Artes Mundi 2008: Lida Abdul

Lida Abdul

Her works pose questions about place, community and the meaning of our surroundings. Her video works include Clapping with Stones and White House that both reinterpret the nature of architecture in our surroundings and suggest alternative ways of looking at space and its cultural implications. Her works also reflect the physical changes present in her home country Afghanistan.

Her work fuses Western formalism with aesthetic traditions such as Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, which have influenced Afghan art and culture.

At the 2005 Venice Biennale she was the first official representative for Afghanistan in the Biennale's 100 year history. For the past few years Abdul has been working in different parts of Afghanistan on projects exploring the relationship between architecture and identity.

Abdul was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1973. She lived in Germany and India as a refugee after she was forced to leave Afghanistan after the former-Soviet invasion. She now lives and works in Kabul and Los Angeles, USA.

Her most recent work has been featured at the 51st Venice Biennale 2005; Istanbul Modern; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Museum of Modern Art Arnhem, The Netherlands and the Central Asian Biennial 2004.