24, 2005 Beirut, Lebanon

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 information 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

This book was published with the support of: Acknowledgments

The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan, would like to express its gratitude 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 ...... 238 Distracted Bullets, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige ...... 242 Shirana Shahbazi, Shirana Shahbazi ...... 246 Spring Story, Yang Zhenzhong...... 250 Talk and Video Who is Michel Seurat?, Ashkal Alwan ...... 254 Par un Jour de Violence Ordinaire, Mon Ami Michel Seurat…, Omar Amiralay ...... 258 An Abductee We Lebanese Share, Abbas Beydoun ...... 260 Panels Rond-Point Chatila, Maher Abi Samra ...... 266 Pasolini Pa* Palestine, Ayreen Anastas ...... 267 Un Cercle Autour du Soleil, Ali Cherri ...... 268 Jibraltar, Ghassan Halwani ...... 269 Hopefully for the Best, Raed El Helou ...... 270 Welcome to Beirut, Fouad Elkoury ...... 271 Peripheral Stories, Hala Elkoussy ...... 272 The Purple Artificial Forest, Amal Kenawy ...... 273 The Fifth Pound, Ahmed Khaled ...... 274 Devotion, Cynthia Madansky ...... 275 Otolith, The Otolith Group/Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun ...... 276 An Eclipse which Dropped from the Sky, Maani Petgar ...... 278 The Lamentations Series: The Ninth Night and Day, Jalal Toufic ...... 279 Featuring Hind Rostom, Raed Yassin ...... 280 In This House, Akram Zaatari ...... 281 Projects On the Periphery: An Offscreen Composition, Nadim Mishlawi ...... 284 I am Lost in the City/Beirut Metro Map, Hassan Choubassi ...... 286 Nomadic Studio, Reine Mahfouz ...... 290 Publications Home Works II: A Forum on Cultural Practices, Ashkal Alwan ...... 298 Yasser Arafat Looked at Me and Smiled: Diary of a Fighter, Yussef Bazzi ...... 298 Burning in the Past Tense, Suhail Shadoud ...... 298 Sayyidi Milady, Nadine Touma ...... 296 File: Public Time, Fadi Abdallah, Bilal Khbeiz and Walid Sadek ...... 296

The Notion of the Fishing Document

For years he has been haunted. He wakes up every morning, snatches up all the local newspapers in Beirut, rushes to his office, perches himself over his desk and commences his excavations. He sifts through every last newspaper, gleaning here a headline, there a caption, a line or parody on RS. He starts by highlighting his boxes, parsing the pages, combing through the intricacies of the paragraphs, dissecting pages upon our faces.

For years I have watched him collecting newspaper cutouts, dating them with severe punctuality. For fear of being unfaithful to daily events, he has selected, compiled, dated and stockpiled it all in a notebook; a notebook that suspends facts from everybody; a notebook full of history’s gaps. Aren’t we subject to history’s gaps? Don’t we too participate in producing them, in piercing them in our timelines? How we enjoy history’s hysteria; how fond of it we are.

The knowledge notebook grew vigorously; pages bloomed from its thresholds, heading nowhere. I began to fear Rabih’s pages – pages of knowledge, of data, random information, obsolete records. Seated amongst the audience, he rifles through the pages of his notebook. His image tucked away on the theatre platform competes with his other, seated one. Unsure of what to make of the two images, I am taken over by unrest and anxiety. I tremble, shiver: He cannot be reached. Both are ghostly. Christine Tohme Ashkal Alwan, 2008

* A note of clarification: A camera is placed at head level in front of Actor One, capturing his face. For the duration of the performance, his portrait is projected onto the screen in the middle of the stage. Actor One looks into the lens of the camera in front of him; as he speaks directly into the lens, his image on the screen appears as if he were looking straight into the spectators’ eyes, as if addressing them.

LECTURES

Fatal Equality: Islamists and Istishhadiyyat, Islah Jad A Memoir of Identities: I am of this World, Dalal el Bizri Normalisation and its Discontents, Natasa Ilic Some Paradoxes of Political Art, Jacques Rancière Repression and the Information Boom, Zuhair al Jezairi Lebanon in Two Camps: A Partisan Fear of a Free Citizenry, Mohamad Abi Samra Fatal Equality: Islamists and Istishhadiyyat

Islah Jad

Previously, I spoke of how Islamists Despite the fact that the con- have been depicted by both old cept of female martyrdom, similar and new Orientalists as the “Other” to male martyrdom, is very much and as “uncivilised” in order to linked to political Islam and fun- justify their control and subjection. damentalism, Hamas was late in The renowned Zionist historian recruiting females for this type of Benny Morris recently supple- action. On January 15, 2004, the mented this discourse with a new first female martyr was recruited and dangerous terminology in by Hamas and the military wing of which Palestinians are represented Fateh, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. as “pathological serial killers”1. It marked a change in Hamas’ strat- 1 Benny Morris, 2004. 3 The Birth of the Palestinian According to Morris, this “criminal- egy on the recruitment of women . 2 Refugee Problem Revisited ity” is a genetic abnormality. In fact, Hamas’ prior refusal 2 This reminded me of the Istishhadiyyat (female martyrs) to recruit women for military numerous questions put forth add a new dimension to what is operations was in line with what to me by Israeli feminist and seen by Morris and others like numerous studies have revealed, “leftist” audiences in various kib- butzim, during the first Intifada, him as the utter abnormality namely that women are discrimi- when groups of Palestinian of “pathological terrorists”. Such nated against by the policies that women gave touring talks “abnormality” and “criminality”, once underpin or reinforce a strong to explain their lives. One frequently asked question was, again, are explained using a cultural military force. Peterson and Runyan “How come you, as a mother, language wherein Islam, Islamism write, “Most male-dominated push your children to be killed and Islamic and Arabic cultures societies have constructed elabo- by our army?” I remember how I, along with many of my are demonised in general. On the rate sanctions and even taboos colleagues, used to feel furi- other hand, for the Palestinians, the against women fighting and dying in ous at such a question for its emergence of istishhadiyyat raises war. As a result, men have gained subtle and implicit racism. We understood the question as questions related to the role of almost exclusive control over the insinuating our “deviance” from women in the armed resistance; means of destruction worldwide, “normal” mothers who would since armed resistance is consid- often in the name of protecting be keen to “protect” their children from exposure to such a ered legitimate by Palestinians in women and children, who are death. many of their national and reli- either discouraged from or not 3 Mahmoud al-Zahar, gious movements and in particular, allowed to take up arms to protect www.al-jazeera.net, 15/1/04. Hamas. themselves”4. As indicated earlier, however, Hamas would, as in other young women who view mar- matters, change its position with tyrdom as “their right”. Based on respect to women. recordings of the last will and In the book Shahidas: Les testaments (wassaya) of vari- Femmes Kamikazes de Palestine, ous Palestinian female martyrs, I Barbara Victor presents and would argue that their acts were analyses the lives of five shahidas, committed out of a sense of or female martyrs5. After research- “over”-empowerment and feeling ing their social backgrounds, she of uniqueness and that they were concludes that they were double in full control of their actions and victims of the prevailing gender their senses. Contrary to claims order which generally discriminates that the drive to commit such against women and their own mar- acts is the result of “desperation” ginal and frail social backgrounds. or “dead-ender syndrome”, these Victor claims that in addition to women were driven by a wish to their victimisation, these women open up a new space not only were then manipulated by a few for their gender but, more impor- cowardly, fanatical patriarchs. In the tantly, for their men-folk to regain same vein, female martyrs were a sense of lost manhood. Through portrayed as “indoctrinated” by these acts and from within the the Palestinian Authority which hierarchical gender order, they undertook a very public campaign wished to transcend the power against this new phenomenon and relations that exist between the programs that encouraged women Arab peoples and their leaders, as to see themselves as potential well as between the Arabs and the martyrs6. Israelis. I argue that their acts do Meanwhile, the majority of not seek total equality with Arab more sympathetic writers see men, let alone the men of Hamas, suicide bombers, in general and but rather aimed to supersede and women, in particular, as committing activate the lost role of men as the an act of desperation provoked “protectors” of women. In summary, by an occupation from which they through what I call “fatal equality”, see no way out7. In brief, they are these women rise above the male- seen as “dead-enders”. Even in dominated gender order and gain certain secular national movements, power over all the power struc- female martyrs are considered tures affecting their lives, whether by many as persons invoking their they are patriarchic, despotic or right to self-defense. Rabiha Diyyab, occupational. of the Fateh movement and the Twenty-four women volun- Palestinian Women’s Union empha- teered to commit such acts of 4 Peterson and Runyan, Global Gender Issues, sises that the participation of Wafa “martyrdom”. An additional 16 1993, pp. 81-82. Idris (the first woman martyr) in provided logistical support. Out of 5 Victor, 2002, p. 12. battle shows the “determination of this number, eight women (almost the Palestinian woman to partici- five percent of a total of 157 men 6 Marcus, 2003. pate as a full partner in the national and women by the end of January 7 The Independent, 27/5/2003. 8 struggle, alongside her brothers” . 2004) implemented successful 8 Al-Ayyam Palestinian daily news- The same is true for many suicide bomb attacks; all were dis- paper, 1/2/2002.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 17 patched by Fateh’s al-Aqsa Martyrs (Hamas) were the “first” to ask Brigade or the Islamic Jihad’s women to stand side-by-side with Jerusalem Armies (Saraya al-Quds)9. men in the struggle12. Until the last female martyr Although each female martyr (the first was from Gaza), Reem had a unique life history, they all Rayashi, blew herself up amongst a had strong characters, showed group of Israeli explosive experts sociability and sensitivity and came at the Erez checkpoint in Gaza, from relatively well-off backgrounds. Hamas and its Ezz el-Din al-Qassam They were all driven by a strong military wing had refused to use feeling of injustice as is evident women for such operations. This from Dareen Abu Aishaâ’s last rejection reflects the mentality of will and testament: “ The criminal Hamas with regard to gender and Sharon wants to kill our children in the roles which they deem suitable their mothers’ wombs at his check- for women. The rationale provided points, but we will survive”13. by the leaders of Hamas is that All the female martyrs sought “women can be active in other revenge; and all believed and fields whether political, social, eco- openly stated that they were the nomic or educational. Our strategy equals of men. In Dareen’s words, now is not to involve women in “A Muslim woman’s role is not such activities of istishhad (mar- less than that of our mujahedeen tyrdom) since that would require brothers. The Zionist tyrants must women to travel inside Israel; understand that they are worth and for religious reasons, women nothing in the face of our pride are not allowed to do so if unac- and determination; and that the companied by a muhharam (male Palestinian woman’s role is no lon- guardian)”10. In this quote, Aisha ger just to weep for her husband, al-Shanti, who is also a member of brother or father, but that she will 9 Haaretz, Israeli daily newspaper, Hamas’ Higher Islamic Law Council transform her body into a human 16/1/2004. (Majlis Al Shura) of the Salvation bomb to destroy the illusion of 10 Aisha al-Shanti in Party, confirms the official gender security for the Israeli people”14. www.al-jazeera.net/Lil-Nissa’ politics of Hamas without pay- Dareen was a student in her final Faqat (for women only) 6/2/2002. ing any heed to the rising urge of year at Al Najah University in women to overturn the status quo. Nablus before turning to Fateh 11 Al-Zahar, www.al-jazeera.net, th 15/1/04. Nevertheless, on the 15 to assist her in carrying out her of January, 2004, the first female operation. In 1999, she had asked 12 Falastin al-Muslima /Islamic Palestine, February, 2004. martyr was recruited by Hamas. a leader of Hamas in Nablus if she This day would mark a change in could join their military wing but 13 Dareen Abu Aishaâ’s testimony, www.palestine-info.info, the party’s strategy and recruit- had been turned down and told, 27/2/02. ment policies with regard to “When we run out of men, we will 11 15 14 Ibid. women . Hamas was heavily criti- ask women to step in” . cised for having chosen a mother The different last wills and testa- 15 Jamal Manour, assassinated in 2001, quoted by Ibtissam, of two young children to commit ments left by all the women do not Dareen’s sister, Al-Markaz such an act. Its response to the conform to the theories of despair al-Felastini lil A’lam (The criticism (mostly by Palestinian jour- or depression, nor do they reveal Palestinian Information Centre) www.palestine-info.info, nalists who favor the Palestinian “dead-enders”. As Ayat el-Akhras’ 27/2/2002. Authority) was to state that they mother recalls, for example, “My daughter was distinguished in her man, I felt as if she wanted to say, studies; she was engaged, lived an ‘I am the frozen honour in your easy life and did not suffer from veins. I apologise that my feminin- poverty or depression. She sat ity pressured me to sneak behind for an exam in which she got full your masculinity to blow itself up marks just before committing her in the face of your murderers. I act. She was full of life and loved did what I did in the hope that it. She and her fiancé had even my act would wake you up, would chosen names for their future help to silence the snores that fill children”16. In her last will and tes- Arab space. I hoped to wake the tament, she asserts that she was conscience buried in your hearts’.” driven to her final act by the “call He concludes by calling Reem “a of the martyred blood of orphans feminine mine who embarrassed and mothers of orphans (thakala) the swollen Arab tribal masculinity. and all those oppressed on earth”, She wrote you a message cut deep Ayat el-Akhras also addresses the with blood”20. Arab leaders, ridiculing them, as Thus, the acts of female martyrs she states, “Enough of your torpor, or suicide bombers carry with enough of the relinquishing of your them multiple meanings and levels duties to defend Palestine. I scorn of meanings, including the rejection your armies that watch Palestinian of their parents’ tears and passivity, women fight in your name while a celebration of their femininity in you watch them on your TV sets. the face of the perceived impo- This is my call to you and may each tence of male Arab rulers and the proud Arab Muslim hear me”17. stretching of the boundaries of the Andalib Taqatqa, another female meaning of “sacrifice”. This time, martyr, echoes el-Akhras, writing in the subject of sacrifice is no longer her last will and testament, “I said their freedom but their own lives. with my body what Arab rulers As all their testaments show, they could not say with their tongues”18. do not seek to imitate men. Rather, These provocative statements they seek a full realisation of their directed at the Arab leaders who femininity, not only as something are perceived as failing to protect to be protected (in the traditional “their” peoples, made their point. sense) by Arab men and rulers, In response to the statements of but also as something they can 16 www.palestine-info.info, the female martyrs, the Islamist use to defend themselves until the 22/1/2004. Egyptian writer, Fehmi Huweidi, was men wake up. The symbolic use of 17 Ayat el-Akhras, who died on astonished by these “iron women, femininity is deployed to shame the 29/3/2002 www.palestine-info. with steely hearts and nerves, solid masculinity of Arab men, in general info, 22/1/2004. like mountains.” He stated, “In the and Arab rulers, in particular. 18 Andalib Takatka testament past, the cry of an Arab woman It is a spectacular act of self- www.palestine-info.info, 22/1/2004. to the Khalifat el-Mu‘atassem (an sacrifice not only for Palestine, Abbasid ruler) moved armies to but also for all Arab and Muslim 19 Al-Ahram Egyptian daily, 27/1/2004. her support; but in our dark times, nations. Without entering into a the calls of Reem and her kind debate over the morality or the 20 A file compiled by Abdel 19 Rahman Abu Farha on women fall on deaf ears” . Another male efficacy of this form of action or martyrs, www.palestine-info. writer expressed bitterly, “As a “resistance”, female martyrs are info, 28/1/2004.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 19 seeking, through their deaths, to become super-empowered women, to achieve what their men did not (in mobilising the Arab rulers and masses to come to their support). In this respect, it is a rational, political, national act of self-sacrifice undertaken for the survival of their nation.

