Letter To A Refusing Pilot > The #Lebanese Pavilion at the 55th Biennale di Veneizia > Presenting Artist Akram Zaatari > June 1- November 24

Akram Zaatari, Letter To A Refusing Pilot, 2013. Video still from film and video installation. Courtesy of the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery (Beirut/Hamburg)

Curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, and conceived as a stage awaiting an actor, or a cinema awaiting a spectator, Zaatari's most aesthetically ambitious and politically nuanced project to date, Letter To A Refusing Pilot creates a dialogue between two works, a new 35-minute video and a looping 16mm film.

The installation weaves new aerial footage into five decades of archival imagery and, at the same time, unravels the inherited histories of heroism, nationalism, and integrity that have entangled the Arab-Israeli conflict for generations. Taking as its title a nod to Albert Camus' four-part epistolary essay "Letters to a German Friend," the work not only extends Zaatari's interest in excavated narratives and the circulation of images in times of war, it also raises crucial questions about national representation and perpetual crisis by reviving Camus's plea: "I should like to be able to love my country, and still love justice."

Commissioner: The Association for the Promotion and Exhibition of the Arts in Lebanon (APEAL) 

Curators: Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath 

Artist: Akram Zaatari 

Exhibition: Letter To A Refusing Pilot 

Dates: June 1st - November 24, 2013 

Venue: Arsenale