Launch "Earth, Fire, Water" by Ali Cherri
Launch of Ali Cherri’s first monograph, published in 2021 by Éditions Dilecta, in the presence of Pascale Cassagnau (Head of the audiovisual, video and new media collection at the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Cnap).
Through his plastic and video work, Ali Cherri operates temporal shifts between ancient worlds and our contemporary societies, constant back and forth between founding myths and the utopia of limitless progress. Her work explores the links between archaeology, historical narratives and cultural heritage, and focuses on the processes of excavation, displacement and museification of funerary remains, which are as much violence done to immemorial cultural practices and archaeological sites.
Earth, Fire, Water is Ali Cherri’s first monograph and includes an introductory text by the artist, four essays by Tarek El-Ariss, Nicole Brenez, Hannah Feldman, and Roxana Azimi, as well as an interview between the artist and Aaron Cezar. This collection looks back on the last fifteen years of Ali Cherri’s artistic practice, and analyzes its political, aesthetic and dreamlike dimensions.
As Ali Cherri mentions in his introductory text, this work was developed in parallel with the making of his first feature film (still to come) The Dam, a long process that Pascale Cassagnau accompanied and supported in the framework of the Image Mouvement program of Cnap and her research on contemporary art cinema.
On the occasion of the launch of the monograph, Pascale Cassagnau and Ali Cherri will be in conversation and will discuss the elaboration of the monograph, as well as the artist’s major works, including his video works and his upcoming film.
Born in Beirut (Lebanon), Ali Cherri lives and works between Beirut and Paris. He belongs to this generation of Lebanese artists born during the civil war (1975-1990) whose work has been strongly affected by this context of instability.
Pascale Cassagnau, responsible for the Audiovisual collection at Cnap. Her research focuses on documentary filmic devices and contemporary art cinema.
