Kader Attia
(c) Michael Danner
Lives and works in Berlin and Paris
Professor of Time-based Media at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK)
Kader Attia (b. 1970, France), grew up in Paris and in Algeria. Preceding his studies at the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré and the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and at Escola Massana, Centre d’Art i Disseny in Barcelona, he spent several years in Congo and in South America.
The experience with these different cultures, the histories of which over centuries have been characterised by rich trading traditions, colonialism and multi-ethnic societies, has fostered Kader Attia’s intercultural and interdisciplinary approach of research. For many years, he has been exploring the perspective that societies have on their history, especially as regards experiences of deprivation and suppression, violence and loss, and how this affects the evolving of nations and individuals — each of them being connected to collective memory.
His socio-cultural research has led Kader Attia to the notion of Repair, a concept he has been developing philosophically in his writings and symbolically in his oeuvre as a visual artist. With the principle of Repair being a constant in nature — thus also in humanity —, any system, social institution or cultural tradition can be considered as an infinite process of Repair, which is closely linked to loss and wounds, to recuperation and re-appropriation. Repair reaches far beyond the subject and connects the individual to gender, philosophy, science, and architecture, and also involves it in evolutionary processes in nature, culture, myth and history.
In 2016, Kader Attia founded La Colonie, a space in Paris to share ideas and to provide an agora for vivid discussion. Focussing on decolonialisation not only of peoples but also of knowledge, attitudes and practices, it aspires to de-compartmentalise knowledge by a trans-cultural, trans-disciplinary and trans-generational approach. Driven by the urgency of social and cultural reparations, it aims to reunite which has been shattered, or drift apart.
Solo exhibitions of Attia’s work include Le Paradis Perdu, CAAC, Sevilla (2025), A Descent into Paradise, MUAC, Mexico City & Amparo Museum, Puebla City (2025), Kader Attia: Urgency of Existence, Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok (2024); ReparaRenacer, MAMBO, Bogota (2024); Descente au Paradis, MOCO, Montepellier (2024); J’Accuse !, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2024); On Silence, Mathaf, Doha (2021); Fragments of Repair, BAK – basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, The Netherlands (2021); The Valley of Dreams, Regen Projects, Los Angeles (2020); Remembering the Future, Kunsthaus Zürich (2020); Irreparáveis Reparos, Sesc Pompeia São Paulo (2020); The Museum of Emotion, Hayward Gallery, London (2019); Sacrifice and Harmony, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (2016); The Injuries Are Here, Musée Cantonal des Beaux Arts, Lausanne (2015); Culture, Another Nature Repaired, Middelheim Museum, Antwerp (2014); Contre Nature, Beirut Art Center (2014); Continuum of Repair: The Light of Jacob’s Ladder, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2013); Repair. 5 Acts, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2013) and Construire, Déconstruire, Reconstruire: Le Corps Utopique, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2012). His work has also been featured in group exhibitions at the 61st Venice Bienniale, Italy (2026); the 36th Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil (2025); the 24 Bienal de Arte Paiz, Guatemala (2025), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2021); Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain (2021); 13th Gwangju Biennial, South Korea (2020); Shanghai Ming Contemporary Art Museum, China (2020); Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston (2019); Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (2019); The Met Breuer, New York (2018); Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017); Leopold Museum, Vienna (2016); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2016); Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (2014); dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel, Germany (2012); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Tate Modern, London (2011) and Manarat Al Sadiyyat, Abu Dhabi (2009).
He holds degrees from the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués, Paris (1993); Escola Massana de Artes Aplicades, Barcelona (1994) and École National Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (1998).
Born in Dugny, France in 1970, Attia currently lives and works between Berlin and Paris. He is a professor of time-based media at the Hochschule for bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany (HFBK).
