Bad at Sports Episode 898: Wafaa Bilal and Bana Kattan
This week. Dana’s back? She and Duncan sit down with artist Wafaa Bilal and curator Bana Kattan to discuss Bilal’s powerful and deeply personal mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Known for his provocative, often participatory works that grapple with war, trauma, displacement, and surveillance, Bilal has long made the body both a site of resistance and a vessel of memory. We talk through key moments in Bilal’s practice—from early performance pieces like Domestic Tension to newer, installation-based works—and reflect on how his work has shifted, expanded, and endured over the past two decades. Kattan, who curated the exhibition, shares insights into the retrospective’s structure and the challenges of contextualizing work that refuses easy categorization. While reminiscing, Duncan and Wafaa also talk through what it means to make art as a form of witnessing, how museums hold space for pain and politics, and why Bilal still believes in the power of beauty… (Spoiler: Duncan isn’t sure, but Bana and Dana side with Wafaa.) Links & References: Wafaa Bilal's website: http://wafaabilal.com MCA Chicago Exhibition Info: https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions/2024/Wafaa-Bilal Bana Kattan bio & curatorial work: https://mcachicago.org/About/Who-We-Are/Staff/Bana-Kattan Domestic Tension (aka “Shoot an Iraqi” project): https://wafaabilal.com/domestic-tension Book: Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life, and Resistance Under the Gun (co-authored with Kari Lydersen) – https://www.amazon.com/Shoot-Iraqi-Life-Resistance-Under/dp/087286491X @wafaabilal on Instagram @mcachicago on Instagram