Paola Yacoub (born 1966, in Beirut) studied at the Beirut Academy of Fine Arts and graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London in 1993. She worked at the Institut Français d’Archéologie du Proche-Orient in charge of the excavation’s drawings in downtown Beirut from 1995 to 1999. She exhibited her project Affects (1998) at Univerzitav Ljubljana’s gallery. She developed her artistic production in Beirut in 2000 and started a collaboration with Michel Lasserre. In 2001 and 2003 they were invited at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, and in 2004/2005, they received the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) artist’s program fellowship. Since this residency, Paola Yacoub has been living and working in Berlin and in Beirut. Paola Yacoub’s numerous exhibitions include Stand der Dinge at the Kunst‐Werke, Berlin (2000); the Venice Biennial (2000 & 2003); the Busan Korea Biennial (2004); After the fact, the 1st Berlin Photography Festival, Martin‐Gropius‐Bau (2005); the Gwangju Biennial (2006); the Thessaloniki Biennale (2007); Shenzhen fast food, Beautiful Heart at OCAT, Shenzhen, China and Art Laboratory Berlin; the Tirana Biennial (2009); GLÜCK happens... at the Städtische Galerie Erlangen (2010); Drawing with the things themselves at the Beirut Art Center (2011); Moving Worlds, Podbielski Contemporary Berlin (2011).
In preparation: Art and Architecture of Ideology at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin and Black Stones at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2012). For the Museion collection and opening exhibition Peripheral vision and collective body (2008), she produced the work Gio Ponti, Paradiso Del Cevedale. Her works are in a number of public collections including FNAC, Paris; Musée des Beaux‐Arts de Nantes; FRAC Poitoux‐Charentes; Centre pour l’Image Contemporaine/Mamco, Geneva; The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm/New York; among others.
Her photo‐essays in collaboration with Michel Lasserre were anthologized in the publication Beirut is a Magnificent City: SynopticTables, published by the Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona (2003) on the occasion of Contemporary Arab Representations, curated by Catherine David at the Tapiès Foundation, Barcelona and Witte de With, Rotterdam and BildMuseet, Umea. They published numerous articles in catalogues.
Yacoub has directed workshops in European and American universities, and gave numerous lecture-performances, most recently: What do I do? at the Photographer’s Gallery, London (02/11/2010) and The Edifying Story of Li Guoxing at the Beirut Art Center (24/02/2011).
