Kader Attia, a French artist of Algerian background, closely observes our contemporary world, cultivating dialog between cultures and denouncing modern totalitarian trends in all their manifestations, whether based on consumerism, fanatical beliefs or fear. Through varied practices of reappropriation and salvaging of materials with the aim of revealing our social malaise, the artist builds generous and protean works of art, in installations, using video, as well as writing and photography. Though his work is rooted in his personal experience – the artist grew up in Sarcelles, in suburban Paris - his intention encompasses a dimension linking the intimate with the universal. Kader Attia expresses his interest in the marginal and the rootless through an anthropological approach to otherness.
Kader Attia graduated from the “Duperré” Ecole Supérieure des Arts appliqués (1993), the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (1996-1998) and studied for a year at the “La Massana” Escola de Artes Applicadas de Barcelona (1994). Nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2005, he is currently one of the most recognized French artists on the national and international scenes (2003 Venice Biennale, 2004 Art Basel Miami, 2005 and 2015 Lyon Biennale, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2006, the ICA/Boston in 2007, the CCC in Tours and La Force de l’Art exhibition in Paris in 2009, MAMVP in 2012, dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel in 2012).
