Artists today are smugglers. Recycling both real and fictional images, their proposals are no longer artworks or even art objects, but rather situations to be lived, put to the test and experimented with collectively. Analyzing contemporary art works as authorless 'hyper-artworks', post-colonial critic and theorist Ackbar Abbas argues that narration emerges as a potent aesthetic force and that all forms of documentation are themselves interpretations open to new and multiple readings.

The book presents a series of new works produced by Adel Abdessemed for the MAC's/Museum of Contemporary Arts in Grand-Hornu. The Algerian-born French artist Adel Abdessemed (b. 1971) works in a wide variety of media including animation, installation, performance, sculpture, and video; through his art he addresses contemporary themes and he reflects the bleak picture of the present day. His works, unsettling in their simultaneous beauty and raw reality, have made Abdessemed one of the most visible international artists of our time. This volume is composed of two distinct parts, each showcasing and examining one of two series of brand new, site-specific works created by Abdessemed for the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Grand-Hornu and the Musee d'Art Contemporain in Lyon. Distributed for Mercatorfonds Exhibition Schedule: MAC's, Grand Hornu (03/04/18-06/03/18) Musee d'Art Contemporain, Lyon (03/09/18-07/08/18)

Chosen for the 59th Venice Biennale, to represent contemporary creation at the Lebanese pavilion Ayman Baalbaki is a Lebanese artist born in Beirut in 1975. He first trained at the Institute of Fine Arts of the university Lebanese school in Beirut, then at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris. Five years after his arrival in France, he received the silver medal in painting at the Francophone Games and then participated in several exhibitions worldwide. Lebanon, France, Great Britain, Argentina, Egypt and Niger are all countries that welcome the works of the artist. His productions of the last 10 years have been compiled through this unpublished work, published in French, English and Arabic. The authors endeavour to decipher his paintings and installations, crossed by societal issues specific to Lebanon: war, abortive revolt, political and financial bankruptcy, the tragedy of the port of Beirut or even pandemic. The artist paints anonymous portraits of his contemporaries, which have today become symbols of the Middle East. It represents the city, its buildings, erected, but also in ruins. His art is vibrant, dynamic and textured. Text in English, French and Arabic.