Zad Moultaka

About his work:

Translation between variety of artistic expressions or the European ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk, at the heart of 19th century aesthetics, remains one of the most significant questions for artists, in so far as the art of our times is primarily faced with the question of language as both asset and obstacle.
Is it possible for an artist to express himself in an altogether different syntax What are the boundaries between languages and expressions Do they exist at all Zad Moultaka's painting work, critically highlights these questions as the classical music composer, well known in France because of its experimental research in music between Western notation and the narrative orality of the Arab world, attempting to find not necessarily a common language, but to express one in the terms of the other and attempt to grasp the acoustic consequence.
In his paintings, never conceived as transcriptions or even translations, he lets his imagination run completely free into a streamline of consciousness that while contemporary - he is pictorially dealing with surfaces - it is permanently seeking sources and points of departure; anxiously preparing a clean slate for another process that is yet to be discovered.   

Biography:

Zad Moultaka was born in Lebanon in 1967. At the National Conservatory in Beirut he studied under prominent composer Madeleine Médawar and in 1984, went on to study at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris under legendary composers such as Pierre Sancan and Marie-Madeleine Petit, among others.
Composing music for cinema and theater, he has also performed in some of the most distinguished music halls of Europe.
Interested in the shared heritage between Arabic and Western music, he has also investigated the limits between music and painting in his work, exhibiting his paintings since 2003 in France, Italy and Lebanon. With Galerie Janine Rubeiz, he has held solo and groups exhibition such as “Le feu de l’eau” (2013) and “Clin d’oeil” (2014). His work has also been showcased previously by the gallery at Beirut Art Fair.
Zad will be representing the Lebanese Pavillion at the 57th edition of the Venice Biennale in 2017