November 19, 2005 Islah Jad is a professor of Gender and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University, where she helped establish the Women’s Studies Institute, among a number of other women’s research centers in Palestine. Jad is a member of the administrative board of the Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC), a coalition of individual activists and women’s organisations founded in 1992 in Palestine. The WATC advocates and works on the issue of discrimination against women. She has written numerous publications on the evolution of the Palestinian feminist movement and the political participation of Palestinian women. She received the British Academy’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Visiting Fellowship for South Asia/Middle East Award in 2007.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 21 A Memoir of Identities: I am of this World

Dalal el Bizri

© Houssam Mchaiemch My African nanny carries me and Sidon, Lebanon: A family visit cradles me, gently rocking me; per- to Sidon for several months. My haps she breastfeeds me. My skin father’s family is in Sidon. Sidon… colour is different from her skin with its dew-filled dawn and breeze colour: I am white, she is black. I carrying a deeply iodised scent of am barely three years old. We are jasmine into the family home’s win- different. We meet and part many dows, open to the sea, so close… times throughout the day. I rely on In the back, beautiful orchards of my white family while she is busy lemon and orange trees. The image with other tasks, perhaps with the of my grandfather; dignified; passing dark-skinned others of her soil, of prematurely, in the middle of the her earth. The light-skinned and the parlour room, frowning, wearing dark-skinned are perhaps the old- his tarbush1… My grandmother, est markers of my identity. with her captivating blue eyes and A part of what I call home still the tingling sensation of her warm remains in the countries that lie affections. I am the daughter of beyond the vast African desert. I an émigré, visiting her father’s fam- was born west of Dakar. Till today, ily. Sidon, from the first moment, I continue to eat and thoroughly becomes another home where enjoy its spicy foods and juicy senses and emotions coalesce. fruits. I mingle with Senegalese The return, by sea, to our next salespeople on the streets of place of emigration: Casablanca2. It European cities. I recognise their is night and the city lights recede, distinct features which set them further and further away, giving apart from the other Africans. I way to the darkness of the sea; speak with them in their dialect, something terrible is happening. 1 The tarbush is a traditional Wolof, with its rhythmic intonations My father is listening to the radio; headwear, inherited from the and spontaneous expressions. I still he is full of a strange anxiety. I feel, Ottomans, worn by men (usually from the upper classes) in use Wolof often to communicate from what I manage to hear, that the Near East. secrets across a crowd with my an attack is taking place on an Arab 2 A city in Morocco where we mother or other members of her place. It is the tripartite offensive were staying at the time. émigré family. on Egypt. It is the year 1956. My father’s anxiety is passed on to me, not understand a single Arabic as well as something else. Arabism3 word, but I am taken by the voice enters my veins… warm, anxious. of Jamal Abdel Nasser and by his I grow up a little in Casablanca. charisma. My father is proud of The French language connects me my “Arabism”; as is my mother. with my friends at school. There Their Arabism is smitten by an anti- are no differences between us. French sentiment set by the French Except for my close friend, Joelle colonisation of nearby Algeria. I do Amselem, a Moroccan Jew, who not understand Arabic; but still, it looks like Enrico Macias. takes me into a world where I do A ring of poverty encircles not need language. With it, I gain my route to school. Girls my age my first insight: That I exist is con- sell eggs on the sidewalk, poor firmed by my Arabism. Moroccan girls. I cannot buy the I am, to a certain extent, also eggs. But I give them items from of Morocco: The Henna sessions; my mother’s luxurious wardrobe; the “Arabic” bath; the Ramadan my sisters and I perform “enter- rituals and its exaggerated tastes; tainment shows” for them. To them, the deep, sparkling blueness of the I’m the Lebanese girl who lives in skies of Casablanca and its ocean; the CTM4, a building belonging to the Straits of Gibraltar – the last the transport company that oper- image – as my sisters, my mother ates all over Morocco. Travellers and I pass by sea, on our way dressed in their ornamental tradi- back to Beirut; the nobility of the tional clothing teem in and around ocean and the mountains capped the building all day. by the clouds; the ships entering I live near the port. From the Mediterranean. All these, of my room, I hear the rumbling of Casablanca, remain in me. When departing ships. There is a travel one of its images returns to me, or agency under my house. For me, one of its aromas, or its colours… I travel becomes a daily routine of do not know how… I realise I miss meeting and parting. a part of my many selves. I am aware of my “Lebanese- The ship is American and is full 3 “Arabism” is the term used to ness” which is, in reality, my of Americans – the crew and the symbolise the prevailing Pan- Arab sentiment at the time; “Sidon-ity”. Lebanon, for me, is elderly passengers. The Americans the feeling of being one and Sidon. I love Sidon and dream of are our friends. Only the French part of the Arab nation. it from afar. It is my home… In are our enemies. We spend almost 4 Compagnie de Transport Casablanca, Fairouz5 becomes part a week with them, until the port Marocain, or Moroccan of my Lebanese identity. “You are of Naples, where we embark on Transport Company. Lebanese? Oh how I love Fairouz!” another ship – a Greek ship, much 5 Fairouz is one of the most And the person asking begins hum- less extravagant than the American famous female Lebanese sing- ers, diva of contemporary ming… Fairouz is one of the oldest one. times. cornerstones of my Lebanese Many stories pass between the 6 “Nasserism” refers to the identity. Americans and us. Some of the Pan-Arab movement under Arabism and Nasserism6 mean passengers enjoy my sister’s light- the leadership of Jamal Abdel the same thing to me. My Arabism ness of spirit and quickly begin to Nasser who was Egypt’s head of state during the 1956 war is enthusiasm, hope, defiance and enjoy her company. Meeting them and who led the 1967 war pride in my being what I am. I do is entertaining, fun. Our mother against Israel.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 23 translates their heavily-accented Mediterranean is a vast sea-home. English for us. “People of the East” I later learn the significance of the is what we are to them. Perhaps, similarity of its borders, its ports. because they are sea travellers, But, right now, I am too busy trying they measure the distance from to compare the colours of the sea their homes with a compass. and of the ocean… Which one? In the restaurant on board the Which one touches my soul? The ship, a black waiter understands we first? The one in whose depths are Muslim; perhaps my mother I spent two weeks, moving from asks him to make sure that pork one of its borders to the other? will not be served at our table. Our Or the latter? The ocean with its being Muslim becomes increasingly familiar shores of my childhood… obvious in the restaurant. The black Casablanca, Dakar, Monrovia? … waiter pampers us and brings us The question comes to me time more of everything. He is also a and again… and never once can I Muslim, although he is an American. answer that I prefer one over the He is the first black American that other. The Mediterranean, with its I meet. land so close and its shores so The Mediterranean is a sea- similar; the ocean, fearsome and home, its gardens the land, its alluring, its expanse fraught with borders the ports. I spend two surprises. weeks on it, from Casablanca to It is dawn. We near the Beirut. The port of Naples. The Lebanese “border”. Dawn and port of Alexandria. We are getting autumn. From the sea, I feel happy. closer to the sea’s east. I shall see my father to whom I Naples’ port is teeming with sent many poems and letters. How pickpockets and bandits. Its ancient many months did my missing him pillars rising from near the side- last? How many years? I climb onto walks and its ruins “blow the minds” the deck of the ship. From the sea, of the American tourists. Their I see Lebanon. The sun emerges wonder and amazement increase slowly, as slowly as our approach to as they move further east. Beirut’s port. A slow, enduring sight. We dock in Alexandria aboard The image is constant. Lebanon the other ship, the Greek one. from the sea… then Beirut… a Most of the passengers spend one long shoreline and hills extending or two nights on board. They do towards us. Mountains rising and not appear to be tourists. They are bending, bowing. Clouds merg- not amazed, nor are they much ing with one another, white and fun. They are probably workers or orange. One can almost hear them returning students. We disembark moving. A generous nature, it sets at the Egyptian port for a few my soul at ease. Something of the hours. We only find porters and supernatural and something of the dockworkers. I do not make a con- natural exude from within it. This is nection between Alexandria and the image of Lebanon I keep with Abdel Nasser. me. I wish I could paint it. I see Tomorrow, we arrive in myself melt into it so many times Beirut. The distance is short. The in my dreams. In Beirut, I grow up to the converted to Islam and performed stories – legends, rather – of our the pilgrimage (hajj) to the sacred family. They are passed on to me by house of God – for love’s sake, or my mother’s family with Karbala’i7 for faith’s sake – there is no dif- pride and tormented grief. The ference. She is a secret source of story of Um Hussein, or Miriam strength, of inspiration – for me, al-Cassis, my mother’s grandmother, from my family, supporting my a Syrian Catholic from Yabroud. On newfound “Christianity”. her way to Latin America with her My mother’s grandmother’s father and her siblings, their ship Christianity, Miriam Cassis’ docked at the port of Dakar, where Christianity, it seems, absolves me she disembarked with her family, of any guilt for being attracted to yearning for land. There she met the Christianity of the nuns, whose my mother’s grandfather. She fell schools I attend when we return in love at first sight, staying behind to Lebanon. It appears strange and marrying him, leaving her family, to me, the daughter of the Lycée who went on to Argentina without Mirabeau in Casablanca where her. The story would be a common, Christmas was no more than deco- typical story if my mother’s grand- rating a tree, gifts and Santa Claus. father had not been unfaithful to Throughout my six years with her in the first years of their mar- the nuns, I am captivated by the riage… and if she had not packed prayers, the hymns and saints’ day what few things she had into a and by the aromas of incense and sack and fled towards the unknown holy water. With the Franciscan of the African capital… had she nuns, I am free to attend (or not) not vowed silence for the rest religious classes. I go with great of her life until her death in her earnest … As earnestly as I listen nineties…had she not refused her to the story of the Virgin Mary and husband’s plea from his deathbed the lives of Jesus Christ and the for her forgiveness… had she not saints. I shed many tears over Saint raised snakes, had she not been a Barbara, killed by her pagan parents. clairvoyant, had she not given assis- It feels as though I am Christian tance to all those who crossed her at the Franciscan school. My close path, had she not bathed the dead friend, Marcelle Aqel, is Christian and prayed for them, out of noth- also. My Muslim friends eagerly 7 The reference here is to Karbala, ing but goodwill. ask, “Are you Muslim or Christian?!” the city (in present-day Iraq) A photograph of Um Hussein, There is no answer. Nor any search where in the 8th century a battle took place between or Miriam al-Cassis, hangs in the for an answer, because at home, the followers of the Caliph Ali main living room. She is standing I am also Muslim. I fast during and those of the Governor next to her daughter, my grand- Ramadan, memorise the fatiha8 of Damascus Mu’awiya. Ali’s younger son, Hussein, was mother. She appears tall, lofty to and other short verses. But at killed. Ashoura, the commemo- me… like her story: Pride accentu- school and especially in church, I ration of the battle, is a day ated by deep wounds. Every time I feel that I am Christian. And I do of mass mourning for Shiite Muslims. hear a part of her story, I see that not see a contradiction. Or, I do look of pride on her face that tells not want to see it. I close my eyes 8 The Fatiha is the opening verse of the Koran, recited at the of her own personal struggle to and see the Virgin Mary as she beginning of prayers and for exist. My mother’s grandmother appears in the paintings. I imagine the souls of the dead.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 25 her in her worst suffering. plank of wood called the signal Here I must confess: My bout which we carry as punishment if of harmony with Christianity does we dare utter a word in Arabic. not last. I am transferred from It is the antithesis of the Arabism the French Franciscan nuns to that I seek. And although my flu- Lebanese nuns. The rules change: I ency in French is beyond a doubt, I no longer attend religious classes. I intentionally speak in Arabic as part do not participate in prayers. I am of my subversive, personal struggle one of the Muslims in the school. with the nuns. Whether I am “Arab” During prayer-time or religious or “not Arab” becomes the back- classes, we are gathered by the drop for many a fight and many a priest, Father George, into his office punishment and even numerous where he speaks to us with exag- suspensions, to my father’s morti- gerated niceties about how great fication! our religion is. Despite the above, the nuns We are in the early 1960’s. make us write a phrase – which, till Arabism is like fresh air which I this day is engraved in my mind – breathe in, here and there. I am in we handwrite it and embellish it on my last three years of intermediate the front page of every notebook, school. The history and geography “Dieu me voit”, or “God sees me”, teacher asks to meet my parents; which means acts unseen are not he offers to teach me to write in acts without sin – and which, over Arabic. Another Arabic teacher fol- time, becomes a sort of personal lows… mysterious, attractive. He moral or ethical guide. pushes me onto the language. I am I am still drawn to churches. infatuated with him. Monasteries are still among my When he speaks in Arabic, it favourite places, with their psalms, is as lyrical as Kulthumic9 music. hymns and chanting, their incense He gives me ‘Al-Atlal’10. I Iisten to and their bells – joyful or sad. 9 Um Kulthum is the most it; memorising most of its musical Wherever I may be, if I find a famous Egyptian female singer refrains without understanding it all. church, I enter. of modern times. She sang My young poet teacher extends to I pretend – after beginning to deeply moving love songs and was loved en masse by the me an Arabism different from that read female anthropology – that entire Arab world. She was of those around me. The Arabism I live in a different categorical strongly associated with the of a Christian poet, serene and era in human history – a period modern Arab world’s golden age. Her funeral was attended morose… its intensity derived where I carry the name of my by one of the largest crowds from within… lofty, romantic. Sated female ancestral line. My name is in history. by the ambience of Gibran Khalil Dalal Miriam Cassis, an émigré to 10 One of Um Kulthum’s famous Gibran and the spirits of émigrés Argentina of three generations past. songs, whose name refers past from the renaissance (al In this version, my great grandfather to places reminiscent of 11 something gone forever, the Nahda) . With him, I begin to read follows my great grandmother to proverbial ruins of nostalgia. in Arabic. her American destination. 