• “In every photograph,” French theorist Roland Barthes wrote in his book Camera Lucida (1980), there is “the return of the dead.” If photography always captures a moment in the past, then every time we look at a photograph, that specific moment it captures in time is continued in the present, even if those in the photo are long gone.

  • In The Company of Silver Spectres, the personal is spectrally reconstituted into the universal. It is a poignant reminder that working through trauma, be it individual or as is the case in so many conflict zones, collective, is always a communion with ghosts.

  • For many years now Yassin has been collecting old black and white photographs that he finds at flea markets, antique shops, or auctions. Originally, he limited his search to Lebanon and the Arab world but has since widened his geographical scope

  • By spray-painting the photos in monochromatic colours, he blots out their specificity and summons ghosts. The image only faintly shimmers through the layers of paint

  • wall piece City Mirage (2024), a installation of vintage letters culled from shop signs in Beirut.The signs are from the 1970s till the early 2000s — they spell out a topography of disappearance. By collecting these neon signs and breaking them apart in singular letters, Yassin not only draws attention to the continuous tearing up of the urban fabric, but he also preserves — letter by letter — memories of a disappearing place.

  • In the hope of saving the ‘face’ of his disappearing city, the artist created a composition out of these signs arranged together in a nonsensical fashion, in which their non-meaning reflects the chaos of the current moment.

  • Together these letters have no semantic meaning, it is just chaotic gibberish. However, given they are relics of a bygone era — the signs are from the 1970s till the early 2000s — they spell out a topography of disappearance

  • While loss and ruin set the tone of this exhibition, Yassin, against all geo-political odds, offers a glimmer of hope in his work Mirage (2024).This sign flickers intermittently, a nod to Beirut’s incessant electricity cuts and to the prospect of positive change being extremely dim.

     

  • "Poetry was the first artform that introduced me to everything else I’m doing creatively right now. I used to be a prolific poet, but I stopped at a young age. Now, 20 years later, it has suddenly reemerged in my life, as if to convey a sense of urgency within me. In this work, the poetry is made to be illegible. A kind of poetry of disappearance, that which cannot be described in words"

    - Raed Yassin in conversation with Isabelle de Caters, 2024

  • ABOUT THE ARTIST

    Raed Yassin (born 1979, Beirut) currently lives between Berlin and Beirut. He graduated from the Theatre Department of the Institute of Fine Arts in Beirut in 2003, and in 2015, he was awarded a research fellowship at the Akademie der Künste der Welt in Cologne. An artist and musician, Yassin's work often originates from an examination of his personal narratives and their position within a collective history, through the lens of consumer culture and mass production. As a musician, he is one of the organizers of the Irtijal Festival for Experimental Music (Beirut), and has released several solo music albums, as well as part of groups such as “A” Trio and PRAED. In 2009, he founded his independent music label Annihaya. Raed currently lives between Berlin and Beirut.

     

    He has exhibited and performed in numerous museums, festivals and venues, including his current first seminal exhibition at the Beirut Art Center (2024); Taipei Biennial (2023); Lyon Biennial (2022); Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2020); Sursock Museum, Beirut (2019); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2016); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2014); Kunsthalle Wien (2015); Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) London (2014); Gwangju Museum of Art (2014); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2014); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2012); New Museum, New York (2012); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2011); and Delfina Foundation, London (residency 2014 & 2010 - 2011), amongst many.

     

    Yassin is also a recipient of the AFAC grant for production (2019 & 2010), Sharjah Art Foundation Project Fund (2014), Abraaj Group Art Prize (2012), Fidus Prize (2009), YATF grant for production (2008 & 2012) and the Cultural Resource grant for production (2008).

  • Allegorical Ruins | Press Release

  • Raed Yassin, Allegorical Ruins, 2024 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Read Yassin, City Mirage, 2024 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Raed Yassin, City Mirage, 2024 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Raed Yassin, The Company of Silver Spectres, (2021 - ongoing) (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Read Yassin, The Company of Silver Spectres, (2021 - ongoing) (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Raed Yassin, Mirage, 2024 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

    Raed Yassin, Allegorical Ruins, 2024