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Transforming Memories: Cultural Production and Personal/Public Memory in Lebanon and Morocco

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Transforming Memories: Cultural Production and Personal/Public Memory in Lebanon and Morocco 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 signification, affiliation, and conflict. 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: Conflict 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 Rafik 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 offices 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 reflections 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 reflect upon the contribution of tive, social and political memory, Hegasy noted art, cultural production and research to engage that the various definitions and approaches elabo‐ the work of memory. According to Borgmann, the rated in the different 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 difficult 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 difference 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, offering a Hegasy pointed out that in the Arab World largely untold day-by-day chronology of the war memory studies has significantly 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 conflicts 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: Conflict 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 <http://nowlebanon.com/ spect to a social ethic in which nurture and care NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?ID=160598> can be distributed and allocated through political (09.10.2012). to shed light on this question. On and public culture. He compared memory in April 13, 2010, the Lebanese government unprece‐ Lebanon to that of Spain, in respect to civil war dentedly commemorated the 35th anniversary of and its belated register in cultural production and the start of the civil war. The venue for this un‐ general public debate. In doing so he canvassed a orthodox celebration was a soccer pitch which critical application of “post-memory”, particularly hosted two teams, one representing the Lebanese in respect to a younger generation of Lebanese cabinet captained by the Prime Minister and the bearing the burden of their parents’ silence over other made up of members of the Lebanese Par‐ the civil war and its restless aftermath. liament. While the Lebanese may well be amused In the third session LAURA
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