11 A period of renaissance or There is no love lost between All of this is a fantasy, an imagi- enlightenment which is called the Lebanese nuns and me. nation game, a space outside the al Nahda in contemporary Arabism spurs my rebellion against logic of its time. It allows and brings Arab history which took place between the mid-19th century their severity, their ugly habits, their to life the ability to live in places of and the Second World War. hatred for kohl-lined eyes and the identity crises, discontented with everything, unable to feel secure wooden pencil case that I throw about anything… salvation and tor- in protest at not having got the ture… simultaneously imprisoned leather one. Between the spoon and free. and the pencil case there is also a It is not enough to be a Muslim journey in shifting social classes. It in the face of Christians who deny is the journey from Casablanca to their Arabism and my Arabism; or, Beirut, from the centre of one class that I am an Arabist because I am a to its periphery. Muslim. For me, being Muslim was There is little, if nothing, of the separate from my mother’s Shiism. Sunni in me – unlike Shiism, so I am the daughter of the Shiite; at fervent in its meanings, history and times, they call me a mutwaliya12. invulnerable rituals – it is prudence At first, I understand this term and security somewhat exagger- as a mark not to be associated ated by historical and social luck or with any pride, a sort of subordi- chance. But it also is a “belonging”; nate social status. Shiism is borne it is an identity. In my mother’s to me thus: A sign of marginalisa- family and milieu, I am a Sunni, tion and weakness, magical in the especially during the times of romanticism of its weeping and Husseiniyat14 wakes and Ashoura15. the art of its legendary sadness. Amongst my father’s family, I am Through it, I love an image of one Shiite, the daughter of the Shiite: It of my self-images: The daughter seems to me that I am to remain of the returned émigré, outside at the sectarian periphery as well. the frame of dull scenarios. Shiism I forget the image of Lebanon I places me on the same plane as envisaged on the deck of the ship. those discontented with this kind I forget it completely during this of world, extending to me its world period. I sense something is inter- of passion and heroics. vening between my Shiism and me, 12 “Mutwali” is a derogatory term The attraction of Shiism for me my Arabism, my socio-economic used in Lebanon to denote is also a class attraction. My father status, my Christianity: Something those of the Shiite sect. does not return from abroad with like a missing link. I will discover 13 Here the meaning is socio- the great wealth amassed by the part of that link two or three economic class. other returning émigrés. I am the decades later. Meanwhile, I am 14 A Husseiniya is a space for daughter of another sort of émigré: busy in two places that pave the Shiites, much like a mosque, He was wealthy, but lost his for- way to this missing link. The two used for funerals and com- memorations. tune. In Beirut, I am here… born of places are the Communist Labour the naive, the ones unable to swin- Organisation and the Faculty 15 Ashoura is a symbolic ten-day period of mourning held dle… just like the Shiites. Yet, I am of Education (at the Lebanese by Shiites commemorating also connected with the “French University). the murders of Hassan and speakers” by the same language Hussein, the sons of the Imam Ali, culminating on the tenth and attitudes, the same tastes and The First Place: The Communist 16 day – they day they were killed. education. It is a forced union: I am Labour Organisation 16 Founded in 1968, this was the of them culturally, but not of them After the 1967 defeat, Beirut is radical Marxist offshoot of the in terms of class13. filled with a flurry of student dem- Arab Nationalist Movement Over a period of 12 years, I go onstrations, condemning the Balfour and the parent organisation of the Popular Front for the from the golden spoon that fed Declaration, the occupation of new Liberation of Palestine. Its me in my early childhood to the territory, the Vietnam War. They do leader was Muhsin Ibrahim.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 27 not see any means to victory or enthusiastic youth flow into the to liberating occupied lands with- intertwining alleys and corners of out wars led by a popular, armed Beirut to the spirit of this beckon- resistance. Nasserism is still dear ing call. to all, but the defeat undermines I become involved in the the trust in its ability as a regime Communist Labour Organisation or system. Anything to do with the through fund-raising activities for “system” is detested. The Palestinians the Palestinians. I go around with now are the catalysts of the revival my donation box to restaurants, of Arabism… for it to remain Arab homes, parks… and always return despite June 1967. This means that to the club with the biggest col- victory for the Palestinians will be lection. My enthusiasm has no had through money, support, moti- boundaries. They call me the vation and military training… It is “bulldozer” and the “Bolshevik” (as time for action to replace words; opposed to “Menshevik” which action is to be the cornerstone of according to our organisation’s victory which is the total liberation insider jargon alludes to lazy). of all of Palestine, or nothing. I get more and more involved… “Ho! Ho! Ho Chi Minh! Che! Demonstrations against pacifism Che! Che Guevara!” The former is and a peaceful solution… Endless the Vietnamese nationalist leader speeches at political rallies… who triumphs over America in Military training in Palestinian 1975. The latter is the Argentinean camps… Administering a medical leader of the Bolivian guerrillas clinic in one of the camps. I scream (gangs) fighting the Americans. I fall out “freedom or death!” to myself in love with Che’s enduring futuris- and others without mercy against tic ideals and his red-starred beret. the betrayal and cowering from I wear a similar one on my head Israel and the Western conspiracies. and convince myself that I am a My first chapter in the organisa- freedom-fighter. tion is spent getting prepared for In one of these demonstrations, membership in the general assem- in which we always manage to bly: The “Cell”. I read much on the weasel our way out of school (and theories of popular resistance and which also finally gets me expelled), revolution (especially those of the I meet some other students. We Chinese school of thought), the plan to meet – a revolutionary Vietnamese “model” and Guevara’s meeting – in one of the Arabist letters from the jungles… All this cultural centres: The Rawad Club in on the eve of the war in the early Ras al Nabaa17 on the ground floor 1970s. of a spacious old building. The Communist Labour We are now in the early 1970’s. Organisation no longer remains “Palestinian” becomes the identity of purely “Palestinian” nature. On of all those who want to achieve the eve of the war, it becomes what Abdel Nasser could not with “Lebanese”. It starts to focus on his thunderous cry: “That which local unions and the situation of 17 A neighbourhood located was taken by force can only be workers through its party base of between East and West Beirut. regained by force!” Streams of original cadres and new recruits; it provides an opportunity for releas- demonstration in Shiyyah. ing the eager activist energies of its The civil war erupts and every new recruits. day I increasingly feel I am losing We begin to mingle with the my sense of belonging to a multi- workers. We wait for them at the confessional organisation. It has factory gates in Kfar Shima, Al become part of the “national and Hadeth and Shiyyah. We pass out Islamic front”. It shifts further and flyers on the “working class strug- further away from its secular foun- gle”; in small notebooks, we write dation. Beirut is divided into two: the names of workers who have Christian and Muslim. Between agreed to meet with us. In the them are the battle-lines… lines early evening, we meet with them. and rites of war. The Christians in We explain to them the theories the organisation rapidly decrease of surplus production to show the in numbers. They return to live in extent to which capitalism exploits their original neighbourhoods, now them and the workforce. We per- segregated; or they emigrate to sist in provoking them to reject far away countries. A minority of their situation and push them to “nationalist” or “patriot” Christians, join us in the fight against the status as we call them then, stay in the quo, at times going as far as taking Muslim camp. Almost all of them over political power, the economy are leaders or principal cadres. and authority. A foggy notion in our I leave the organisation at minds suggests something reminis- the end of 1981, after the Syrian cent of Soviet satellites. army’s siege of Zahleh18. Why after In the name of the workers, Zahleh? Because the organisation’s we camouflage ourselves – my position towards the siege – so friends, Nadine and Nathalie and clear in its words and in its silence I – in workers’ clothing; although, – resembles the logic of the in reality, the style is closer to the Islamists, while secular words are hippy look we are more familiar considered to be the talebearers with: Long, baggy skirts and a scarf of the contrary. It does not take a on the head tied behind the neck, genius to understand them. Zahleh with locks of hair dangling around is the crowning moment: Prior to the face and forehead, the way Zahleh, calls insisting on a general we imagine a working woman meeting are ignored; matters are would dress. The workers whom settled by decisions made from we are trying to educate about above; promotions are made by their rights laugh at us. They toss appointment; hasty political calcula- delicate French words at us; one tions are made, in the spirit of the of them tries to ask one of us out Soviet experience which is begin- on a date. ning to dissipate amongst people. This Lebanese-ness of the Most importantly, the first signs organisation – or action in the of corruption in the organisation’s name of the workers – does not leadership begin to appear in their last long… Wardeh, the first of new, luxurious cars, in the new 18 A major city in the Bekaa the workers’ martyrs, is mortally purchasing power of their wives, valley with a large number of felled by army bullets during a children and bodyguards and in Christian inhabitants.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 29 their empty politics. instant I would leave, I’d lose a Many years after leaving, I am community, a milieu and friends. amazed every time I think back to The Lebanon I had ridiculed with how long it took me to understand my friends… the weakness of its that the organisation was neither army, the feebleness of its govern- my destiny nor the right choice. ment and the “broccoli” at the I spent 14 years of my youth in centre of its flag… is the Lebanon it, being moved around, at times, I return to after I leave the party. It reluctantly, from one “sector” to is ravaged. Only one hope remains: another: From the workers’ sector That it will return to its former to that of the peasants… youth… self – to the entity that I had never security… women… information… taken seriously. tirelessly. I remained in one sector Today, it is in jeopardy. I make only for a short while (the youth a plea… I don’t know to whom… sector is the only one that lasts); to protect what remains of it. I live being transferred to another sector the rest of the war seeing it as an at a whim, a party decision, always assault on its beauty… the beauty coming from above. of that first image from the deck Despite all this, I persevered of the ship, a warm autumn dawn, and always with renewed obsti- twenty years ago. nacy. Why? Why did I remain in an The Arabism so fused to the organisation that did not have a Palestinian cause returns to me six need for me anyway? I fought to months after breaking away from stay and was allowed to remain party life. Israel invades Lebanon because I accepted the punishment and Beirut is under siege19. I hear of being demoted in rank. Every the call of our secretary-general time I was transferred from one to rise up to arms in defence of sector to another, I went down a the nation. Like an idiot, I go to notch in rank. How could I have the “headquarters” and put myself accepted being so sidelined, so at the disposal of the party’s “field debased amidst all these comrades command”. Everyone makes fun of who were supposed to be my fam- me and rightly so. I have heeded ily and my community? I had joined a command not intended for me. the organisation seeking a sense of Every time I remember that story belonging after being shunned by I thank God that they were not my sects and by my class; and here victorious over their enemies or I was, again, left at the sidelines for we would now be destined for life most of the time I spent in the under their simple-mindedness. organisation. I should have lessened The end of the Israeli invasion the number of years of commit- represents an end of one chapter ment, the way others did – to two in the civil war. I am submerged in or three years… that should have the rubble and glass shards left by been plenty of time to see through the Israeli shelling on the westward its illusions and the harm it often balcony of our home. In the shabby inflicted on the self. work clothes I am wearing to fix However, I was afraid of leav- the house, I take the car and with 19 The siege took place in 1982. ing. And this fear was justified. The my son, we follow the convoy all the way to the port, bidding fare- they must follow strict rules and well to the Palestinians. We cannot regulations or face certain penalties. stop crying, my son and I. He is We respect these rules and regula- barely ten years old. Finally, I am tions, most of the time. free to express my grief and sad- The student body at the Faculty ness, unrestrained by ideological of Education is diverse, represent- convictions; I am unafraid to betray ing all of folkloric Lebanon. The optimism; an optimism that is used interaction is lively yet disciplined. like a shield, protecting the political This period is afire nationally; and line… I cry in lusty and genuine the country is at “a dangerous and Karbala’i fashion. historically-decisive junction”… as would soon become apparent The Second Place: (and is still so). The walls are full of The Faculty of Education inscriptions and antagonistic state- at the Lebanese University ments and slogans between the It is 1972, three years before Right, the Left and the Centre. The the civil war erupts. The Faculty cafeteria is teeming with the music of Education at the Lebanese of Fairouz, cigarette smoke, the University is a building on the peak exhilaration of ping pong players, of a hill, facing the sea. One enters voices in debate, discussion and the building from the top of the meetings between small groups at hill. From there, one descends to the tables – or on the large planks the point where it most pulsates of wood that are placed every- with life: The cafeteria. To go back where after heavy rains flood the up, one has to take the long, liter- cafeteria. ally breathtaking stairs. And the less In the student union, intense time left for a student at the faculty, political disputes take place the higher one has to go up the depending on participants’ political staircases… but then again, one’s views or position. In the cinéclub, share of the sea is also greater. we debate the significance of the Vast, picturesque expanses unfold more complex films: By Fellini, on the way down to the cafeteria. Pasolini and Bergman, in particular. Wooden benches are set here and Poetry readings are common… a there; and the breeze goes every group of poets who call them- which way. The library is attached selves “the poets of the South” are to a large hall used by general confronted by their critics… some student associations and unions as of “the poets of the South” are well as the cine-club. from the South while others are This faculty’s system is differ- not. Their charm and charisma is ent from the others: Admission is enlightening… their allure exudes based on a competitive entrance from the strength of their desire exam (concours). Students receive and daring, a sort of Baudelairian generous scholarships based on a elegance. commitment to teach in public high The faculty’s atmosphere is a schools after they graduate. More perfect setting for romance: Its importantly, students are obliged to breadth and poetry of space so attend classes, sometimes all day; close to the sea, the daily encoun-

