Artwork: Kader Attia, Resonance, mixed media, 2025
Algerian-French artist Kader Attia’s recent exhibition at Lehmann Maupin in New York, Shattering and Gathering Our Traces, is a poetic meditation on the concept of repair and renewal. Where wounds—whether historical, public or individual—are addressed, highlighted and mended through the material process of artmaking, and that reflects a broader dialogue with what it means to be human. Attia believes a core aspect of his work is as a researcher, and his artwork melds ideas with the material, delving into areas such as history, migration, colonialism, identity and culture. On the specific theme of the exhibition, Attia says, “The idea is that traces aren’t necessarily already broken, but by their very fragility…they always carry the potential to be shattered at any time. This tension between breaking and mending runs through everything I do.”
Everyday objects, artefacts and war-time memorabilia become the basis for his installations invoking memories, stories, and intuitive associations. Of his practice, Attia says, “There’s always been poetry in my work, a way of lifting the narrative toward something more hopeful, more human. When you’re too politically precise, you risk losing that broader connection. Poetry, instead, can carry emotion and meaning to places that facts alone can’t reach.”
One of the central installations of the exhibition is Resonance (2025). Initially titled, Social Media, in this work Attia explores the idea of the illusory nature of experience and interaction through technology and social media. Regarding technology Attia says, “I’m not against technology. I use it, but I wanted to respond to it with low-tech artwork. To bring back the physicality of experience, the playfulness that art can offer, even when it carries a serious message.” The tension in the artwork between connection and isolation is explored by filling the main gallery space with birdcages, each suspended by slender ropes and containing a small bell. Beneath each cage hangs a thicker rope extending to the floor. Visitors moving through the space brush up against or pull the ropes, resulting in the bells chiming softly and irregularly.
Speaking about the installation, Attia says, “For a long time, I was very focused on the political critique of what we call the ‘information society’. We live in a time where everyone speaks constantly—posting, commenting, sharing—but very few people actually listen. On social media, we believe we’re addressing the world, yet we’re really talking to a handful of people. It’s a society of endless communication that ends up as miscommunication.” Each birdcage is a metaphor for an individual voice, and the overlapping sounds of bells forms a collective and transitory coexistence within a broader network. For Attia each bell, each human voice is “…a sign, a signal, trying to be heard.”
Shattering and Gathering Our Traces is showing until December 13, 2025.