Continuum of Repair: The Light of Jacobs Ladder, Whitechapel Gallery

Leading international artist Kader Attia’s specially-commissioned multimedia installation has opened at the Whitechapel Gallery, in his first UK exhibition. 

French-Algerian Attia was catapulted to international renown last year in dOCUMENTA (13) – the prestigious 100-day exhibition held once every five years in Kassel, Germany. His work, based on narratives of the French-Algerian war, was widely held to be the highlight by reviewers and gallery-goers alike. 

Attia’s reputation outside the UK is considerable: he exhibited at the Sydney Biennale and was awarded the Abraaj Capital Art Prize for Middle Eastern artists in 2010 alone. So it’s surprising that this Whitechapel commission is his first solo project on these shores. It’s a treat though. Continuum of Repair: The Light of Jacob’s Ladder promises a modern-day wunderkammer; a cabinet of curiosities in the form of a floor to ceiling bookshelf; an echo of the Whitechapel Gallery’s former life as a public library. The installation – in the Whitechapel’s Gallery 2 space - will be an interpretation of the story of Jacob’s Ladder; a vision of a ladder stretching between the Earth and heaven which appears in various forms in Christian, Jewish and Islamic texts.

Attia now lives and works in Berlin, where until recently he occupied a studio in a building that formerly housed a Stasi prison. An unlikely creative petri-dish? Not for Attia, whose interest in forgotten histories of repression is refracted throughout his body of work. His pieces are coloured by his anthropological research, addressing the appropriation and retelling of narratives between cultures.

Admission: Free
Address and map:  77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX
Nearest tube: Whitechapel