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 31 ters, the tradition of belonging but I feel no sense of belonging to to one table or another in the France. I am not French, but rather, cafeteria, enjoying its smoky air and one of the ranks of humankind the voice of Fairouz… the debates whose countries’ histories are about contemporary poetry, the similar to mine, turning them – at concepts of secularism, feminism… one era or another – into a French until we get our grant dispersal mandate or colony… A collective at the end of the month… giving memory or collective existentialist us time… And time is of essence identity in a way. when falling in love. All these moments at the faculty Love stories begin… some last no longer than two years. On end, some last. All of them hold a the eve of the civil war, one of the promise of some sort. The very students, a Pan-Syrian nationalist, is character of love finds those who shot. Our last demonstration ends shape it: The Don Juans, the ones in fist and gun fights between the who are always remarrying, “the Right and the Left. I am arrested. I magnets”20, the hypnotisers, the spend three nights and days in jail. I wild. The female students are the am thrown in with the prostitutes; most beautiful on earth. The love one of them takes me under her stories produce “kidnapped” mar- wing. She has an old relationship riages21… mixed marriages, mixed with the female wardens; she friendships… stories that tell the knows how to get me cigarettes tale of infidelity and faithfulness. and sweets. I major in French Literature. We do not believe war is near. This is one chapter of my many We do not want to believe it. But, affairs with French. I have read so the eye cannot deny the approach- many novels in French that I pass ing flames. When the first round my entrance exam. My spoken of the civil war breaks out, the Arabic is easy on my tongue. But university is shut down for a year my reading is slow and my writing and a half. When we return, it is is weak. My period of studying in split into two parts: Muslims in the French limits my love for it; perhaps original campus and the Christians because it has to co-exist with my in East Beirut. The faculty is like Arabic studies. I put on airs and a ghost town. There is nothing impulsively write slogans – our in it but the Muslims and some slogans, the slogans of the students progressive Christians. Where are from the organisation. I do not the rest? News of them is sporadic 20 Literally, the Arabic word is succeed. But I am stubborn. I cheat then stops altogether. The war is a “puller”; the one who “pulls” and I take excerpts from articles by teacher in division. The latter years women to him or is always a renowned author and take credit are quick to lose the sparkle of the trying to “pull” women to him. for them as mine. I am always in a former; they pass in sadness, with- 21 This term is used for eloped rush; I insist on proving my value to out celebrations or elections. marriages, or when a man is forced to symbolically “kidnap” the organisation, to force them to Now I can explore the similari- a woman from her family; this acknowledge my Arabic. ties between the organisation and is usually the case when the Today, I discard French as the the faculty of education. Both are parents do not approve of a marriage or the two are from colonial competitor of Arabic. Today, pluralistic environments or settings different religions. I am a Francophone, somehow; (well, at least the former was for a time)… mixed marriages and to a comrade’s image of him or mixed friendships. They embrace herself, leaving behind marks of dis- all the diversity of Lebanon in one appointment and fatigue on these frame… a mix that Lebanon will comrades’ futures and even in their never again witness, neither during facial features. the war nor in its aftermath. At the faculty however, one What is the difference in diver- comes across all the possible faces sity? In the first – the organisation of the sons and daughters of this – the diversity is similar to that scattered and ambitious class, the found in ideological communities middle class. And the fights at the or environments: It is subject to a faculty are in good humour: Fights political line or stand. This ceiling about politics, a rare book – which cannot be breached without the I “kidnap” from the library – of risk of finding oneself out and com- claims of understanding a Bergman pletely alone in this world. or Pasolini film, or the competition But, at the Faculty of Education, over poetry or lovers. the boundaries of diversity are One leaves the organisation, more welcoming. And they are the upset, angry and aggressive, dis- borders of Lebanon itself, embrac- turbed, used. Whereas, even before ing and open to every and any kind graduating from the faculty, one of political belief, region, city and senses that what the future holds sect. is nothing more than nostalgia over The other difference: In the those too few golden years. organisation one often comes across the faces of frustrated and To be continued. power hungry and thus, authoritarian people. The fight in the November 20, 2005 organisation – its harsh, violent and often destructive criticism or self-criticism – can be devastating

Dalal El Bizri is a Lebanese sociologist and columnist living in Cairo. She has been writing for the London-based Arabic-language daily newspaper Al- Hayat since 1999. From 1985 to 1999, she was a professor at the Lebanese University in Beirut. El Bizri has written on contemporary Islam, civil society, tradition and modernity. She is the author of numerous publications in Arabic, including Politics is Stronger than Modernity (2003) and in French, including Islamistes, Parlementaires et Libanais (1999) and L’Ombre et Son Double (1995).

