3 April to 31 October 2009

At the CCC, Kader Attia presents an original exhibition, entirely organized around the main work “Kasbah”, co-produced with the Huarte Contemporary Art Centre.

“Kasbah”, made up of found materials, is a composition of corrugated steel or plastic, of tyres, and also of satellite dishes, scattered over the floor. The installation aims to confront the observer with the remnants of the flows of economic globalization, that finally find themselves ended up and reinvested in the poorest areas of the world. Beyond the political observation, Kader Attia also tackles the notable ability of men to make the world their own and to reinvent their culture when they have nothing.

As often seen in Kader Attia’s work, the aesthetic dimension is mixed with an ethical and political subject. More than ever, the viewer is physically and psychologically involved: walking around and overhanging the damaged and resonant corrugated steel surface, he will be sent back to his position of voyeur.

This work also revives the social role played by rooftops and terrace roofs in Mediterranean cultures, where they represent real living and communication areas. Kader Attia’s “Kasbah” will be a platform for exchanges of ideas, for meetings, for various interventions – dance, lecture, seminar, workshop, exhibition… – scheduled from April to November 2009.

This work, which provides a new floor and elevates it of about ten centimeters, is like a base for the viewers, and they will have to walk around it to visit the exhibition and to apprehend, probably in a different way, the other works hung in the space of the “Kasbah”.
Indeed, the exhibition will gather about thirty drawings, the video “Oil and Sugar”, and a sculpture made for the exhibition: “Kol! (Eat!)”, made up of semolina, will recreate the Mzab architectures of Ghardaia, in the middle of the Algerian desert, which influenced Le Corbusier’s Athens Charter.