Lara Baladi

Biography

Interdisciplinary artist Lara Baladi employs photography, video, sound and installations to create interwoven images of past and present, myth and reality, with a focus on the Middle East and particularly the Arab Spring. She explores ways in which interactions between images and technology affect visual narratives.

Baladi’s solo exhibitions include Perspectives: Lara Baladi, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (2015); Hope, New York University Abu Dhabi Gallery, UAE (2011) and Al Fanous Al Sehry [The Magic Lantern], Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo (2003), and her work was also presented in the group exhibitions do it بالعربي, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE (2016); Sharjah Biennial 8, UAE (2007) and Images of the Middle East at the Copenhagen International Theatre, Denmark (2006). She joined with the Kiev Kamera Orchestra to perform the Donkey Symphony, the sound component of her work Borg El Amal (Tower of Hope), at the first Ukraine Contemporary Art Biennial, Kiev (2012), and she won the Grand Nile Prize at the Cairo International Contemporary Art Biennial (2008).

Baladi has participated in the Ida Ely Rubin artist-in-residence programme at the Center for Art, Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA (2015-2016) and the Vox Populi project, the MIT Open Documentary Lab (2014-2015). She has also been an artist-in-residence at the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, USA (2015); Art Omi International Arts Center, Hudson, USA (2014) and VASL Art, Karachi (2010). She received a fellowship to research anime from the Japan Foundation (2003). She also co-founded Tahrir Cinema and radiota7rir.com, an online radio station supporting free speech in Egypt (2011).

Born in Beirut in 1969, Baladi was raised in Paris and educated in London. She has lived and worked in Cairo since 1997.

SAF participation:
Sharjah Biennial 8