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 33 Normalisation and its Discontents

Natasa Ilic

Over the last few years, cultural programme” and the films you will practitioners in former Yugoslavian see do come from a cultural space states have lectured extensively on that is unanimously described the Balkans, local art scenes and as Balkan – I say this because as on the war in ex-Yugoslavia and its we know, the boundaries of the causes. They broached issues such Balkans are malleable in accor- as the special character of Yugoslav dance with the political, economic socialism which opposes any and cultural interests and view- discourse about homogenous post- points of those who control them. communism and transition and so All the countries of “South-East on. They lectured so extensively Europe” which is the current politi- that they started to believe their cally correct term for the Balkans, enlightening mission had probably are fighting for a privileged position been accomplished and that the in relation to the European Union. basic facts of the Yugoslav situation The Balkan border is therefore had become widely known, only always positioned somewhere else, to discover that this is actually not on the eastern border with other the case. Balkan countries. As a result, my introduction to The films screened here come today’s screening programme will from the space that, for better take into account the possibility or worse, never lost its status that the facts and notions crucial as Balkan (unlike, for example, for understanding the contexts and Slovenia which, with the advance- specific contents and processes of ment of negotiations with the the films I am presenting are not European Union in a geo-politi- as familiar as I had believed them cal sense, has gradually ceased to to be – and I apologise in advance be considered a Balkan country). because this is perhaps the least The most important fact about suitable place for such an experi- the cultural space of the films ment. you will see – Croatia, Serbia and My screening programme was Bosnia (or more precisely Croatia, announced as a “Balkan screening Serbia & Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina which are the full of the systematic policies of the names of these three independent Croatian government at the time, states) – is that these countries are or whether it was the result of three former-Yugoslav countries individual excesses which in turn which were directly involved in the should influence how to determine war from 1991 to 1995, includ- individual responsibilities. The war ing against each other. Things get in Bosnia finally ended in 1995 with even more complicated when one the Dayton Agreement that estab- is dealing with a war that never lished the constitution of Bosnia & officially began and was not pro- Herzegovina and with “Operation claimed to be over. Storm” in Croatia, in which – under A brief note on the war: After the unspoken patronage of the a two week long war between the US government – the Croatian Yugoslav People’s Army stationed army expelled 150,000 Serbs from in Slovenia against Slovenian Units Croatia, thus finally “solving” the of Territorial Defence which ended latter’s ethnic issues. with the withdrawal of the army These three ex-Yugoslavian and the subsequent separation countries are perhaps the most of Slovenia, the war started in blameworthy for the negative Croatia in the summer of 1991. It image of the Balkans in the last began with conflicts between the 15 years. The word “Balkans” is Croatian territorial defence troops never merely a geographic label. and paramilitary forces from the The signifier “Balkans” has become Serbian minority who were then separated from its original signified joined and backed by the Yugoslav and from all subsequent signifieds army in Belgrade. The mutual liq- with which it had become associ- uidation of civilians and massive ated. The geographic label has been relocations of people began, later transformed into one of the stron- to be termed “ethnic cleansing”. In gest derogatory terms in history, in November and December of 1991, international relations, in political the world watched the images of sciences and even today in general the cities of Vukovar and Dubrovnik intellectual discourse. During the being bombed, and by January 1990s, the word acquired social 1992, Croatia was internationally and cultural meanings which, on recognised as an independent state. the one hand, transformed it into a In the spring of 1992, the war symptom that embodies all that is in Bosnia began, including conflicts wrong in the utopian notion of the between Muslims and Croats aseptic (multi)cultural consensus – Croatia, just like Serbia, tried of the “European Union”. On the to achieve its territorial claims in other hand, it bore connotations Bosnia. Incidentally, the nature of of a virgin soil whose dynamism, the Muslim – Croat conflicts in vitality and “authenticity” could Bosnia is still being discussed at challenge empty Western consum- the International Court for War erism and its decadent art world. Crimes in the Hague which aims As a European Other, in fact, the to establish definitively whether Balkans’ role is to secure Western the conflict was the consequence identity as a single and coherent

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 35 unity, covering up for the fact that of resources. The pathos of the the West is also a heterogeneous, human rights revolution reached inconsistent system with its own “broader society” through the filter mutually antagonistic centres and of nationalistic ideologies since it peripheries, and that these very was perceived to be both enlight- antagonisms are constitutive of ening and politically correct. every contemporary society. However, in 2000, a few years Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina after the end of the war, both in and Serbia & Montenegro are Croatia and in Serbia, extreme the three countries that share right wing nationalist governments both war trauma and post-war lost parliamentary elections and normalisation processes. In the the “normalisation” process started. light of the Yugoslavian model of “Normalisation” as a term has been socialism, it is hard to explain how used at various times and in differ- the intellectually immature political ent contexts, varying slightly with classes with old-fashioned ideolo- each situation, to refer to different gies and schematic programmes socio-political programmes. A few managed to suffocate the social specific cases come to mind, like movements that had, during the the post-World War II normalisa- 1980s, threatened the balance of tion in Germany and the occupied public discourse. It is equally hard countries with the help of strong to understand how these same quisling movements, or the “socialist immature classes also destroyed normalisation(s)” after events such the public and devastated social as the Yugoslav break up with Stalin space by introducing an autarchic in 1948, the Budapest uprising in nationalist discourse and wild 1956, the Prague Spring in 1968, capitalism. During the 1990s, those the liberal/nationalist movements performing “the social function of in Yugoslavia in 1971, etc. More intellectuals” mobilised extreme recently, it conjures up examples right wing ideologies by engaging such as the dismantling of welfare the “intellectual establishment” in states in some Western European the struggle for the uniqueness of countries, the “post-communist national culture. This was realised normalisation” in Eastern Europe, by the struggle against leftist cul- and normalisation after military tural hegemony, which became coup d’états, dictatorships or even re-interpreted as the foreign, fascist regimes (Greece, Turkey, external element that threatened Spain...) etc. Obviously, normalisa- the purity of national culture and tion can be a productive notion, national identity. The Croatian ver- acting as a trigger for discussion sion of the democratic revolution and the development of critical (in different versions known also thought about the social, political as the “Velvet Revolution”, the and ideological state of affairs in “Singing Revolution”, the “Candle our societies. Revolution”) was finalised with the The term “normalisation” in our triumph of capitalism and the redis- local circumstances is especially covery of the market economy interesting in terms of looking at as the tool for the distribution the contexts in which normalisation is used in political discourse, eral order of the European Union. how it is activated and how it Obviously, nobody had ever asked has changed over time. The term what the price of all that “normali- today serves to legitimise liberal sation” would be. Consequently, all capitalism and the political system its ugly results – unemployment, of parliamentary democracy as the poverty, crime, the widening of only natural and acceptable solu- class differences, decrease of social tions, the optimal norms of political and health benefits, conservative consciousness. backlashes and the rise of ethnic, This way of presenting mat- racial and sexual intolerance – have ters derives from the idea of false not been understood as regular universalism, where something par- products and symptoms of the lib- ticular is (ideologically) established eral– capitalist system, but as mere as universal – “natural”, “normal” or “side-effects”. the “only possible” path towards As I said, the right wing national- the “development of mankind”. In ist politics of Miloševic in Serbia that sense, so-called “transition” is and Tudjman in Croatia were seen as gradual but determined disguised in promises of a “nor- and rather quickly moves from mal” life. This normalcy secured the “unnatural communist totali- the self - proclaimed role of the tarian order” (as Franjo Tudjman, victim – which was very difficult to the Croatian president during the claim for those parties who had 1990s, called it) towards the obvi- been involved in the war – and ously “natural” and “normal” state was expressed with very bourgeois of capitalist liberal democracy and undertones (functioning similarly to multi-party parliamentary systems the power struggle between “the with free elections, free market, the civilised spirit” and “barbarism”). rule of human rights, etc. Getting rid of the nationalist gov- Liberal-capitalist normalisation ernments of the 1990s meant works as ideological interpellation the acquisition of liberal normalcy - we were not “forced” to become which late capitalist societies in the “normal” liberal – capitalist, free West, as welfare states in which - market subjects, we “want(ed)” to human rights are fully respected, become such, with the ideological have supposedly reached. This fantasy that we will immediately normalcy was the product of a become like the rest of the “nor- Western neo-liberal ideology, a mal world”. During the Croatian promise of a society in which no elections in the year 2000, one of extremism makes life difficult or the pre-election campaign slogans produces social antagonisms. of the Social-Democratic Party was In some situations, it is clear “To live as in a normal world”. In that political processes after the fall Serbia, Vojislav Koštunica, who beat of the Berlin Wall promoted the Miloševic in the 2000 presidential retrograde functioning of arts and elections, promised during his culture. When this occurred, arts pre-election campaign that Serbia and culture were used as tools for would become a “boring society”, mediation between the developed, such as the societies of the lib- liberal-capitalist West and (post-

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 37 communist) Eastern European cally and politically identify with societies that needed to be inte- one (specific) culture. The ques- grated in this liberal-democratic tion of normalisation allows an world of free markets and human examination of how non-institu- rights. Consequently, questions tional practice relates to what we about the relationship between usually term “mainstream” and arts and normalisation – how art how to define that mainstream. institutions are engaged as agents Although in the past decade, we of normalisation and how art is have witnessed significant changes used as an instrument of ideologi- in the vocabulary used by deci- cal interpellation – seem to be of sion-makers and representatives of crucial importance. It is interesting institutional “state” culture, cultural to note that after the decades-long domains in Croatia, Serbia and Cold War, during which Western Bosnia are still characterised by art and theory stood for the the logic of identity, particularly “valuable autonomy of arts” – as national identity. The independent opposed to the despised ideologi- cultural sector is generally opposed cal, didactic instrumentalisation of to dominant models of repre- art in the countries of so-called sentation and the newly acquired “real-existing socialism” – the very central position of representative same Western art institutions culture in the transitional economy. reduced art coming from former It works against the local main- communist countries to “docu- stream in which the institutions, ments” about the social situations capital and markets are based in of countries-in-transition. On the Western world, but many ele- one hand, these are regarded as ments of modernist paradigms that “authentic, first-hand documents”, have long been removed from the almost anthropological/sociologi- Western world – such as notions cal material about the conditions of utopianism, formalist aesthetic of the societies in which they are values, the idea of artist heroes, produced. On the other hand, they the transcendent character of art, are seen as ideological apparatuses the separation of art and life, art for the realisation of proclaimed as opposed to theory, etc. – still political goals. Simultaneously, the essentially inform Balkan art institu- process works its way from the tions. There are of course cracks inside. Cultural policies in countries in this construction of what art whose psycho-geography has been is, but basic notions and ideas of formed in relation to Europe also art have not changed at all with instrumentalise art whose role is the shift in social, political and reduced to testify and prove that economic systems. In this context, “we” are “cultured”, not only that validation from the West is often “we belong to Europe” but that “we the only channel open for securing have always belonged there”. and increasing cultural capital at the Normalisation is also interest- local level. ing in relation to the position and Thus, normalisation works as role of an independent cultural ideology; that is, it is especially con- sector in societies that ideologi- cerned with the field of symbolic cultural production, the production nationally known Croatian of meaning, namely the production artists. Although she may not have of consent and consensus. Current been the first artist to produce liberal – democratic, free – market performance and video art in ex- normalisation is a process that Yugoslavia at the beginning of the operates on such a large scale and 1970s, she was the first to use per- time-span that it passes almost formance and video for juxtaposing unrecognised and is not reflected representations of the body, female upon. One of its main ideologi- sexuality and politics. She was not cal traps is that it is represented a dissident artist, but the first to as a process of an almost natural take a clearly feminist position. She kind – a slow, gradual, unstoppable, started as part of the collabora- irreversible and inevitable process tive known in ex-Yugoslavia, after which human forces and longings 1968, in Ljubljana, Zagreb, Beograd simply cannot affect. (Belgrade) and a bit later in The films and videos presented Sarajevo, as the “New Art Practice” here, by five authors from different which abandoned the modernist generations, are tangentially related traditions accepted in 1950s com- to the topic of normalisation, but munist Yugoslavia as “Official Art”. are otherwise autonomous pro- Sanja Ivekovic often appropriates ductions dealing with many other and quotes pieces of collective issues as well. memory produced in the public Vlatko Gilic is a filmmaker who realm, and in the 1990s worked lives and works in Belgrade. His extensively on collective amnesia short films from the 1970s were and erasure of the past, especially rewarded at international film the anti-fascist Croatian past. Her festivals (like the two included in video ‘Personal Cuts’ from 1980 the screening programme – Love which we will see, exemplifies many (1973), which was awarded first elements of her work. prize at the Oberhausen Film Films by both Gilic and Ivekovic Festival and the Golden Globe by are politically engaged, not as the Union of Foreign Film Critics in “battles against the darkness of Hollywood; and In Continuo, (1971) communist totalitarianism” but, which won the Silver Bear at the paradoxically, by taking socialist Berlin Film Festival and was nomi- ideology more seriously than the nated for an Oscar in 1972). But in cynical political elite in power did, Yugoslavia, his films are recognised and by fighting for the complete only among film connoisseurs. This self-realisation of individuals and is probably because of the myth culture, against real bureaucratic that circulates about him that after limitations. While artistic practices 1982, he fell out of favour with the from the 1970s (and 1980s) were communist regime, which recog- driven into more or less direct nised anti-communist and anti-state confrontation with ideologies of elements in his films. domination, younger artists are Another artist, who also questioning the present social emerged in the 1970s is Sanja situation of the rapid march of Ivekovic, one of the best inter- “normalisation” and their coun-

