" I would also hope that we do not reduce this entire question of the document into the fact versus fiction debate; history versus aesthetics; journalism versus art; true versus false; real versus imaginary; sober versus drunk; clear versus opaque. “
Walid Raad belongs to the generation of artists who have contributed over the past twenty years to the remarkable cultural renewal of Lebanon and the Beirut scene in particular with personalities such as Akram Zaatari, Walid Sadek, and Bernard Khouri. These artists have in common that they work on issues concerning post-war Lebanon and direct their work to fundamental questions of memory and the traumatic experience of history. Walid Raad's artistic devices use the technique and significance of the archive to rethink the way history is written and the power attached to it. At the origin of Walid Raad's exemplary approach is the Atlas Group, the name given to a structure created by the artist in 1999 to study and document the contemporary history of Lebanon, particularly from 1975. , the year of the start of the civil wars which physically and psychologically destroyed the country. By blurring the lines between art and archives, fiction and documentary, Walid Raad and the Atlas Group question the writing of history, invalidating the process of reconstructing the facts specific to the scientific approach.