In an era of epistemic bubbles and 'alternative facts,' the boundaries of fiction and reality feel more conspicuously fraught than ever. What is our 'reality' in 2017—and more acutely, what happened to the consensus that such a thing exists in the first place? While these questions have returned to the forefront of our social consciousness fairly recently, the interrogation of truth has been a decades-long project for artist Walid Raad, who will be lecturing at the University of Toronto's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.
Born in Lebanon in 1967, Raad is a Professor of Art at the Cooper Union, and an internationally acclaimed media artist. Known for complex explorations of history through visual media, Raad's best-known work is The Atlas Group (1989-2004), a fifteen-year project that studies Lebanese history through an array of fictional characters, exploring the relationship between historical facts and the narratives that arise from them.
"How can fiction replace reality?" image via the Daniels Faculty
Raad's ongoing projects include Scratching on Things I Could Disavow and Sweet Talk: Commissions (Beirut), and his books include Walkthrough, The Truth Will Be Known When The Last Witness Is Dead, My Neck Is Thinner Than A Hair, and Let’s Be Honest The Weather Helped. Raad's work has also been exhibited in museums across the world, and he has been the recipient of the Hasselblad Award (2011), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2009), and the ICP Infinity Award (2016).
Recognized as a thought-provoking artist, Raad's work troubles the processes of memory, representation, and history, asking far-reaching questions about the nature of the realities and fictions we construct. But what does this mean for design, and how can architects and designers take these ideas into account? Those questions will be posed by artist and Daniels Professor Charles Stankievech, who will moderate the discussion.
Taking place at the Isabel Bader Theatre on Thursday, February 9th, the event will be held from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. More information is available on the Daniels Faculty website, as well as the eventbrite registration page. Tickets are free.