Transforming Memories: Cultural Production and Personal/Public Memory in Lebanon and Morocco. Beirut: Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin; UMAM Documentation and Research, Beirut, 12.03.2012-14.03.2012.
Reviewed by Saadi Nikro
Published on H-Soz-u-Kult (October, 2012)
“Transforming Memories: Cultural Produc‐ the project addresses memory as transformative tion and Personal/Public Memory in Lebanon and sites and practices in which past and present are Morocco” is a research project initiated by Zen‐ situated as shifting boundaries of personal and trum Moderner Orient in Berlin, in partnership public signifcation, afliation, and confict. with UMAM Documentation and Research in The project formally began in January 2012, Beirut, Lebanon. The project is funded by the and runs till the end of 2013. The March work‐ Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The research shop brought together the participants to inaugu‐ team consists of Dr. Sonja Hegasy, Vice-Director of rate the project. It was held at the headquarters of ZMO, and Monika Borgmann and Lokman Slim, UMAM Documentation and Research in Beirut, in Directors of UMAM. There are three subprojects: their exhibition space “The Hangar”. Dr. Saadi Nikro, “Sites of ReMemory: Situating In the frst session on the frst day of the Cultural Production and Civil War in Lebanon”; workshop MONIKA BORGMANN (Beirut) present‐ Laura Menin, “Wounded Memories: An Ethno‐ ed UMAM—its beginning, its various activities graphic Approach to Contemporary Moroccan and projects, past and present. The idea of setting Cultural Production”; and Makram Rabah, “Mem‐ up UMAM came about during Borgmann’s collab‐ ory and Reconciliation: Confict on Mount oration with her partner and co-director LOK‐ Lebanon”. MAN SLIM (Beirut) in the flm-project Massaker The three subprojects share an interdiscipli‐ (2003), which documented the testimonies of six nary and comparative interest in cultural produc‐ perpetrators involved in the September, 1982 tion as sites in which personal and public prac‐ massacres at the Sabra at Chatila Palestinian tices of memory overlap through avenues of so‐ refugee camps. It was indeed during the flming cial exchange. Morocco and Lebanon are excep‐ that they realized that Lebanon was lacking sys‐ tional in that for at least 20 years their respective tematic and accessible archives. Developing their public cultures are characterised by energetic and mutual interest in violence and memory related experimental forms of cultural production that to the civil war (1975-1990), they set up UMAM in creatively engage violent pasts as a terrain of dia‐ 2005 and initiated various projects involving logue on how to co-exist in the present and future. artists, researchers, NGOs and human rights ac‐ From a multidisciplinary perspective – including tivists, as well as local communities. As Borgmann history, Islamic studies, literary and cultural stud‐ said, “every society has to deal with its past”; and ies, political science and cultural anthropology – thus, they started collecting, archiving and docu‐ H-Net Reviews menting, testimonies of witnesses, victims and through compilations of print material from perpetrators. newspapers and other publications, as well as According to UMAM’s founders, if the state many visuals. So far UMAM has documented the neglects the memory of the war, the role of NGOs years from 1975 to 1978, and is working to devel‐ is to work towards initiating and nurturing de‐ op this further. The site is also a unique archive of bates and discussions on the past and present. works of cultural production relating to war and The activities of UMAM developed in a rapidly violence in Lebanon. shifting political context, marked by the assassina‐ In the third session UMAM’s curator AMANDA tion of the former Prime Minister Rafk al-Hariri ABI KHALIL (Beirut) presented the activities and (2005), the war with Israel in 2006, and the in‐ exhibitions of the Hangar, which has its own web‐ creased tension amongst the various communi‐ site. Activities include flm screenings and exhibi‐ ties. When their ofces in Haret Hreik were heavi‐ tions, and are linked to the archival work of ly damaged by the Israeli bombardement in 2006, UMAM. One such activity is a residency program they concentrated on the creation of an archive that artists can apply for, engaging and creatively by digitalizing, storing and cataloging literature, constructing artworks that draw on the archives. periodicals, newspapers, audio and video materi‐ Other activities involve workshops with children als, propaganda fyers and other items. By now from the surrounding suburbs and refugee 56,000 pages have been digitalized, and copies of camps. the fles have been transferred to Finland in order In the fourth and last session of the day SARI to secure the material from any further damage. HANAFI (Beirut), from the American University of As Borgmann pointed out, the Summer war of Beirut, gave a talk on the theme of transitional 2006 brought about some critical refections on justice, providing a comparative analysis of vari‐ UMAM’s role or “mission”. Devoted to the work of ous experiences worldwide. memory, UMAM thus developed as an activist and In the frst session on Tuesday SONJA archivist NGO undertaking various community HEGASY (Berlin) gave an introduction to the feld and artistic projects. Amongst other public events, of memory studies. She emphasized the visibility What is to be Done: Lebanon’s War-Loaded Mem‐ and attention memory studies has gained in the ory (2008) aimed to arouse a debate about last twenty years, thus leading some authors to Lebanon’s memory of the war. This project – talk of a “memory boom”. By considering the vari‐ which included flm screenings, publications, ex‐ ous tangents of memory research in respect to au‐ hibitions and a workshop with international ex‐ tobiographical, collective, cultural, communica‐ perts – aspired to refect upon the contribution of tive, social and political memory, Hegasy noted art, cultural production and research to engage that the various defnitions and approaches elabo‐ the work of memory. According to Borgmann, the rated in the diferent felds of the humanities, psy‐ Lebanese state’s granting of amnesty as a formal choanalysis and bio-cognitive sciences have made political policy hasn’t succeeded in a context of it difcult for researchers to cross disciplinary ongoing violence and increasing tensions. boundaries. And yet in Germany scholars tend to In the second session Borgmann and Lokman agree that memory is always communicative; Slim talked about their current project Memory at while the diference between collective and com‐ Work: A Guide for Lebanese on Peace and War. municative memory is not necessarily accepted http://www.memoryatwork.org (09.10.2012). This by much recent research. is a website that works as a data-base, ofering a Hegasy pointed out that in the Arab World largely untold day-by-day chronology of the war memory studies has signifcantly increased over