Residency Programs
2024
Le Louvre Artist Residency, Paris / France
2015
Northwestern University Kaplan Institute for the Humanities Artist in Residency Award / USA
2014
artpace, San Antonio / USA
2010
The Banff Centre, Banff / Canada
2008
IASPIS, Stockholm / Sweden
Grants / Fellowships / Prizes
2017
Premio Joan Miró, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona / Spain
Yanghyun Art Prize, The Yanghyun Foundation, Seoul / South Korea
2016
Prix Marcel Duchamp, Musée d’Art Moderne — Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris / France
2015
Ruth Baumgarte Art Award, June 4th, 2016 at Berlinische Galerie, Berlin / Germany
2014
Kunstpreis Berlin Jubiläumsstiftung 1848/1948, Akademie der Künste, Berlin / Germany
2010
Paul D. Fleck Fellowship, Banff / Canada
Smithsonian Institution Artist Research Fellowship Program, Washington DC / USA
Abraaj Capital Prize, Dubai / UAE
2008
Cairo Biennale, Prize of the Biennale, Cairo / Egypt
2005
Nominee for the Marcel Duchamp Prize, Paris / France
1997
The Leica Special Prize / » Une Algérie d ‘Enfance”, Paris / France
Symposiums / Lectures (Selection)
2019
Restitution—Reparation?, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca / US
Unlearning Imperial Rights / Decolonizing Institutions, Pembroke Center, The Brown University, Providence / US
10th Anniversary MoMA C-MAP Global Research Program, The Museum of Modern Art, New York / US
Master Symposium, Haute École d’Art et de Design, Geneva, Switzerland
The New Alphabet, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin / Germany
Museum Global, K20, Dusseldorf / Germany
2018
Propositions #4: Unpacking Aesthetics and the Far Right, BAK, Basis voor aktuele kunst, Utrecht / The Netherlands
Migrant Bauhaus, Cube, Rabat / Morocco
The Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover / US
2017
Artists, Museums and Future Collections, Goethe Institut, Kuala Lumpur / Malaysia
On Reappropriations and Reparations, European Academy of Arts, Cologne / Germany
La Colonie. Architecture and Ethics, SMAK, Ghent / Belgium
Making De/colonial Spaces, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam / The Netherlands
Situated in Translation: Global Media and Cultural Practices, University of Hamburg / Germany
The Block Museum, Northwestern University, Evanston / US
2016
Körper. Kader Attia & Françoise Vergès, organised by Haus der Kulturen der Welt at the Department of Anatomy at Charité University Clinic, Berlin / Germany
2015
Figurer/Exposer/Représenter le Corps du Refoulé Colonial, Collège d’Etudes Mondiales/FMSH, Paris / France
Abounaddara – The Right to the Images, Vera List Center, New York / USA
Usages Géopolitiques des Images, BAL – EHESS, Paris / France
Aritist Talk at Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg / Germany
2014
Kader Attia – Special Event, Whitechapel, London / UK
Kader Attia in conversation with Magnus af Petersens, Whitechapel, London / UK
Kader Attia in conversation with Koyo Kouoh, MMK Museum for Modern Art, Frankfurt / Germany
Artist Talk, NICC, Brussels / Belgium
Collecting Geographies, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam / The Netherlands
2013
Suspended Spaces – Discover / Uncover Modernism, Paris / France
Whitechapel, London / UK
Document, fiction et droit, Wiels, Bruxelles / Belgium
After Year Zero, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin / Germany
Inventions et réinventions des arts primitifs, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris / France
The Culture of Fear: An Invention of Evil, Witte de With, Rotterdam / The Netherlands
HomeWorks, Ashkal Awan, Beirut / Lebanon
Curatorial/Knowledge, Goldsmiths, London / UK
2012
Matters of Collaborations, Collaboratoire 3, Dakar / Senegal
Modern Monday, The Museum of Modern Art, New York / USA
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
2011
Suspended Spaces, Beirut Art Center, Beirut / Lebanon
Interface, Université La Sorbonne, Paris / France
Un Temps de l’Art, Université Rennes 2, Ecole supérieure européenne d’art de Bretagne, Rennes / France
Festival de l’Histoire de l’Art, Fontainebleau / France
Kunst Afrikas, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin / Germany
2010
The Serpentine Map Marathon, Serpentine Gallery, London / UK
Warsaw Under Construction II, Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, Warsaw / Poland
Void’s Geometries, The British Museum, in collaboration with the Tate, London / UK
The Falmouth Convention, University College Falmouth, Falmouth / UK
After Post-colonialism: Transnationalism or Essentialism?, Tate Modern, London / UK
SITAC VIII, International Symposium on Contemporary Art Theory, Mexico DF / Mexico
Clinicas symposium, Mexico DF / Mexico
2009
Eastwards = westwards, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht / The Netherlands
