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concept:era contemporary

The Repair from Occident to Extra-Occidental Cultures

Installation by Kader Attia (2012). Presents rows of mirrored photographs documenting World War I facial reconstructive surgery (gueules cassees) alongside photographs of African, Oceanic, and pre-Columbian ritual objects showing evidence of repair. Proposes that repair is a universal human condition that Western modernity suppresses. Exhibited at dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, 2012.

Scholarly Significance

Postcolonial Middle East / North Africa anchor.

Notes

  • ·World War I archival photographs: the gueules cassees — soldiers whose faces were destroyed by shrapnel.
  • ·African/Oceanic ritual objects repaired with rough metal staples and wire.
  • ·Attia's thesis: Western modernity drives toward restoration; non-Western repair practices acknowledge the wound.
  • ·Exhibited at dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, 2012; subsequent Tate acquisition.