CPD Hospitality | Art Dialogue: Ali Cherri

Ali Cherri in conversation with Reem Shadid 

Join us for the first talk of the series ‘Artists and Collections: Expanding Practices’, a collaboration between the Contemporary Art Society and the National Gallery.

Ali Cherri, previous artist in residence at the National Gallery, will be in conversation with Reem Shadid, Director of the Beirut Art Center in Lebanon to discuss their practices and participation in residencies within the context of the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. They will explore themes of invitation and hosting, and the generative experience of these residencies to artistic production and the testing of institutional boundaries.

Reem Shadid is a curator, researcher and cultural organizer who works on the emancipatory possibilities within artistic practice, exploring the ways it intersects with ecological, political and socio-economic forms. Currently, she is the Director of Beirut Art Center in Lebanon and is a co-curator for the 2023 edition of Taipei Biennial, and the second edition of New Visions (2023), the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter triennial for photography and New Media. Most recently she directed Berlin Biennale (2022) Curator’s workshop. Shadid was the Deputy Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, where she served in various capacities between 2006 – 2020. She was a resident curator at Ashkal Alwan from April to October 2021.

Ali Cherri is an artist and filmmaker born in Beirut in 1976 and currently lives and works in Paris and Beirut. His sculptures, drawings and installations explore the temporal shifts between ancient worlds and contemporary societies. Using archaeological artefacts as a starting point, he investigates the boundaries of ideologies that underpin the foundations of nations and the myth of national progression. His work explores the links between archaeology, historical narrative and heritage.

Cherri’s work has featured in prominent exhibitions including If you prick us do we not bleed? at The National Gallery, London, The Milk of Dreams The 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale Venice, Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning, 13th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2020); and The Gatekeepers at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille – Manifesta 13, France (2020).