Curated by November Paynter

Known for his diverse photographic and video-based projects, Akram Zaatari has spent the last decade mining the charged archival materials of Lebanon’s civil wars as well as investigating the gendered cultural narratives of the Middle East. Most recently, these efforts have led the Beirut-based artist to create pieces such as Letter to a Refusing Pilot, 2013, a video- missive addressing an Israeli fighter pilot who, during a 1982 operation in Lebanon, disobeyed his chain of command, rejecting orders to bomb a school. This work plus nine others—including 28 Nights and a Poem, 2006–14, and On Photography, People, and Modern Times, 2010—will be presented across three full floors of SALT’s Beyoğlu space, offering a great opportunity to consider the interconnections within this artist’s substantial oeuvre. The show will also include a new piece emerging from Zaatari’s visits to Istanbul during 2014

— T. J. Demos