Born in 1970 into an Algerian family in Paris, Kader Attia spent his childhood between a Parisian banlieue and the neighborhood of Bab el Oued in Algiers. He studied both Philosophy and Fine Art in Paris and spent a year at Barcelona’s School of Applied Art La Massana in 1993. His work tackles the relations between Western thought and extra-Occidental cultures, particularly through architecture, the human body, history, nature, and culture. Attia’s first solo exhibition was held in 1996 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the 50th Venice Biennale (2003) and the Lyon Biennial (2005), he presented the work “Flying Rats,” an installation of life-size birdseed sculptures, of children being devoured by a flock of pigeons. Recent exhibitions include “Construire, Déconstruire, Reconstruire : Le Corps Utopique,” a solo show at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany, “Performing Histories (1)” at MoMA, New York, “10 ans du Projet pour l’Art Contemporain,” Centre Pompidou, Paris, the 4th Moscow Biennial, Moscow, “The Global Contemporary Art World after 1989,” ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, and “Contested Terrains,” Tate Modern, London.