Biography of the artist

Born in Saida, Lebanon. 1966
Works and Lives in Beirut


Zaatari’s practice is tied to the practice of collecting. His work reflects on the shifting nature of borders and the production and circulation of images in the context of the current political divisions in the Middle East. His videos and photographic installations look into technologies of image production and communication and the notions of surveillance, exploring the way different media apparatuses get employed in the service of power, resistance, and memory. As co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation, Zaatari is deeply invested in examining how photography served to shape notions of aesthetics, postures and social codes, therefore looking at the present through a wealth of past photographic records from the Middle East. Zaatari has been focusing since 1999 on the archive of Studio Shehrazade in Saida (Lebanon) studying, indexing, and presenting the work of photographer Hashem el Madani (1928 -) as a register of social relationships and of photographic practices. He is author of more than 40 videos such as 28 Nights and a Poem (2015), Letter to a Refusing Pilot (2013), Tomorrow everything will be alright (2010), Nature Morte (2008), In this House (2005), This Day (2003), All is well on the Border (1997). Part of his video work addressed the practice of sex in Lebanon’s current society, particularly in The End of Time (2013), Crazy of You (1997) and How I Love You (2001).