Tonight, Walid Raad, who is showing in Mapping Sitting at the Cooley Gallery, gives a public talk on his ongoing project, The Atlas Group Archives. The talk, The Loudest Muttering is Over: Documents from the Atlas Group Archives, delves into his fictional non-profit collective which works towards a re(creation) of Lebanon's history through notebooks, films, video and photographs. Calling into question assumptions of history, memory, agency and representation, Raad's work toys with these provocative ideas by rooting them in the real-world context of a politically troubled and heartbroken nation.

Raad is an internationally acclaimed artist whom we are fortunate to have in our fair city. He is Assistant Professor of Art at Cooper Union in New York City. His works include textual analysis, video, and photography. He has performed in the 2003 Venice Biennale; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the House of World Cultures, Berlin; and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. The Atlas Group was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial, and Documenta 11 in Kassel, Germany.

Friday, September 23 • 7p
Kaul Auditorium • Reed College
Free and open to the public
The gallery will hold special hours from 5 to 10 to accomodate the talk