A hybrid spectacle, a fusion of an exhibition, a peripatetic performance and a lecture on art and culture as eternal victims of violent practices. Walid Raad, one of the most influential artists of the contemporary scene, acts as our guide.

In an exhibition and a number of walk-throughs, the internationally renowned artist Walid Raad proposes artworks and stories, drawing from extensive research and documentation, on a variety of issues: World War I, Islamic art, the building of new infrastructures for the arts in the Arab world, financial scandals, the skyscraper index, historical personalities, the study of color and much more.

Les Louvres and/or Kicking the Dead is a report on how art and culture are affected by a history of violence. Raad zooms in on the concepts of "dead" and "un-dead" spread by war but as well as museums. By means of the most divergent artefacts and motives he weaves a story that both deals with the waves of violence from the Middle East to the Westhoek and the foundation of new museums in the Arab world, such as the recently built branch of the Louvre in Abu Dhabi.
Walid Raad already had exhibitions at the Louvre and MoMA and was recently chosen as one of the most influential thinkers of 2016 by Foreign Policy.

Credits

From and with Walid Raad
Project management: Celesta Rottiers  
Technical direction: Herman Sorgeloos
Translation into Greek: Vassilis Douvitsas
Line Production on behalf of the OCC: Dimitra Bouzani
Co-produced by steirischer herbst in Graz (Graz, Austria), Art Center Buda in Kortrijk for Gone West - NEXT Festival (Kortrijk, Belgium), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Onassis Culture/FFF, Festival d’Automne (Paris).
Support by Sfeir-Semler Gallery (Hamburg/Beirut), Paula Cooper Gallery (New York). 
Thanks to Jack V Sturiano, Marcella Lista, Belal Hibri, SITU Studio, Christopher Kissoon, Raphael Fleuriet, Karolien Derwael.