Adel Abdessemed

Adel Abdessemed was born in 1971 in Constantine, Algeria. He left North Africa in the 1990s as a political migrant, and eventually his travels brought him to the P.S.1 International Studio Program, where he showed in Uniforms: Order and Disorderin 2001. Then September 11 came along. In its aftermath, Abdessemed found he couldn't make a home in the U.S. He was the subject of suspicion; it was "unlivable." He has since settled in Paris, but he hasn't left September 11 behind: his Fire Spaceincludes a baggage cart full of burnt wood, and Habibiis a gigantic human skeleton, flying, Superman-style, arms outstretched--a cinematic, larger-than-life angel of the apocalypse. Beyond P.S.1, Abdessemed's work has been seen at the 2003 Venice Biennale and at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. This is his first monograph.