Kader Attia’s first solo exhibition in Asia, Urgency of Existence, was on view at the Jim Thompson Art Center from November 2024 until March 2025. Curated by the center’s Artistic Director, Gridthiya Gaweewong, the exhibition explores themes relating to the legacies of colonialism, including their impact on cultural memories and the social, emotional, and spiritual lives of formerly colonized peoples. The exhibition brought together works in a wide variety of media, including immersive installations, sculptures, paintings, and a newly commissioned film. 

Of particular note is Ghost (2007/2024), a haunting, large-scale installation presenting a field of life-size figures fashioned from aluminum foil. Inspired by the artist’s mother, each figure represents a Muslim woman kneeling in prayer. The lives of Muslim women traditionally model that of Fatima, the youngest daughter of the prophet Mohammed, who became a revered icon of knowledge, patience, kindness, and selflessness. Attia’s hooded figures are hollow, suggestive of the spiritual practice of self emptying, while also raising questions about the role of individual identity within dominant cultural and religious groups. The fragile aluminum sculptures, easily crushed and suggestive of human frailty, are potent emblems in which curving backs and frontal hollows make reference to body and spirit, fullness and emptiness, form and meaning, loss and fulfillment or renewal. Futuristic in appearance, the shimmering “ghosts” of this installation describe a devotional act that has connected Muslim communities across time and place since the seventh century. At the same time, they are stark reminders of historical wounds.