In an artistic practice shaped by the ultimate event horizon of the Lebanese Civil War, Alfred Tarazi deploys his visual strategies in order to dig out fields of memory, emplaced haphazardly in a vast expanse of the present tense, often without direction or destination. A narrative emphasis occurs, at the root of which, the artist is unearthing critical and historical tools to read past events, provided by the past itself in the manner of a reluctant heritage.

Alfred Tarazi was born in Beirut in 1980. His entire body of work, ranging across painting, photography, drawing, digital collage, sculpture and installation, revolves around complex investigations into Lebanon’s convoluted history. Since 2005 he has been conducting extensive research and experiments into the creation of a memorial for the victims of the Lebanese Civil War. His other projects revolve around questioning knowledge, its processes of transmission and loss using the medium of exploded films: immersive installations that are built around the interaction of texts and objects. Following a residency at Krinzinger Projekte in Vienna in 2011 he has been exhibiting with Galerie Krinzinger, one of Europe’s leading galleries. In 2015 his work was acquired by the British Museum. In 2016 he was the recipient of the First Sovereign Art Prize for the Middle East. This will be his second solo show with Galerie Janine Rubeiz.