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 39 tries’ transitions to a neo-liberal “heaven”. tisan resistance. It also stands as a Jasmila Žbanic is a Bosnian film- sign of the devalued and abused maker. The focus of many of her anti-fascist heritage, just as it stands short films is the relation of female for the ideas of modernist prog- subjects to war trauma, including ress. Maljkovic’s fiction provokes her film Images from the Corner, to surprise expressed through the be shown in this screening ipro- incomprehensible language from gramme. She is considered the the so-called gangi-folk songs which, most important Bosnian woman in the urban racism of Croatia in filmmaker. Goran Devic describes the 1990s, are linked with refugees his film, Imported Crows, as a “film and immigrants from rural areas on natural sciences and society”. who “contaminated” Croatian The film looks at the problematic “Europeaness”. relationship between the socialist heritage and the current social November 20, 2005 climate that provokes various types of exclusion, and constitutes a very direct and revealing commentary on intolerance towards the Other. We never see this Other, but the film is actually the most accurate Croatian film on the intolerance, ethnic mythologies and prevailing ideology of present-day Croatia. The video Scene for a New Heritage by David Maljkovic is a fictive story about a group of young people who go off in search of their heritage in the year 2045. Their journey ends at Petrova Gora, a location with a strong historical significance (it was the place where the last Croatian king was killed in the 11th century. It was also a place marked by mythical battles both for the national liberation struggle in World War II and the war of the 1990s, where the Serbian minority lived and battles between Croatian Serbs and Croats were very strong). The modernist memorial for partisan victims by Vojin Bakic which was erected there in the 1970s in the modernist style (the official Yugoslavian style), is a monument in honour of the par- Screening Programme In continuo Vlatko Gilic from the Balkans

Curated by Natasa ilic

Imported Crows Goran Devic (Croatia)

An artist either bypasses or answers the questions raised by living. In Continuo is a film answering the question: Who has the right to take one day of life away, not to mention a whole life? Using documentary film elements, “I tried to metaphorically realise this concrete story about the this continuous shedding of blood unsuccessful attempts at extermi- through history in a real slaughter- nating a crow-parasite in a small house with authentic workers, who town in the pauperised Croatian every day slaughter animals in an countryside is transformed into a old, primitive way. very direct and revealing commen- The sound in the film is also tary on intolerant relations towards authentic. Nothing was recorded the Other. outside of the slaughterhouse. The Video, 22 minutes, 2004. sound turns into music, which helps Goran Devic was born in 1971 in Sisak, Croatia. dramatisation and the realisation of He lives and works in Zagreb. the metaphor I had in mind when making this film”. Love Video, 11 minutes, 1971. Vlatko Gilic (Serbia and Vlatko Gilic was born in 1935 in Podgorica. He Montenegro) lives and works in Podgorica and Belgrade.

Personal Cuts Sanja Ivekovic (Croatia)

“On many building sites where workers spend years away from their families, every visit is an event.” The video consists of one continu- Video, 24 minutes, 1973. ous sequence in which a woman is

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 41 cutting holes into a black stocking which covers her face. Each “cut” is followed by a short sequence of documentary footage that represents 20 years in the history of Yugoslavia. The video ends when the face is completely uncovered. Video, 4 minutes, 1982. Sanja Ivekovic was born in 1949 in Zagreb. She lives and works in Zagreb. Images from the Corner Jasmila Zbanic (Bosnia and Scene for a New Heritage Herzegovina) David Maljkovic (Croatia) Trying to articulate relations to traumatic aspects of her own war experiences, Zbanic sets off to search for an acquaintance wounded at the very beginning of the war in Sarajevo. This wounding marked the exact turning point in Zbanic’s understanding of the war – her first confrontation with death and destruction – with her own mortality and contingency. The Scene for a New Heritage is a search for the acquaintance who fictional story about a group of left Sarajevo after the war and who young people who go off in search nowadays lives in France turns out of their heritage in the year 2045. not to be “successful”: At no point Their journey ends at Petrova Gora in the film do we see the image of where the modernist memorial for the acquaintance, and the closest WWII victims stands to immortal- the author and viewers come to ise the resistance of the allies. her is through a maximally alien- Video, 5 minutes, 2004. ated voice (...) David Maljkovic was born in 1973 in Rijeka, Croatia. He lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia. Nebojša Jovanovic, excerpt from We Light the Night, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, 2004 Video, 38 minutes, 2003. Jasmila Zbanic was born in 1974 in Sarajevo. She lives and works in Sarajevo. Natasa Ilic is a freelance critic and curator based in Zagreb. She is a founding member of What, How & for Whom (WHW), an independent curatorial collective that organises productions, exhibitions and publications. She is also the director of Galerija Nova. She has co-curated a number of international exhibitions in Zagreb and abroad including Collective Creativity at Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel, 2005, the Cetinje Biennial 5 in Serbia and Montenegro, 2004; Looking Awry at Apexart in New York, 2003 and Project: Broadcasting at the Technical Museum in Zagreb, 2002. As an art critic, she has contributed to numerous catalogues and magazines.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 43 Some Paradoxes of Political Art

Jacques Rancière

It would appear that politics once take advantage of museum spaces again enjoys a place of pride in to demonstrate new ecological artistic projects and in discussions machines, while others head for about art. The era of denouncing the most impoverished suburbs, the modernist paradigm is now where they place little stones or behind us; instead, we are see- discrete neon signs intended to ing art reasserting its vocation to create a new environment and respond to forms of economic and trigger new social relations; some ideological state domination. But transport museum masterpieces we are also seeing this reasserted into forlorn neighbourhoods; one vocation appearing in increasingly even pays a wage to immigrant divergent if not indeed contradic- labourers for them to demonstrate, tory forms. Artists are making by digging their own grave, the monumental statues out of media violence of the wage-labour system, and advertising icons, as if to spark while another works as a teller in our awareness of the power of a supermarket in order to involve these icons on our perception, art in a practice of restoring social whereas others are silently burying bonds. The list goes on. invisible monuments dedicated to The point of the list however, is the century’s horrors; others are not to heap scorn on anyone but set on revealing to us the “bias” rather to make two points. On the within dominant representations one hand, the desire to politicise of subaltern identities, while still art materialises in a wide range of others propose to refine our gaze strategies and practices. And on the with regard to images of those other hand, these divergent practic- whose identity is unstable or inde- es have one point in common: They cipherable; some artists choose to generally take for granted that the infiltrate provocatively the meet- politics of art can be identified with ings of world leaders, while others a certain type of efficacy. Art, that is, produce banners and masks for is supposed to be political because the demonstrators who stand up it shows the stigmata of domina- against globalised power; some tion; or because it makes mockery of the dominant icons; or yet again I will thus deliberately take because it is wrested from its myself back to 18th century Europe, own specific realm and sites to be more precisely to the time when transformed into a social practice, the dominant mimetic model was etc. Following a good century of facing contestation in two different supposed critique of the mimetic ways. By dominant mimetic model, tradition, this tradition still contin- I mean this model of efficacy or ues to prevail right down to those efficiency illustrated in particular forms that seek to be artistically by the classic theatrical stage: The and politically subversive. It is sup- stage was supposed to be a disposed that art incites us to foment torting mirror where viewers were revolt by showing us revolting invited to see, in the form of fiction, things, that it mobilises us by the human behaviour, virtues and vices. mere fact of moving out beyond The theatre proposed logics of situ- the studio or museum walls and ations that were to be recognised that it turns us into opponents of in order to help one find one’s way the dominant system by negating in the world and foregrounded itself as an element within that models of thought and action to system. It invariably takes as self- imitate or avoid. Molière’s Tartuffe evident that there is some kind of taught viewers to recognise and relationship between cause and to spurn hypocrites, while Voltaire’s effect, between intention and out- Mahomet incited them to shun come. The “politics of art” is thus fanaticism and to love tolerance stamped with a strange schizo- and so on. This edifying calling phrenia. On the one hand, artists may seem to be quite removed and critics invite us to situate art from our ways of thinking and practices and reflection on art in a feeling today. What remains very constantly new context. They are close to us, however, is the causal all too happy to tell us that the logic underpinning it: According to politics of art have to be rethought this logic, what we see – on the from top to bottom in the context theatre stage, of course and to of late capitalism or globalisation, the same extent in a photography data communication and digital exhibition or an installation – are cameras. But they massively con- the signs of a certain state of tinue to presuppose models based affairs, as laid out by the author’s on the efficacy of art which was will. To recognise these signs is to arguably laid to rest a century or involve oneself in a certain reading two before all these novelties. I of our world. To become involved would therefore like to invert the in this reading is to sense a feeling usual perspective and to take some of proximity or of distance which historical distance in order to raise pushes us to intervene in a situ- several questions. What exactly are ation of the world thus signified the models of efficacy which our just as the author wanted it to be. hopes and judgements in the realm We no longer believe in correcting of the politics of art based upon? mores through theatre. And yet To what era do these models we are still all too happy to believe themselves actually belong? that the sculptural representation

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 45 in resin of some advertising idol some ethnic cleansing operation or other will harden us against the when it is shown on gallery walls? media empire of spectacle, or that Revolt against the perpetrators? a series of photographs on the Inconsequent sympathy for those representation of the colonised by who suffer? Anger toward the pho- the coloniser will help us today to tographers who make the suffering thwart the pitfalls of the dominant of destitute populations the object representation of identities. of an aesthetic manifestation? Or The fact is, however, that this indignation toward their complicit model was subjected to double- gaze which sees nothing in these barrelled critique as early as the populations but their degrading 1760s. The first critique was direct. status as victims? Here I am thinking of Rousseau’s The problem then has to do not Letter on Spectacles. Above and with the moral or political validity beyond Rousseau’s personal con- of the message transmitted by the cern with denouncing the morality representative device. It concerns of Molière’s Misanthrope, his polem- this device itself. It seems that the ics emphasised a far more essential efficacy of art does not consist rupture: The rupture of the sup- in transmitting messages, provid- posedly straight line taken for ing models or counter-models of granted by the representative behaviour or teaching us to deci- model between the performance pher representations. It has above of theatrical bodies, its meaning all to do with the arrangement of and its effect. Does Molière side bodies, the divvying up of singular with Alceste’s sincerity against the spaces and times which define hypocrisy of the worldly society ways of being together or separate, in which he moves? Or does he facing or amidst, inside or outside, side with worldly respect for the etc. This is what Rousseau’s polemic requirements of life in society in points out. But at the same time, it the face of his intolerance? It is short-circuits the thinking behind an open question. How is the- this efficacy. For what it opposes atre ever supposed to be able to to the dubious moral lessons of unmask hypocrites when the law representation is quite simply art governing it is exactly the same without representation, art that law that governs the behaviour of does not separate the scene of hypocrites – that is, the staging by artistic performance and that of living bodies of signs of thought collective life. What it opposes to and feeling which they do not theatre audiences is the people in actually share? The logic of mimesis action, the civic festival where the is contradictory, never ceasing to city presents itself to itself, as did claim for itself alone the effect that the Spartan ephebes celebrated by it is supposed to produce on the Plutarch. This paradigm designates behaviour of those to whom it is the site of the politics of art, but addressed. Let us now transpose only to immediately whisk both art this logic to our own era: What is and politics away. What it opposes to be expected of a photographic to representation’s dubious claim representation of the victims of to be able to correct the mores and thoughts of the audience is face to express a feeling, no limbs in effect an archi-ethical model; to give orders or carry out any archi-ethical in the sense that the action. Yet Winckelmann decided thoughts are no longer objects to make this the statue of the of lessons borne by represented greatest action hero of all, Hercules bodies or images but are directly – the hero of the Twelve Labours. embodied in mores and the More precisely, he made it into community’s ways of life. This archi- a Hercules at rest who, after his ethical model went hand in hand labours, was welcomed amongst with what we refer to as moder- the gods. And it is this eminently nity, as the thought underpinning lazy character whom he elected as a form of art which had become the exemplary representative of a form of life. The chorus of the Greek beauty, daughter of Greek people in action or the futuristic or freedom. What this description constructivist symphony embodying proposed was thus a paradoxical a new mechanical world are now efficacy – an efficacy requiring not doubtless behind us. But what is an adjunct of expression or a sup- not behind us is the model accord- plement of movement but rather, ing to which art must eliminate on the contrary, an efficacy through itself, of a theatre that has to over- subtraction, an indifference or a throw its own logic by transforming radical passivity. This is the paradox the viewer into an actor in the that Schiller would develop in his contemporary art centre, or of the Letters on the Aesthetic Education of wildcat exhibition as a site of iden- Man, commenting in this case not tification between art performances on a body without a head, but on and political demonstrations. a head without a body, that of the But during that same period Juno Ludovisi, also characterised of the 1760s, the representative by a radical indifference, a radi- model was subjected to another cal absence of concerns, will and critique which, though more dis- purpose. crete, was perhaps to prove more This paradox effectively defines decisive for the future of the rela- the configuration and the “politics” tions between art and politics. This that I call the aesthetic regime of critique can be detected in those art, as opposed both to the regime passages where Winckelmann of representative mediation and characterises as a supreme to the regime of ethical imme- realisation of Greek beauty and diacy. What aesthetics means most freedom the statue known simply fundamentally is not the contem- as the “Torso”, in the Belvedere plation of the beautiful but rather in Rome. The rupture brought on the suspension of any direct rela- by his analysis is this: The statue tionship between the production is stripped of everything that in of forms of art and the production the representative model would of a determinate effect on a deter- make it possible to define either minate audience. The statue that the figure’s expressive beauty or Winckelmann and Schiller discuss its exemplary character: It has no had been the figure of a god, the mouth to deliver a message, no element of a religious or civic

