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08. Abdul Rahman Katanani

"Renaissance"

published at 26/01/2021
Renaissance, installation d'Abdul Rahman Katanani pour le Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2021 - © Éric Sander

Abdul Rahman Katanani uses barbed wire, corrugated iron, pieces of wood and recycled petrol cans. These reused materials are actually items of ‘domestic’ life for the Palestinian artist. Katanani was born and grew up on Sabra refugee camp in Lebanon, in a community of stateless citizens.

At the age of fifteen, he devoted himself to caricature and began to get a name for himself thanks to his satirical drawings, in which he pinpointed the corruption and misappropriations regarding United Nations subsidies, something he witnessed every day living on the camp. He was accepted into the Beirut School of Fine Arts and there, he developed an artistic style that was in line with his lifestyle, laying the foundations for a complex artwork where the reused materials and objects depicted both individual and collective experiences, sometimes in a very literal way, sometimes more symbolically or using imagery.

His most famous work includes the monumental waves made from barbed wire woven by hand, silhouettes of children made from corrugated iron, and olive trees where the barbed wire once again represents a vicious and gleaming network of branches. He also created some major installations such as Camp, the symbolic representation of a refugee camp, that he presented in 2017 at Danysz Gallery. He still has a penchant for a refined appearance, as he says that it is above all ‘a way of attracting attention’, or in other words, an invitation to discover something new to talk about.

The use of recycled materials or even the topics addressed by the artist should not be considered as an expression of binding determinism, that would make the artist a refugee irrevocably and unconditionally, but rather as the beginning of an intellectual journey. Katanani’s artistic technique is a liberating process that transforms personal experience into a way of interpreting the world, into a personal odyssey and into an inter-personal adventure whereby the viewer is plunged into the artist’s universe.

Notions of progression, travelling - of movement, really - are key to the work of the artist, for whom everything is about dynamic design. Often his artworks represent a spiral, a vortex, a tornado, allegories of the political and religious whirlwind that has affected the Middle East for so long. “For me, says the artist, the Palestinian cause should not be considered as a vicious circle, but as a tornado that picks up all the happiness, dreams, energy, people on its way, and spins off into the unknown.”

The danger now is to remain static, or in other words imprisoned in given conditions of existence, and especially within one’s own walls. In Katanani’s work, the artistic process should be understood as a journey towards a liberating horizon, and the barbed wire as an imaginary barrier. “I was raised, he says, in the harsh reality of Palestine’s occupation and of the border that had been marked out. I realised later on that within us, we all have borders and occupations that can be much more effective.”

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Abdul Rahman KATANANI
LEBANON
 

Abdul Rahman Katanani was born in 1983 in the Sabra refugee camp, in Lebanon. He has a Master’s degree from Beirut School of Fine Arts.

His work has been displayed in a great number of institutions all over the world, including the Abu Dhabi Biennale, the Royal College of London, the Cité Internationale des Arts, and the Arab World Institute in Paris.

His artworks are presented in public (Mathaf, Doha) and private collections. He lives between Paris and Beirut.

AWARD

2009
Young Artists prize at the Salon d’Automne organised by the Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
Complete Biography

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019
Brainstorm, Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
 
2017
Hard Core, Magda Danyzs Gallery, Paris, France
Resilience, Analix Forever Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
 
2016
Olive Forest, Biennale d’Anglet, France
Children, Olive Trees and Barbed wire, Al Markhiya Gallery, Doha, Qatar
 
2015
Softness of a Circle, Knife-edge of a Straight Line, Agial Art Gallery, Lebanon
 
2014
Kids, Barbed Wire and a Dream, Tanit Gallery, Munich, Germany
 
2012
No Address, French Institute, Beirut, Lebanon
 
2011
Zinc, Barbed Wire and Freedom, Agial Art Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
 
2008
Camp Message, LAAPS / Lebanese Artists Association for Painters and Sculptors, Beirut, Lebanon
 
2006
Caricature Exhibition with corporation with AJPF, Paris, Nantes, Chambery, France

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019
Libres, Musée du Fer et du Chemin de Fer, Vallorbe, Switzerland
Libres, Contemporary Art Fair, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland
National Salon, Manama, Bahrain
 
2018
Un œil ouvert sur le monde arabe, Arab World Institute, Paris, France
Beit Beirut / Museum and Urban Cultural Center, Beirut, Lebanon
45th annual Fine Art exhibition, Bahrain
Arabicity-Ourouba, Middle East Institution, Washington, USA
Flux, Arts Éphémères, Marseille, France
Paris Pris, Magda Danysz Gallery, Paris, France
Keyword: Palestine, Dar El-Nimer, Beirut, Lebanon
Face Value, Portraiture, Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
 
2017
Mushroom, Vent des Forêts / Centre d’art contemporain, Fresnes-au-Mont, France
Water Lilies, Mir Amir Castle, Mount Lebanon, Lebanon
 
2016
Dendromorphies, Topographie de l’Art, Paris, France
The wave, Dar el-Nimer Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Olive Tree, Electronic Art Cafe, Rome, Italy
Olive Tree, Resistance and Persistence, Beirut, Lebanon
Girl jumping with a cover, Chapter 31, Gallery P21, London, United Kingdom
Olive tree, Jardin d’Orient, Arab World Institute, Paris, France
Forêt d’oliviers, La Terrasse / Centre d’Art de Nanterre, Paris, France
 
2014
Tornado, My Beautiful Laundrette, Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France
Jumping over the barbed wire, Day of Peace, UNESCO, Paris, France
 
2013
Untitled, La Route Blue, Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium
 
2012
Hula-hoops, Art is the Solution, Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium
Boy running after a wheel, Together we connect, Anima Gallery, Doha, Qatar
 
2011
Rebirth, Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut, Lebanon
Isharat, Al Markhiya Gallery, Doha, Qatar
Family jumping over a barbed wire, funded by Apeal (Association for the Promotion and Exhibition of Art in Lebanon) at Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom
 
2010
Kite, Salon d’automne, Nicolas Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
 
2009
The Martyred Camp, Biennale of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Embroidery, Mother and Palestine, Penang State Museum and Art Gallery, Malaysia
Art, Peace and the Global Village-Against Violence, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Waiting with the Zinc plats, LAAPS / Lebanese Artists Association for Painters and Sculptors,The Fine Art Spring, UNESCO, Beirut, Lebanon
Peace Expressions of Hope, RA gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kid or a Pillow, Salon d’automne, Nicolas Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
 
2008
Women in the camp, Salon d’automne, Nicolas Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
Caricature, Fête de l’Humanité, Paris, France
 
2007
Artist in the Camp, Salon d’automne, Paris, France
Caricature, Fête de l’Humanité, Paris, France
Caricature, UNESCO, Beirut, Lebanon
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On the web

Abdul Rahman Katanani
Renaissance, installation d'Abdul Rahman Katanani pour le Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2021 - © Éric Sander
Renaissance, installation d'Abdul Rahman Katanani pour le Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2021 - © Leighton Gough
Renaissance, installation d'Abdul Rahman Katanani pour le Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2021 - © Leighton Gough
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