2 H-Net Reviews the last three to four years in the attempt to an‐ mold their past and imagine their future. What is swer the question: why do most states relive peri‐ the role of cultural production in shaping trans‐ ods of immense violence over and over again? formative sites of memory? How do flms, fctions She noted that it remains an open question and autobiographies contribute to re-orienting whether conficts can be better overcome through people’s imagination, memory and agency? the imperative of ‘forgive and forget’ or by re‐ Through an ethnographic approach to cultural membering and judicial prosecution. In such pro‐ production, circulation and audience, Menin’s cesses the victim should have some say in how sub-project aims to uncover the multiple ways in they are formally received and represented. which people in Morocco engage with public cul‐ In the second session SAADI NIKRO (Berlin) ture and its politics of memory. spoke about trauma and voice. Pointing out that In the fourth session MAKRAM RABAH trauma can be studied as a relational circum‐ (Washington-Beirut) presented his subproject stance in which people engage various capacities “Memory and Reconciliation: Confict on Mount to manage social exchange, he suggested that si‐ Lebanon”. He spoke about the social background lence can be regarded as one modality in which to the ongoing debate about the memory of the this takes place. In such terms, the situational reg‐ Lebanese civil war. Rabah began his talk with a ister of trauma can be further considered in re‐ small clip See
3 H-Net Reviews for 13 years, addressed the participants. He talked litically motivated violence, and the subsequent about how during the civil war, in 1987, he was UN sponsored tribunal to bring the perpetrators imprisoned by the Syrians with the charge of spy‐ to justice has at least brought about the possibility ing for Israel, apprehended as he travelled to of a more accountable governmental practice in Damascus to fnalize his emigration papers to Lebanon. Australia. He spoke about the torture and depriva‐ In summary, the workshop provided a valu‐ tions he sufered, and how the arbitrary and sys‐ able opportunity for the participants to meet and tematic violation of his body pursued by his tor‐ hear from each other. It was particularly fruitful turers worked to annihilate him as a subject. to compare and discuss methodologies and re‐ Upon his release, he went back to his wife and search frameworks, as well as gain insight into two children, without any form of support and the overall project’s research practices. A further care from the Lebanese government. Since he project workshop is planned for 2013, to be held started recovering, Abu Dehn began to speak out in Morocco. on the plight of Lebanese political prisoners in Conference Overview: Syrian jails, and initiated an NGO, called Former Lebanese Political Detainees in Syria. The website Day One http://www.fpdinsyria.com/?q=node/ (09.10.2012). Session 1: Monika Borgmann (Beirut), Presen‐ gives accounts of his and others’ experiences in tation of UMAM Syrian prisons, a section on press reports, and Session 2: Monika Borgmann and Lokman registers the names of former political prisoners, Slim (Beirut), Memory at Work as well as those that remain unaccounted for. Session 3: Amanda Abi Khalil (Beirut), The In the frst session on Wednesday participants Hangar: Arts and Archives held a working meeting to discuss the project’s Session 4: Sari Hanaf (Beirut), Transitional overall objectives and practices, and considered Justice points of comparison between Lebanon and Mo‐ rocco. One of these points concerned the compar‐ Day Two ative theme of the Moroccan state’s truth and eq‐ Session 1: Sonja Hegasy (Berlin), Introduction uity commission and the lack of a similar initia‐ to Memory Studies tive in Lebanon. Participants agreed that such Session 2: Saadi Nikro (Berlin), Sites of Re‐ commissions were not unproblematic, and that Memory: Situating Cultural Production and Civil more concrete research on the social and cultural War in Lebanon aspects of memory work was needed in both Session 3: Laura Menin (Berlin), Wounded countries. Memories: An Ethnographic Approach to Contem‐ In the second session Lokman Slim talked porary Moroccan Cultural Production about “Memory Politics in Lebanon”. Slim pointed Session 4: Makram Rabah (Washington- out that while in Lebanon the theme and issue of Beirut), Memory and Reconciliation: Confict on memory remains highly contested across and be‐ Mount Lebanon tween communities, there is nevertheless a com‐ mon propensity to mythologize the past. He sug‐ Session 5: Ali Abu Dehn (Beirut), Political Pris‐ gested that Lebanese politics should be more at‐ oners in Syria tuned to modernization, rather than mythologiza‐ Day Three tion. He pointed out that the Hariri assassination Session 1 : Round Table Discussion, Project in 2005 broke the taboo on amnesty regarding po‐ Objectives and Practices
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Session 2: Lokman Slim, Memory Politics in Lebanon
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/
Citation: Saadi Nikro. Review of Transforming Memories: Cultural Production and Personal/Public Memory in Lebanon and Morocco. H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net Reviews. October, 2012.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=37368
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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