My Neck Is Thinner Than A Hair
2005
colour photograph
courtesy of The Atlas Group / Walid Raad, Sfeir-Semler
Galerie, Hamburg and Beirut, and Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
THE ATLAS GROUP / WALID
RAAD
Lebanon / United States of America
Design Theatre, The University
of Auckland
My Neck Is Thinner Than A Hair: A History of the Car Bomb in the 1975-1991 Lebanese Wars_Volume1: January 21, 1986 - This work is part of an on-going investigation by The Atlas Group into the events and experiences surrounding the use of car bombs in the 1975-1991 Lebanese wars. The Atlas Group examines the multiple dimensions – social, political, economic, military, technological, psychological and epistemic – of the wars and investigates the public and private discourses surrounding the 3600 car bombs that were detonated during this period.
For the past year, Tony Chakar, Bilal Khbeiz, and Walid Raad have been working on the first volume of this multi-volume project. This research has resulted in a 70 minute mixed media presentation/performance about and around the events, experiences, forms, and objects of a car bomb that was detonated on January 21, 1986 in the Furn Ech Chubak area of Beirut.
Background
Born in Chbanieh, Lebanon in 1967, Walid Raad is currently based in New York. Raad founded The Atlas Group in 1999. Its findings are preserved in The Atlas Group Archive and have been presented as mixed-media installations, video screenings, visual and literary essays, lectures and performances. Raad's works have been included in the Whitney Biennale, 2002; Documenta 11, Kassel, 2002; 50th Venice Biennale, 2003. His works have also been seen in: Beyond East and West: Seven Transnational Artists, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, 2004, which toured nationally; Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, 2004; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2004; Risk: Creative Action in Political Culture, The Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, 2005; Zones of Conflict: Biennale of Sydney, 2006; Out of Beirut, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 2006; and We Decided To Let Them Say "We Are Convinced" Twice. It Was More Convincing This Way, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, 2006. Associate Professor of Art at The Cooper Union, New York, Raad is a member of the Arab Image Foundation. Key texts include his own publication Volume 1: The Truth Will Be Known When The Last Witness Is Dead, 2005. The Atlas Group was profiled by Janet Kapelan in Art in America, October 2004.