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 47 cult – but it was no longer. It no relationship between productions longer illustrated any faith and involving artistic know-how and of signified no social grandeur. It defined social objectives, between produced no further correction sense-based forms, the meanings of mores whatsoever nor any that one can read in them and bodily mobilisation. It was no the effects which they are liable longer addressed to any specific to bring about. In other words, it audience, but to the indetermi- established the efficacy of dissen- nate and anonymous visitors of sus. What I mean by dissensus in museums and readers of novels. general is not the conflict of ideas It was offered up to them in the or feelings. It is the conflict of dif- same way that a Florentine Virgin ferent regimes of sensoriality. It is in might be, a scene from a Dutch this sense that dissensus is at the cabaret, a little Spanish beggar boy, very core of politics. Politics is in a dish of fruit or the seafood laid effect first and foremost the activity out at a fishmonger’s stand; in the that reconfigures the sense-base same way that the readymade, re- frameworks within which common appropriated commodities, posters objects are defined. It shatters the torn from billboards, would later sense-based self-evidence of the be. The double temporality of the “natural” order that predestines Greek statue – which became art individuals and groups to giving in museums because it was not orders, or to obediently receiving seen as such in the civic ceremo- them, to public life or to private nies of earlier times – defines a life by assigning them first of all to double relationship of separation a specific type of space or time, to and non-separation between art a specific way of being, of seeing, and life. It is because the museum and saying, and to ways of being. – understood here not as a mere This logic of bodies remaining in building but as a form of partition- their places in a distribution of the ing of common space and a specific common and the private which mode of visibility – was constituted is also a distribution of the visible around the disaffected statue that and the invisible, of speech and it was later able to accommodate of noise, is what I have proposed any form of disaffected object to refer to as the “police”. Politics whatsoever from the profane is the practice that breaks down world. This is also the reason that this police-enforced order. It does it has more recently been able to so through the invention of an accommodate alternative modes instance of collective enunciation of circulation of information and which redraws the space of com- forms of political discussion which mon things. As Plato has taught us tend to stand in opposition to a contrario, there is politics when dominant modes of information beings destined to remain in the and discussion on common affairs. invisible space of work which The aesthetic rupture thus does not leave them the time to established a singular form of do anything else, take this time efficacy: The efficacy of a disconnec- that they don’t have in order to tion, a rupture, a breakdown in the assert themselves as co-sharers of a common world, in order to the arts. And in spite of that, or give visibility to that which was not rather because of that, it is impos- seen, or to make audible as speech sible to define a direct relationship – as speech discussing the common between the intention consum- – that which was heard only as the mated in an artistic production and noise of bodies. its effect in terms of its capacity If aesthetic experience touches for political subjectivation. What is on politics, it is because it too is known as the politics of art is the defined as the experience of dis- intrication of several different logics sensus as opposed to the mimetic which can never be reduced to the or ethical adaptation of artistic pro- univocity of a politics specific to art duction to social purposes. Artistic or a contribution of art to politics. productions lose their functionality There is a politics of art which in such circumstances; they leave precedes the politics of artists; a the very network of connections politics of art involving the singular that gives them a destination by wresting of objects from common anticipating their effects; they are experience which functions on its proposed in a neutralised space- own, independently of artists’ wish- time and are offered up to a gaze es to serve some cause or other. which finds itself separated from The effect of the museum, of the any defined sensorial-motor pro- book, or of the theatre, is based on longation. The upshot is not the the dividing up of space and time embodiment of any knowledge, vir- and on the modes of sense-based tue or habitus. It is, on the contrary, presentation which they establish the dissociation of a certain body before ever being based on the of experience. For the issue was specific content of one work or never that the dominated should another. And these forms con- become aware of the mechanisms tribute to the formation of a new of domination, but rather to bring sense-based fabric. They create a together a body intended for pur- new landscape of the visible, new poses other than domination. forms of individualities and connec- From that perspective, it is tions, different rhythms and new possible to point to the very core scales for the apprehension of data. of the paradox in the relationship They do not do it in the specific between art and politics. Art and way political activity creates a “we” politics hold to one another as – that is, forms of collective enuncia- forms of dissensus, as operations tion. But they form this dissensual of reconfiguration of the common fabric from which can be cut and experience of the sensible. There tailored the forms of construction is an aesthetics of politics, that is, a of objects and the possibilities of reconfiguration of the sense-based subjective enunciation specific to data through political subjectiva- the action of political collectives. tion. There is a politics of aesthetics, One might say that politics in that is, the effects of reconfiguring the strictest sense consists in the the fabric of common experi- production of a subject who gives ence which are produced by the voice to the anonymous, whereas practices and forms of visibility in the politics specific to art in the

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 49 aesthetic regime consists in the between appearance and real- elaboration of a sense-based world ity, the singular and the common, of the anonymous, of modes of the visible and its meaning. There the “that” and the “I”, from which remains an insistent temptation to emerge worlds specific to the polit- produce a form of art eluding the ical “we”. But it must also be added limits and contradictions of repre- that insofar as this effect has to do sentation, able to intervene directly with aesthetic rupture, one is hard in the real by short-circuiting the pressed to calculate it in advance. artistic production of the “that” and What is known as the politics the political creation of the “we”. of art is thus the entwining of het- The nodal point between the aes- erogeneous logics. There is first of thetics of politics and the politics all what might be called the “poli- of aesthetics is always a singular tics of aesthetics” in general; that and contradictory weave between is, the effect in the political field the three logics I have mentioned: of forms specific to the aesthetic The representative logic which regime of art: The constitution of seeks to produce effects through neutralised spaces, the loss of the representations; the aesthetic logic works’ destination, the overlapping which produces effects through the of heterogeneous temporalities, suspension of representative ends; the indifferent availability of works, and the ethical logic which holds the equality of represented sub- that the forms of art and the forms jects, the anonymity of those to of politics directly identify with one whom the works are addressed another. and so on. Then there is within This tension was for a long time this framework, the strategies of hidden in the model of critical art. artists who propose to change Critical art is an art that claims the frameworks and the scales to produce a new gaze upon the of what is visible and sayable, to world and, thereby, a decision to confer visibility on what was not transform it. It thus presupposes seen, to give different visibility to the adjustment of three processes: things that were all too easily seen, The production of a sense-based to establish relationships between estrangement, a growing awareness what was unrelated, with the goal of the reason for this estrangement of producing ruptures in the sense- and a mobilisation resulting from based fabric of perceptions and in this awareness. When Brecht repre- the dynamics of reactions. This is sented Nazi leaders as cauliflower what I shall refer to as the work of peddlers and had them speak fiction. Fiction is not the creation about their vegetable business in of an imaginary world that stands classical verse, the clash of situa- opposed to the real world. It is the tions and heterogeneous modes of work which produces dissensus discourse were intended to pro- which changes the modes of sense- duce an awareness of the market based presentation and the forms forces hidden behind the grandiose of enunciation by changing the discourses about race and nation frames, the scales or the rhythms and the forces of domination by constructing new relationships hidden behind the sublime qualities of art. When Godard had his thinkable, to creating new forms characters attending a fashionable of experience of the sensible, new dinner party engage in conversa- distances from the existent configu- tion by having them repeat, while ration of the given. But this effect standing against a monochromatic cannot be a calculable transmis- background, advertising slogans sion between sense-based artistic boasting up cars or undergarments, shock, intellectual awareness and this rupture of the visual and political mobilisation. There is no aural continuum was supposed to particular reason that the clash of make palpable the dispossession two modes of sensoriality should of personal life and the alienation translate into an understanding of of relationships between individu- the reasons for the order of things, als caused by the language of the any more than the understand- commodity. When Martha Rosler ing of the order of things should mixed images from the Vietnam translate into a decision to change War with advertising photographs that order. One does not shift of middle-class American homes, from the vision of a spectacle to the photomontage was supposed an understanding of the world and to show the reality of the war from an intellectual understanding behind standardised individual to a decision to take action. One happiness and the all-pervasive moves from a sense-based world empire of business behind the wars to another sense-based world waged by the “free world.” But that defines other tolerances and the apparently simple logic behind intolerances, other capacities and this estrangement effect is in fact incapacities. What is operative are a contradictory logic. It seeks to the dissociations: The rupture of a bring about a shock of the senses, relationship between feeling and a mobilisation of bodies through meaning, between what one sees the combination of heterogeneous and what one understands; the elements – that is, through the rupture of sense-based bearings presentation of this strangeness. and orientation making it possible But it also intends that this percep- to find one’s place within the order tion-shifting estrangement effect of things. be identical with an “understand- This gap between the ends of ing effect” of the reasons for this critical art and its real forms of strangeness and thus its de facto operativity was tenable as long as dissipation. It therefore seeks to the system of understanding the transform in a single and unique world and the forms of political process the aesthetic shock of mobilisation it was supposed to different sensorialities and the rep- favour were powerful enough in resentative correction of behaviour, and of themselves to support it. It aesthetic separation and ethical is laid bare once the system itself continuity. This contradiction does loses its self-evidence and when its not mean that the critical work’s forms are stripped of their power. device is without any effect. It can This is something we observe in fact contribute to transforming more and more often: The inten- the map of the perceptible and the tions, procedures and justifying

