White Light – Black Fibre I

About

Born in Beirut, Khaled Ramadan works between Europe, Asia and the MENA region. He is a filmmaker, curator, lecturer and cultural writer.

Ramadan’s work navigates the fields of art research, theory, and practice, with emphasis on informative aesthetics, constructed media and visuality. His art-house filmmaking, curating, and writing have rewarded him with a specialization in visual analysis and conceptual framing.

Previously, he has been a lecturer at Lund University, Sweden, and an examiner for the higher artistic educational program under the Danish Ministry of Education. He also held positions as a senior consultant at the Danish Arts Council, the Maldives Ministry of Culture, the Nordic Institute for Contemporary Arts, and as an evaluator of Alto University professorship program.

He was appointed curator of the Maldives Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, appointed co-curator of Manifesta 8 in Spain 2010, and has curated for Guangdong Museum of Modern Art, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, and Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul.

He regularly contributes to anthologies and journals (see publications).

MEMBERSHIP

International Association of Art Critics (AICA)
Royal Danish Academy of Art Society (Kunstnersamfundet)
Co-founder of Laterna Magica Museum for Visual Knowledge
Co-founder of the curatorial collective Chamber of Public Secrets, with Alfredo Cramerotti 2004

EDUCATION

Educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, Heriot-Watt University in the UK, and Copenhagen University’s Institute of History of Art and Theater Research.

EXPERIENCE

Over 20 years of curating, teaching and working with artists and students at renowned institutions worldwide, including the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, Malmo Art Academy, Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, Lund University, Sweden, and many others.

LINKS

A bit of history
Doculogia
Laterna Magica Museum
AICA
Portfolio

Publications (selected)

Aesthetic’s Vendetta, The March of Essays. A forthcoming book (2005) about humanizing the serious and mysterious gap between us and art theory to calibrate and celebrate aesthetics at its best.

Panoramica, The False Truth and The Phantasmagoria. Fiction in Reality and the Discursive Power Behind, Inside, and in Front of the Lens. Forthcoming, Optical Press, Copenhagen 2025.

Set City—Post-Snuff Film and the New Age of Reality Cinematography (essay) in Border Thinking. Anthology edited by Marina Gržinić, Sternberg Press (2018). https://www.sternberg-press.com/product/border-thinking-disassembling-histories-of-racialized-violence

Journalism in Times of War by Al Jazeera MI. Editors Khaled Ramadan and Awad Joumaa (2018). https://issuu.com/doculogia

Independent Republic of Culture. Research Centre, İstanbul Bilgi University Press
http://www.dr.com.tr/Kitap/Independent-Republic-of-Culture/Kolektif/Foreign-Languages/Reference/urunno=0001714754001

TransVisuality: The Cultural Dimension of Visuality (anthology). https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/isbn/9781800348967

Legal Stagings: The Visualization, Medialization, and Ritualization of Law in Language, Literature, Media Art and Architecture (anthology).
Copenhagen: University Press 2012.
https://portal.research.lu.se/en/publications/legal-stagings-the-visualization-medialization-and-ritualization-

All mod cons
https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/all-mod-cons/ by Kean Wong

Maldives Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale 2013, Portable Nation, curated by Chamber of Public Secrets.
https://www.chamberarchive.org/blog/55th-venice-biennale

Peripheral Insider
Museum Tusculanum Press, 2007
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/peripheral-insider-khaled-d-ramadan/1111923053

2000-17: Published papers on new media and journalism in cooperation with institutions like Manifesta Journal, BRUMARIA, Spain; KIASMA Museum for Modern Art, Helsinki; TIKE, Academy of Art, Helsinki; FRAME Foundation, Helsinki; Manifesta Foundation, Amsterdam; The Printed project: issue 1, for the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2009, printed by Contemporary Art Museum Dublin; Images of the Middle East, the book, DCCD, Copenhagen; Investigative essay on Arab Visuality, published by Contemporary Practices Magazine, Dubai – New York.

Ramadan’s writing are published with others i.e.: Slavoj Zizek, Irit Rogoff, Benjamin R. Barber, Bernadette Buckley, Horacio González, Boris Groys, W.J.T. Mitchell, Ken Neil, Lila Pastoriza, James A. Walker, Peter Weibel, Joseba Zulaika, Hamid Dabashi, Thomas McEvilley, Sarat Maharaj, Rasheed Araeen, Gavin Jantjes, Simon Sheikh, Maaretta Jaukkuri, Gao Shiming, Max Ryynanen, Zygmunt Bauman and Antonio Zaya.

Films and Videography (selected)

BugsLand, the Elephant in the Belum Forest. Malaysia, 2024

For the Love of Cats, 2022

Beirut Skinhead Movement
Lebanon, 2018

Outsourcing It
Al Jazeera English, 2019

Floating Community
Cambodia, 2017

Romiah Selfie
Lebanon, 2016

Café Fishawy
Egypt, 2016

Maldives To Be or Not
Maldives, Male, 2013

Shadow of San Anton
Spain, 2010

I Told President Mubarak
Egypt, Cairo, 2010

Eye in Hand
About the blind artist Esref Armagan
Spain-Turkey, 2009

Arab Media Landscape, 2008

Mapping the South
Lebanon, 2007

Comrade Alfredo Neri
Sweden-Italy, 2006

Wide Power
Lebanon 2004
Achievement Award, Cairo Biennale 2009

OOO

Address

contact@khaledramadan.org

Phone