Canvas, broken mirror, ebony and Dogon mask
80 x 60 x 2 cm (canvas), 43 x 16 x 10 cm (mask)


French Algerian artist Kader Attia first received international acclaim following his 2012 participation in dOCUMENTA (13). There, his room-filling installation titled “The Repair from Occident to Extra-Occidental Cultures,” extensively examined the notion of repair. The work drew on the idea that while in the contemporary Western world objects are thrown away when they are broken, historically, objects in other parts of the world have been repaired – and bear traces of the process as a fragment of their history. Through his work, Attia investigates moments and objects, whose histories he fears are being lost. Masks hold a special fascination for the artist. These, he believes, will long outlive the human creators. Mirrors in his work are often shattered and repaired, with the viewer is reflected in them as though they are scarred. In Reconstructions, we see the culmination of both of these concepts: a repaired mirror and an animal mask ultimately reflect the viewer’s own fragile and impermanent state.
 

Kader Attia was born in Dugny, France to Algerian parents and was raised in Paris and Algeria. He studied at the l'école Duperré de Paris, l'école des arts appliqués La Massana de Barcelone and graduated from the Ecole nationale superieure des arts decoratifs Paris, in 1998.
His work often examines social injustice, marginalized communities and postcolonialism.
In 2016, he founded La Colonie, a gallery in Paris' Gare du Nord train station.

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