Exposure is Beirut Art Center`s annual exhibition dedicated to

Exposure is Beirut Art Center’s annual exhibition dedicated to emerging artists in and from Lebanon.
The works on display deal with several themes ranging from ‘home,’ the body, war, free speech,
Internet surveillance, language, fiction, reality, memory, and biography.
The following is an introduction to some of the works on display.
SHIRIN ABU SHAQRA
I Think The World Of It is a video installation that includes sounds, scans, as well as two performances recorded on
video. Shirin was diagnosed with cancer at 21, and through this project she imagines what might have been happening
in her body during the diagnostic, treatment, and convalescence periods.
Sound plays a crucial role in setting the tone of the work.
Describe the sounds you hear, and think about the ways in which they contribute to Shirin’s imaginings.
In one of the performances, Shirin is standing in the bathroom, in front of the mirror, cutting her hair which falls in the wet
sink below. She then collects this hair, and piles it up by the mirror. The performance, which consists of cutting, shaving,
wetting, touching, collecting, and piling up hair, at this point a dead matter, feels like a ritual. This is exactly how the artist
refers to cancer, “a laborious rite of passage.”
In I Think The World of It what are the elements that are shared with abject art?
i Abject art is an art form that deals with what literary
theorist and psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva terms «abject»
materials and substances in Powers of Horror: An Essay on
Abjection. These include nails, hair, bodily fluids, faeces, blood,
open wounds, the corpse, etc., materials that stimulate, to
varying degrees, a visceral reaction in the viewer from aversion,
to disgust, and horror. Kristeva argues that this reaction stems
primarily from one’s confrontation with death, since these
materials are manifestations of our physical impermanence.
Cindy Sherman, Valie Export, and Mona Hatoum, among
others have produced works that feature abject materials.
YASMINE EID SABBAGH & ROZENN QUÉRÉ
Possible and Imaginary Lives, first published as Vies possibles
et imaginaires, is a mixed media installation that includes
monologues, musical scores, as well as photographs, real and
fabricated.
The installation seeks to tell the stories of four sisters,
fooled by time, separated by distance. We learn for instance
that Graziella, who stayed in Lebanon, fell in love with
her boss, who ended up marrying, in her own words,
“an intelligent, Syrian-Palestinian woman, divorced,
with a child, but beautiful, with big eyes, and [cultured],
speaking four or five languages.”
Another story, possibly fictive, goes that two of the sisters were once
photographed at random by two Germans at the Sporting Club, eventually
touring the world as postcards!
Their humorous, at times tragic, but always heart-felt narratives alternate
between fiction and reality.
How do the images work to convey what might be fictive from what might
be real?
How does the music relate to the narratives?
In what way in this installation similar to a novel? Go to the bookshop and
ask to see a ‘different version’ of Possible and Imagery Lives.
CAMILA SALAME
Hypochondria of the Heart is a series of sculptures that deal with the theme of home. In Sweet Memory, for instance,
a small, white house, made of paper floats in a honey jar. Despite The Time consists of a similar house planted along with
Colombian wild grass. How does the scale of these sculptures affect your perception? How do you explain the presence
of glass around certain sculptures?
Memory is a living thing that continuously grows and develops
with the passage of time. How is this idea vis-à-vis the memory of
home, conveyed in the making of a sculpture like Sleeping House?
Some ideas of home in one’s memory also fade with time, perhaps to be
replaced with new ones. How is this ephemeral quality of the romance of
home conveyed in the use of certain media?
i Hypochondria of the Heart
In 1688 Johannes Hofer, identified a
new syndrome, nostalgia, «the sad mood
originating from the desire for return to one’s
native land.» Scholars have increasingly shown
interest in personal and political issues around
«home,» «longing,» and «exile.» This theme
has informed the work of literary figures like
Joseph Conrad and Mahmoud Darwish, and
contemporary artists like Chantal Akerman
and Mona Hatoum.
PEDRO BARAKAT
• Consider what makes this installation ‘art.’
• What do you imagine when you take your time,
and read a list one element at a time?
Pedro Barakat says that he is not an artist.
In Flânerie (2012), he takes up a pen, a notebook, and goes strolling in the streets of Beirut looking for
information. He records most things he sees, making lists. He picks up things too, and makes collections. His
installation is largely the product of investigative/archaeological research—data compiled, objects amassed.
