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November 17 - 24, 2005 Beirut, Lebanon A Project by Masha Rafka, Chaza Charafeddine and Christine Tohme The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices Edited by Chaza Charafeddine, Masha Refka and Christine Tohme Translators: Mona Abu Rayyan, Bissan el Cheikh, Bassam Hajjar, Walid Sadek, Rasha Salti, Fadi Tufayli, Stephen Wright, Mary Yazbeck and Husni Zeini. Editors: Arabic: Yussef Bazzi and Chaza Charafeddine Copy editor: Muhammad Hamdan English: Mona Abu Rayyan, Samar Kanafani and Masha Refka Copy editors: Ghenwa Hayek, Mona Abu Rayyan Photographic documentation: Agop Kanledjian Design and artwork: Mind the gap Scanning and repro: Mind the gap Typography: Monotype Gill Sans Printing and binding: Dar al-Kotob Printing House, Lebanon, 2008 This book is published by the Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan Phoenicia Street, Saab Bldg., 4th Floor, Ain El-Mreisseh, Beirut, Lebanon P. O. Box 175-268, Mar Mikhael, Beirut, Lebanon Telefax: +961 1 360 251 E-mail: [email protected]/website: www.ashkalalwan.org All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any informa- tion storage retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher. All views expressed in this book are solely the opinions of the individual author and do not represent the opinions of Ashkal Alwan or its funders or partners. ISBN 978-9953-0-1186-8 The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan Copyright © 2008 The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan Texts copyright © 2005 The authors This book was published with the support of: Acknowledgments The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan, would like to express its grati- tude to all those who participated in the Home Works III Forum and to all those who contributed to the making of this book. Forum participants: Maher Abi Samra, Mohammed Abi Samra, Fadi Abdallah, Zuhair al Jezairi, Omar Amiralay, Ayreen Anastas, Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil, Nadiah Bamadhaj, Yussef Bazzi, Abbas Beydoun, Tony Chakar, Nahla Chahal, Ali Cherri, Hassan Choubassi, Goran Devic, Dalal el Bizri, Hala Elkoussy, Fouad Elkoury, Hashem el Madani - the Arab Image Foundation, Rana el Nemr, Vlatko Gilic, Joana Hadji-Thomas, Ghassan Halwani, Kamal Hamdan, Natasa Ilic, Sanja Ivekovic, Islah Jad, Ahmad Khaled, Khalil Joreige, Amal Kenawy, Bilal Khbeiz, Steve Kurtz, Lynn Love, Cynthia Madansky, Reina Mahfouz, David Maljkovic, Nadim Mishlawi, The Visible Collective - Naeem Mohaiemen, Rabih Mroué, The Otolith Group (Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun), Maani Petgar, Walid Raad, Jacques Rancière, Mahmoud Refat, Wissam Saadeh, Walid Sadek, Hazem Saghieh, Suhail Shadoud, Shirana Shahbazi, Carol Squiers, Jalal Toufic, Nadine Touma, Raed Yassin, Akram Zaatari, Jasmila Zbanic and Yang Zhenzhong. We would like to thank: Mind the gap, Wael Jamaleddine and Dar al-Kotob, Hazem Saghieh and Fadi Toufiq. Other persons whose support was vital to the making of Home Works III were: Pierre Abi Saab, Georges Arbid, Yussef Bazzi, Abbas Beydoun, Sawsan Daou, Catherine David, Rana Eid, Gilbert Hage, Omar Harkous, Khalil Joreige, Naïla Kettaneh Kunigk, Moukhtar Kocache, Kirsten Maas, Anthony Richter, Andrée Sfeir-Semler, Ghassan Salhab, Talal Salman, Joseph Samaha, Lina Saneh, Nasrin Tabatabai, Fawaz Traboulsi, Umam Production D&R, Samar Wahab, Stephen Wright, Akram Zaatari and Layla Zubaidy. Home Works III was produced with the support of: Kettaneh Foundation Detail from Prière au Mont des Oliviers, by Fra Angelico (1395 – 1455) Detail from l’Institution de l’Eucharistie, by Fra Angelico (1395 – 1455) A face like many others; or the solitariness of seeing death. Walid Sadek Still from Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (2006) Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Lectures Fatal Equality: Islamists and Istishhadiyyat, Islah Jad ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 16 A Memoir of Identities: I am of this World, Dalal el Bizri ......................................................................................................................................................................... 22 Normalisation and its Discontents, Natasa Ilic ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 34 Some Paradoxes of Political Art, Jacques Rancière ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 44 Repression and the Information Boom, Zuhair al Jezairi ........................................................................................................................................................................... 58 Lebanon in Two Camps: A Partisan Fear of a Free Citizenry, Mohamad Abi Samra ...................................................................................... 64 Panels Whither Lebanon?, Hazem Saghieh, Wissam Saadeh, Nahla Chahal, Kamal Hamdan; Moderator: Bilal Khbeiz Introduction, Bilal Khbeiz ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 78 Lebanon and the Many Returns of the Repressed, Hazem Saghieh ........................................................................................................................................ 80 After the Syrian Withdrawal, Whither our Lumpen-Democracy?, Wissam Saadeh ........................................................................................ 86 Lebanon: Compromise or a New Social Contract?, Nahla Chahal ........................................................................................................................................... 96 Whither Lebanon?, Kamal Hamdan........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 104 Pulling Focus: Art and Curatorial Practice Reconstruct Science, Carol Squiers, Steve Kurtz, Lynn Love Introduction, Lynn Love ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 110 Science in Images: From Eugenics to Human Cloning, Carol Squiers ................................................................................................................................. 116 Crime, Art and the Life Sciences, Steve Kurtz/Critical Art Ensemble................................................................................................................................... 128 Performances Who’s Afraid of Representation?, Rabih Mroué .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 142 Give me a Body Then, Ali Cherri ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 162 Berlin: The Symphony of a Big City – Live Electronics, Mahmoud Refat ....................................................................................................................... 174 I Feel a Great Desire to Meet the Masses Once Again, Walid Raad .................................................................................................................................. 178 Artist Talks Hyphenated Identities and the National Security Panic, Naeem Mohaiemen/Visible Collective ............................................... 204 Enamlima Sekarang (65 now)/Taking it Personally/Not Talking to a Brick Wall, Nadiah Bamadhaj ...................................... 212 Exhibitions Hôtels des Transmissions, Jusqu’à un Certain Point..., Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil ......................................................................................... 226 A Window to the World, Tony Chakar ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 230 Hashem el-Madani Studio Practices, An exhibition curated by Lisa Lefeuvre and Akram Zaatari............................................ 234 The Metro, Rana el Nemr .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................