Ziad Antar (Lebanon)

Born in 1978 in Saïda, Ziad Antar is a Lebanese filmmaker and photographer. He studied Agricultural Engineering at the American University of Beirut (2000) and Cinema at Ecole Superieure Des Etudes Cinématographiques in Paris (2003). He now lives and works between Saïda and Paris.

Ziad Antar's short films use playful metaphor to evoke a world in conflict. Following the Lebanon War of 2006 the artist produced, La Marche Turque (The Turkish March) . The image depicts the hands of a pianist playing Mozart's Alla Turca (from Piano Sonata No. 11), while the sound is hammered, as if to sound like a bombardment.

Having acquired, in 2000, a 1948 Kodak Reflex and 10 rolls of black-and-white film that had expired in 1976, Ziad Antar used the degraded film to create photographs with an abstracted effect. Among the images he produced was one of Walid Jumblatt which relates the danger the Lebanese Druze leader was exposed to following his criticism of Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.

The artist has exhibited prolifically in recent years, including the Nicephore Niépce Museum in France (2014), La Criée, Centre d'art Contemporain in Rennes, France (2013), La Friche la Belle de Mai in Marseille, France (2013), Almine Rech Gallery, Paris, France (2012), and Sharjah Art Foundation in Sharjah, U.A.E (2012).

  His works have also been included in various group exhibitions, eg; 'Formes et Forces', at Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain in Strasbourg, France (2013), as well as 'The Mediterranean Approach', at MAC Marseille, France (2012) and in such international collections as the Centre Pompidou.