The Digger (2015)

Filmed at the 5000-year-old Neolithic necropolis of Jebel Al Behais, the tombs of Jebel Hafeet and the Tombs of Mleiha in Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, The Digger traces the daily caretaking rituals of Zeib Khan, who has been the site caretaker for two decades. Cherri frames Khan’s daily routines as a kind of ritualistic repetition, to conjuring a poetic view of preservation, heritage and labor. The juxtaposition of the human figure and barren natural landscapes speaks of erasure and disappearance, absence and loss.

Ali Cherri (B.1976) Lives and works between Paris, France and Beirut, Lebanon

Ali Cherri works across film and installation. His work deals with the psychological repercussions of war, trauma and the paradoxical realities produced through living in an urgent, unpredictable and ever-changing state. Cherri’s recent projects investigate the circulation of archeological objects and their role in constructing historical narratives. His work often blurs the boundary between fact and fiction by employing essayistic and autobiographical narratives.  Recent exhibitions include 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art (2019), ‘Statues Also Die’, Fondazione Re Raubedengo (2018), ‘Tales from the Riverbed’, Clark House (2018), ‘Dénaturé’, Galerie Imane Fares (2017), and ‘A Taxonomy of Fallacies: The Life of Dead Objects’, Sursock Museum (2016).