Egyptian-Lebanese artist Lara Baladi is internationally recognized for her multidisciplinary work. In her investigations into myths, archives, personal histories, and socio-political narratives, Baladi makes use of a wide range of mediums including architecture, installations, photography, collage, tapestry, perfume, and sculpture. In 2003, she received a fellowship from the Japan Foundation to research anime. Her ephemeral construction and sound installation Borg el Amal (Tower of Hope) won the first prize at the 2008-09 Cairo Biennale. In 2006, Baladi founded and curated the artist residency Fenenin el Rehal (Nomadic Artists) in Egypt’s White Desert. She has been a board member of the Arab Image Foundation (AIF) since its creation in 1997. During the 2011 Egyptian revolution and its aftermath, Baladi co-founded two media initiatives, Tahrir Cinema and Radio Tahrir. In 2014, she became the chairman of the board of directors of the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art in Cairo and received a Fellowship from MIT’s Open Documentary Lab. For the coming 2015-16 academic year, she will continue developing the transmedia project Vox Populi, Archiving a Revolution in the Digital Age, as a visiting artist at MIT while lecturing in MIT's program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT).
Lara Baladi
Studios
Firth
Lara Baladi worked in the Firth studio.
Originally a working barn perched atop the namesake hill of Hillcrest Farm, this building was converted to serve the arts in 1956. A grand set of windows was installed to make the large interior suitable for visual artists, bringing in abundant natural light from the north. The addition of a screened porch and accessible entrance ramp…