Zaatari’s solo show at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in the spring of 2015 demonstrated just how prolific the Lebanese artist is. Alongside the gallery displays – various relatively recent installation works that exemplified Zaatari’s formalist interest in archives and how media, particularly photography, is read in the context of changing histories and political flux – the institution also included a screening room with films from throughout the artist’s career. 

Here Zaatari’s abiding interest in identity and the personal narrative came to the fore. While his work typifies an ongoing turn to questions concerning the role of archives in art, its exhibition internationally (screenings and group-show contributions this year include MOMA, New York; Artspace, Auckland; and the Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, among others) has, more specifically, engendered a wider interest in photography from the Middle East.