We learn, for instance, that cab drivers in Lebanon, at least those he encountered, honk and smoke above all else.
This data, once analysed, forms narratives about the place, providing insight into things that we may know but no longer
see.
i
Flâneur
The flâneur emerged in nineteenth-century Paris, following the modernization project led
by Baron Haussmann. The flâneur is typically a man—since a ‘decent’ woman could not
stroll in the streets on her own—who was fascinated by the modern city, and all it had to
offer from wide streets, modern buildings, cafés, theaters, performances, leisure activities,
and nightlife. In art the flâneur became a figure for impressionist artists like Degas, Manet,
and Renoir who were depicted the ‘spirit of the time’ in the modern city.
Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street, Rainy Day, 1877
MAXIME HOURANI
Disembodied Places: The Withdrawal From Geography is a two-part
installation that comments on the forms and causes of dissent, while
actively involving the viewer in the creation of spaces of protest.
Armed with a marker and a cardboard, the visitor can write a slogan,
an aphorism, or things he or she wants to scream in public; this
is what is supposed to happen in the first part of the installation.
Adopting the bodily language of a demonstrator in a protest, the
participant raises the slogan above the head, and is photographed.
The second part is a video installation that places the photographed
participants in a contested geography, creating a “demonstration” with
individual, at times personal demands.
Think about the title of the
work. What is the relationship
that Maxime is trying to reestablish?
Participate. Reclaiming
geography is your right!
MONIRA AL QADIRI
When Monira Al Qadiri was 7, the Gulf War was coming to an end. As a final act of defiance, the Iraqi army set the oil fields
on fire as they were retreating. For a year and a half, Monira did not see the sun. It was hidden behind the black clouds
enveloping the country. On television she watched the burning fires stretching over many a square kilometer, and listened
to poetic verses that evoked the manifestation of God in nature.
Behind the Sun (2013), Monira Al Qadiri’s video installation mixes an
amateur VHS footage of the burning oil fields in Kuwait (1991) with
these same poetic images of God manifested in the beauty of nature.
Why is the title of this work Behind the Sun?
Compare what you hear with what you see.
Consider the choices made for the scenography.
Why are the walls and floor coverings black?
INAYA HODEIB
Her memories from the Lebanese Civil War go back to when she was 7. She remembers her parents car, and moving from
place to place. She recalls sleeping in the bathtub, and watching Grendizer.
Stories from B Town is a self-portrait.
What is its mood based on the visual elements you see?
In what way in Inaya’s memory of the war different from
what one usually hears.
i
Portrait
Throughout the history of western art, the portrait had been regarded
as one of the highest subjects of painting and sculpture. The most
prevalent forms were bust, full-length, and equestrian portraits. The
person depicted was most often a royal figure, a nobleman/woman, a
general in the army, or a rich bourgeois.
When we look back at the portrait as s form and as a
subject matter in the western art historical tradition,
Stories from B Town emerges as a highly unusual portrait.
Assess this claim in relation to form, format, and content.
Johanned Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl
Earring, 1665
MAHA KAYS
As If It Was Berlin (2012) was shot in Paris.
Maha kays superposed images and sounds to form the three scenes in the video. The ambient sound of a siren that goes
off once a month in Paris since World War Two, as well as the voice of the artist reading a text overlay images shot in-andoutdoors. The montage consists of playing with the opacity of the images, and alternating their rhythm or speed between
real-time viewing, stop motion, and slowing down movement.
Think about the movement of the camera and the rhythm
of the image. What are the effects they produce throughout
the video?
Since the siren signifies danger, and is associated with war or
unexpected events that threaten the security of individuals,
to what event from contemporary Lebanese history is the
artist then making reference?
The text expresses a deeply felt, nation-wide anxiety that
has not been remedied even though the civil war, in theory,
ended. Can you identify the issue that causes this anxiety?
?
What is the most recurring theme in this exhibition?
Can you identify the works that deal with the body? With
home?
What is Wael Kodeih pushing us all to think about and
consider?
What is a common thread in the works of Randa Mirza,
Yasmine Eid Sabbagh & Rozen Quéré, and Wael Kodeih?
The works of Camila Salame and Lara Tabet have a dreamy
quality, but one that is almost paradoxical. Can you explain
that?