Museet For Fotokunst in Copenhagen and the Pori Art Museum in Finland . She has also participated at the Sharjah biennial.


The exhibition will present four recent works:

‘Roba Vecchia, The Wheel of Fortune', Acetate on mirror polished steel

Baladi's works are often themed on image reproduction and transform ‘digital trash' into a new and meaningful value of time. What the artist qualifies as ‘digital trash' is actually the unending accumulation of images produced by our modern society and its individuals.

‘Roba Vecchia' is a human sized kaleidoscope made of countless images and designed with computer programming technology. It was created and shown in Cairo in February 2007. This installation was then part of the Art Projects in the first Gulf Art Fair in 2007 in Dubai and was exhibited with new commissioned work in the Sharjah biennial 2007. Walking into the Kaleidoscope is like entering the fourth dimension and seeing oneself at once part of the image reproduction. For this installation, Baladi has created and surprisingly ‘time compressed' a new kaleidoscope concept which lies flat on a huge stainless steel support.


'Oum El Dounia, Mother of the Earth', woven tapestry (860 x 290 cm)

In 2000, Baladi hit the headlines with her work ‘Oum El Dounia, Mother of the Earth', a print mixed media themed on the 3 rd day of the Creation. This kaleidoscopic collage displays plenty of bizarre sights such as Alice in a desert Wonderland or a man taking a turkey for a stroll. Full of colors, multicultural references and symbolism, it is a portrait of a hybrid creation myth.

Exhibited at la Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris , ‘Oum El Dounia' has joined its permanent collection.

Exploring new media, Baladi has developed a tapestry version of ‘Oum El Dounia'. Over eight and a half meters in length, it is a stunning and physically impressive piece.


'Surface of Time', photographs on stainless steel sheets

Other recent works will be on show such as ‘Surface of Time', a series of photographs where time and memory are beautifully and nostalgically layered. Old coaches, beds and stickers, abandoned suitcases…these traces and marks of the ephemeral nature of life.

Observing these photographs, viewers may wonder: why did the occupants leave? How did everything stop? Who are they? Their lives seem to linger in their past environment, evoking intimate feelings in the viewer. It is a graphic treatise on time and life in which Baladi suceeds in obscuring the distinctions between art and reality.


‘Diary of the Future', assemblage of photographs on gesso panels

The fourth work, ‘Diary of the future', recalls the tradition of fortune-telling through coffee residues in a cup. Whilst looking at the photographs of the gracious nature of Baladi's coffee, the viewer is invited to become for a moment the ‘coffee-diviner' himself.

Questioning the past, observing the present and predicting the future are brought forth in Baladi's work as necessary and oftentimes contradictory actions, and are the principal forces behind the new exhibition, “Surface of Time”.