Biography

Kader Attia is a multidisciplinary artist who draws upon the lived experiences of two disparate cultural identities: Algerian and French. From this place of cultural intermediacy, Attia’s practice interrogates sociopolitical complexities rooted in histories of colonialism and cultural obfuscation. In his practice, Attia employs poetic installations and sculptural assemblages to investigate the far-reaching emotional implications of western cultural hegemony and colonial systems of power for non-western subjectivities, focusing particularly on collective trauma and notions of repair. Notable exhibitions include On Silence, Mathaf, Doha (2021); Fragments of Repair, BAK – basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, the Netherlands (2021); and The Museum of Emotion, Hayward Gallery, London (2019). Attia is also the founder of ~~La Colonie~~, a creative space in Paris aimed at fostering dialogue outside institutional constraints, approaching knowledge production through a transcultural, interdisciplinary, and multigenerational lens. Attia's accolades include the Marcel Duchamp Prize (2016), Yanghyun Prize (2017) for art, and the Joan Miró Prize. He holds degrees from the École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d'art, Paris (1993), Escola Massana, Barcelona (1994), and École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (1998).