Ziad Antar

 Ziad Antar is a Lebanese video artist and photographer. He works with different photographic material - such as expired negatives defying the technological advances of digital photography and collections of archival images. Focusing on the praxis behind the production and the visual quality of an image, his approach revolves around questioning the nature of the photographic medium, its constraints and limitations. In the face of the porosity of artistic and geographic boundaries, Antar’s explorations aim to inscribe themselves within a dynamic interaction of places, cultures, memories and disciplines. His work has been included in a number of group exhibitions such as Palais de Tokyo (2012), Centre Pompidou (2011), The New Museum, New York (2009); and Tate Modern, London (2008), amongst others. 

Last Day in Exile

In late November 2016, the creation of La Vitrine was triggered by the election of former Lebanese warlord, Michel Aoun, as president of Lebanon. The initial proposal was brought forward by artist Ziad Antar, who then became the co-founder of La Vitrine. The artist had searched through his photographic archives in order to extract the negative of an image taken while on assignment in Paris on May 5th, 2005: the last day of Michel Aoun’s fifteen-year exile. Antar captured an intimate moment depicting Aoun and a young member of his family, in the midst of his anticipated comeback following the withdrawal of the Syrian Army from Lebanon and the assassination of the prime minister Rafic Hariri. The rare photograph was used not as a political commentary or propaganda - contrary to those erected in Lebanon during the election period- but rather as testimony of time and mass amnesia.