Through his compelling and deeply researched practice, Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari explores the manner in which we choose to present ourselves both on, and offline, from YouTube videos to photographic archives. His work touches on complex and timely themes including contemporary image production, cultural activism and archival studies.
Drawn together by our curators, this reading list delves into some of these fascinating subjects.
Many of the titles are available to buy in the Modern Art Oxford Shop.
The free exhibition Akram Zaatari: The Script is on at Modern Art Oxford until 12 May 2019.
The Politics of Mass Digitization (2019)
By Nanna Bonde Thylstrup
MIT Press
Shooting a Revolution: Visual Media and Warfare in Syria (2018)
By Donatella Della Ratta
Pluto Press
Future Imperfect: Contemporary Art Practices and Cultural Institutions in the Middle East (2016)
Edited by Anthony Downey
Sternberg Press
Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East (2015)
Edited by Anthony Downey
I.B. Tauris
Uncommon Grounds: New Media and Critical Practices in North Africa and the Middle East (2014)
Edited by Anthony Downey
I.B. Tauris
Public, Private, Secret: On Photography & the Configuration of Self (2018)
By Marina Chao & Pauline Vermare, edited by Charlotte Cotton
Aperture
Shy Radicals: The Anti-systemic Politics of the Introvert Militant: Hamja Ahsan [Common Objectives] (2017)
By Hamja Ahsan, edited by Nina Power
Bookworks
The Tempest Society (2019)
By Bouchra Khalili
Bookworks