Walid Raad/SITU Studio

Those that are near. Those tha are far

10 June to 25 September

The Stommeln Synagogue art series continues in 2016 with a project entitled “Those that are near. Those that are far.” by Walid Raad and SITU studio.

Walid Raad is an artist and a Professor of Art in The Cooper Union (New York, USA). Raads’ works include The Atlas Group, a fifteen-year project between 1989 and 2004 about the contemporary history of Lebanon, and the ongoing projects Scratching on Things I Could Disavow and Sweet Talk: Commissions (Beirut). His books include Walkthrough, The Truth Will Be Known When The Last Witness Is Dead, My Neck Is Thinner Than A Hair, Let’s Be Honest The Weather Helped, and Scratching on Things I Could Disavow.

Raad’s solo exhibitions include the Louvre (Paris), The Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), Kunsthalle Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland), The Whitechapel Art Gallery (London, UK). His works have also been shown in Documenta 11 and 13 (Kassel, Germany), The Venice Biennale (Venice, Italy), Whitney Biennial 2000 and 2002 (New York, USA), São Paulo Biennial (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Istanbul Biennial (Istanbul, Turkey), Homeworks I and III (Beirut, Lebanon) and numerous other museums, biennales and venues in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas. 

Raad is also the recipient of the ICP Infinity Award (2016), the Hasselblad Award (2011), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2009), the Alpert Award in Visual Arts (2007), the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2007), the Camera Austria Award (2005), a Rockefeller Fellowship (2003), among other grants, prizes and awards.

Raad is also a member of the Home Workspace Program in Beirut and The Gulf Labor Coalition.

SITU studio: Founded in 2005, SITU is an interdisciplinary practice based in Brooklyn, New York. Whether through applied research, material experimentation or full scale construction, SITU's commitment to innovation is driven by its foundational values of rigor, craftsmanship and authenticity. Operating across a diverse range of scales, disciplines and materials, SITU seeks and embraces opportunities to produce socially and culturally relevant work that forges new territory in art, architecture and design.

The practice comprised of three divisions: an architectural design firm, a specialized digital fabrication workshop, and research department dedicated to interdisciplinary spatial investigation. A collaborative and horizontal organization encourages creative cross-pollination between the departments.

SITU’s work has appeared at the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art, the Canadian Center for Architecture, Berlin's Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures) and many other venues.

STOMMELN SYNAGOGUE: Hauptstrasse 85 a, D-50259 Pulheim-Stommeln

Opening of the Exhibition: 8 June 2016, 6 PM

Introductory speech by Almút Sh. Bruckstein

DURATION: 10 June to 25 September

Opening hours through 25 September: Fridays 3-6 PM, Saturdays and Sundays 1-6 PM, thereafter upon arrangement

The project by Walid Raad and SITU studio is sponsored by: Kunststiftung NRW and Landschaftsverband Rheinland