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 51 rhetoric of the critical apparatus the exhibition as a critique of the have remained unchanged for spectacular world of the com- decades. Today as yesterday, it modity. The device is based on claims to denounce the reign of the equivalence of critique, the the commodity, its ideal icons and mockery of critique and the unde- its sordid by-products: Parodied cidibility between them. It used to advertising films, misappropriated be that the undecidibility of the mangas, disco sounds remixed, critical apparatus was resolved by characters from advertising screens the clear opposition between two made into resin statues or painted worlds. With the collapse of this in the heroic bold strokes of Soviet opposition, critique today tends to realism, Disneyland characters identify with maintaining itself at a transformed into polymorphous distance and the staging of its own perverts, montages of vernacular futility or magic which is the mode photographs of household interiors of presentation of the commodity, comparable to advertising in maga- its own art. zines, sad leisure and all the trash This transformation of critical of consumerist civilisation, gigantic doubling-up into a mere double- installations of tubes and machines lining of the configuration of the representing the intestines of the existent world translates the para- social machine absorbing every- dox that currently characterises thing and transforming it into the situation of art and its politics. excrement and so on and so forth. This situation can be globally char- These devices continue to occupy acterised by the weakening of the our galleries and museums, shored political scene. Confiscated in one up by a rhetoric claiming to reveal instance by authoritarian powers, to us the power of the commodity, ethnic identitarianism or religious the supremacy of the spectacle and fanaticism, it is neutralised in the pornography of power. But as another by consensus – that is, by no one in our world is so inatten- the reduction of the political scene tive as to need to have this pointed to arbitration between the inter- out to them, the mechanism ests of groups in the context of the merely spins idly, playing on the world economic necessity set out very undecidibility of the device. as an unavoidable given. This global It was thus possible to show the deficit of political subjectivation and selfsame exhibition in the United invention actually has a contradic- States under the soft-pop title tory effect on art’s performance: Let’s Entertain and in France under On the one hand, it eliminates the hard-edged situationist title the dissensual horizon which Au-delà du Spectacle (Beyond the upholds the efficacy of critical pro- spectacle). Yet Maurizio Cattelan’s cedures. It thus often leads artists huge fussball game or Charles Ray’s to denounce their past claims, to merry-go-round didn’t change in repudiate the critical model based any way. Simply, in one place, the on the shock-value of the hetero- wall text invited viewers to take geneous and of the revelation of part in a playful form of art. In hidden contradictions and assigns the other, it invited them to see artists the more modest task of documenting the world or estab- The great mosaic or tapestry lishing mini-devices of sociability. representing the multitude of But on the other hand, this era- anonymous people or of the sure of the political scene has the frameworks of their lives is a genre converse effect: It tends to give a one sees a lot of today. I am think- substitutive role to artistic devices ing for example, of the tapestry and thus revalourises the idea of an made up of some 1600 passport- art sundered from itself, becoming style photographs all sewn together an intervention in the real world, by the Chinese artist Bai Yiluo in a if not indeed a creator of political tapestry that seeks to evoke, as the situations and collectives. artist puts it, “the delicate ties bind- On the one hand, then, one ing families and communities.” It is sees various strategies of critical quite true that this unanimism is shock replaced by strategies of tes- frequently scorned by the tenants timony, archiving or documentation of a documentary form of objec- which replaces us in the presence tive photography and art, stripped of traces of the history or the of both any humanist pathos and signs of a community. Thirty years any activist claim. But the objectiv- ago, Chris Burden put up his Other ism in question itself produces a Monument – a monument to the problematic balancing act between Vietnamese dead – by writing on the inside and the outside. I am large plates of bronze the names of thinking of the role assumed in unknown Vietnamese picked at ran- politically intended exhibitions by dom from telephone books. Thirty the photographs of water towers, years later, Christian Boltanski once blast furnaces, smokestacks and again had recourse to anonym- other industrial buildings produced ity, but this time stripping it of its by Bernd and Hilla Becher. The polemical function in his installation photographs are presented as doc- entitled Les Abonnés du Telephone uments objectively depicting the (Telephone subscribers list): Visitors world. But the world in question were invited to pick out at random is obviously double: On the one in telephone books from around hand, it is the world of work and the world and to make contact industry, a world which yesterday not with names bearing a polemi- underpinned the dream of a radical cal charge but with what the artist transformation of the world. But himself referred to as “specimens on the other hand, this world is of humanity”. These specimens of deserted twice over: The industrial humanity were presented in Paris sites shown are deserted and the in a large memorial exhibition of symbolic world which was organ- the past century where they were ised around them has vanished. placed side-by-side, for instance, On the one hand, then, the series with the one hundred photo- of photographs is like a sculpture, graphs of individuals produced by embracing within itself the lost Hans Peter Feldmann and Fischli world of work and of working-class & Weiss’s gigantic installation, The struggle, just as Winckelmann’s Visible World, comprised of a multi- Torso embraced within itself now- tude of slides of tourist attractions. absent Greek freedom. On the

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 53 other hand, this absence appears that transform into means of as the mark of formal rigour, the immediate rescue and survival the emblem of an art that refuses any complex technological and dialecti- sentimental effusion or decorative cal devices with which, a generation embellishment. As if the watchword earlier, Kristof Wodiczko sought to of yesterday’s struggles echoed problematise the place of foreign- on in a certain number of formal ers and the homeless in the city. imperatives: Series production, an These devices verge on a limit enduring framework, the absence that strikes me as being illustrated of any empathy for the subject. by a video installation presented The documentary watchword thus at the Havana Biennale in 2003 seems to cast upon the very mean- by a Cuban artist by the name of ing of the “document” the same René Francisco. The artist used silence that post-critical art has cast the money of an artistic founda- upon the meaning of critique. It tion to carry out an enquiry into tends to play another form of the conditions of life in a poor neigh- double game between the nega- bourhood and decided, with some tion of art in favour of the subject of his artist friends, to undertake and the negation of the subject in the restoration of the home of an favour of art. elderly couple in the neighbour- In the face of this double hood. The work thus featured a game, the past several years have screen on which had been printed witnessed the reaffirmation of an an image of the elderly couple activist art which no longer pres- in profile watching a monitor on ents doubles of objects, images or which a video showed the artists messages of the world, but which working as builders, painters or intervenes directly: An art that plumbers. The relationship between directly produces objects of the the museum-based device and world or situations in the outside direct social intervention falls into world; an art that either leaves its the logic of relational aesthetics. specific places or brings the world But the very fact that the interven- into these places. This can include tion takes place in one of the last relational art practices, creating countries on earth to still lay claim in galleries or museums various to communism obviously situated devices of conviviality or bringing the work within a different history. about modifications in the urban He produced a derisive follow-up décor capable of transforming the to the desire expressed by Kasimir perception of the environment; Malevich at the time of the Soviet photographic or videographic doc- revolution: To no longer make umentation in museums of actions paintings but to directly construct carried out beyond museum walls new forms of life. He brought us or instances of a politically com- back to the point where the will mitted art, intervening directly on to politicise art takes the form the billboards, costumes and ban- of shedding its very self, a direct ners of demonstrators or offering intervention in the real whose direct solution to social problems, consequence is the conjoint elimi- such as Lucy Orta’s clothing-tents nation of art and politics. It thus seems necessary to – non-places, spaces in the throes reassert that the problem is not of restructuring. Some of these about politicising art in the form works are closely bound up with of an exit toward the outside or the history of this country and this an intervention in the real. There part of the world. I am thinking, is no real that might be described for instance and amongst others, as the outside of art. There are of the work of Paola Yacoub and folds and refolds within the shared Michel Lasserre on the aspects of sense-based fabric where the poli- landscape in South Lebanon or the tics of aesthetics and the aesthetics overlapping aspects of destruction of politics join and rejoin together. and reconstruction in Beirut, or the There is no real in and of itself, but photographic series entitled WB rather configurations of what is which Sophie Riestelhuber devoted given as our real, as the object of to the Israeli checkpoints on the our perceptions, our thoughts and Palestinian roadways. But I am also our interventions. The real is always thinking of Chantal Ackermann’s the object of a fiction, that is, of film and video installation, From a construction of a space where the Other Side which deals with the visible, the sayable and the the Mexican border; of Pedro doable connect. It is precisely the Costa’s film, Vanda’s Room, about a specificity of the dominant fiction, group of marginal people living in the “police” fiction – in the sense in a down-and-out suburb of Lisbon which I use that term – to claim to which is increasingly devoured by impose a real that is highly isolated bulldozers; or the video Dammi from appearances, representations, Colori which Anri Sala made about points of view and utopias. This the project undertaken by the art- oneness and univocity of sense- ist-mayor of Tirana: To change the based data is what is meant by city and the image of the city in the term “consensus”. The work the minds of those who dwell in it, of politics as well as that of art is as well as the image they have of to introduce dissensus, to burrow, themselves, by having them paint to double up and to multiply the the facades of their buildings in a real. This is what I understand by variety of bright colours. fiction and, in this sense, the politics What interests me in these of art links one to the other like works stemming from different two forms of fiction working on political and artistic perspectives the same material. A certain will is above all the way in which the to move to an outside or to join documentary form is the site of up once again with the real thus a confrontation of fictions – that tends to identify the politics of art is, of a confrontation of ways of with its opposite: Consensual ethics. allowing the real to be read and This is why the work of fiction rich- seen. I am thinking for instance, est in political potentiality today is of how Chantal Ackermann runs perhaps one that complexifies the counter to the usual ways of deal- coordinates of the real. It is one ing with the border in film. Typically, that works on the borders, transi- filmmakers will focus on what tions and sites marked by a border connects and links: They focus nar-

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 55 ratively on the dramatic episode of raised by oppressive powers is thus crossing the border and intellectu- at the same time a way of work- ally on the study of the economic ing on the borders between the logic which integrates both the document and art. This approach illegal emigrants and those who is obvious in a video such as Anri chase them down even as they Sala’s Dammi Colouri which both need their labour power into a allows us to understand the art- single world economy. Chantal ist-mayor’s project and to see the Ackermann, quite on the contrary, way in which the construction breaks this narrative and concep- workers implement it out on the tual relationship. Instead of showing walls, in some occasions reduced border crossings, she shows them to abstract colour fields and, at separated into three elements: other times brought into perspec- The material and inhuman reality tive with the mud and garbage of the wall; the discourse of those on the streets where roadwork is who want to cross over; and the underway and with the movement discourse of those who, on the of passers-by. But the same effect other side, want to keep them out. is used more subtly still in the case And instead of showing a success- of Pedro Costa’s film, based on the ful crossing, bearing witness to the tension between a background of economic inter-dependency of all poverty and the artistic possibili- involved, she ends her film with the ties it contains: The faded colours narrative of a disappearance: The of the walls make the interiors story of an emigrant woman who look like murky aquariums but one day disappeared as silently take on a new vivacity when the as she had lived. What the film bulldozers tear them open and provides us with, then, is not the expose them for a moment to testimony of an art in the service direct light; voices stifled by drug of politics, but the elaboration of use, by work and by the noise this fabric of anonymous people from outside which penetrates the where they meet one another. I inside realm, suddenly find words am thinking in the same way of which rise to the occasion. It also Sophie Riestelhuber’s decision not manifests itself through the myo- to photograph head-on the huge pia of a gaze that closes itself in a separation wall constructed by the closed universe which thus leaves Israeli state, but rather to photo- aside the objective reasons for the graph it from above – in keeping, existence and elimination of the that is, with the point of view from shantytown in order to present which it blends in most with the us with the relationship between landscape (small stone roadblocks the potency and the impotency of cutting off country roads, etc.) as if bodies alone. The absence of any in order to shift away from scenes explanation confronts us with what of great affect with their fake abil- is perhaps specifically political: Not ity to mobilise general indignation the knowledge of the reasons that toward scenes of individualised produce such and such a life, but curiosity. the confrontation between this life Work focusing on barriers and what it is capable of. The film does not elude the immeasurable weaving of several logics, of the tension between aesthetic indiffer- tension between contrary forces. ence and a political gap. It does not I tried to show that this politics elude the fact that a film remains held taut between two poles is not a film and a viewer a viewer. Film, without a certain undecidibility. But video, photomontage, installation there are two ways of playing with or any other art form, all displace this undecidibility: One that uses the framework of perceptions and it for the demonstration of artistic the disposition of effects. They thus virtuosity; and another that takes it create new crossovers toward as its object and seeks to explore possible forms of political subjec- its very tension. In any case, the tivation. But none can elude the attempt to eliminate these tensions aesthetic rupture which separates and to force this undecidibility in the effects produced from the order to define what good politics intended ends and thus stands for art should be, leads, inevitably, opposed to any test-tried recipe of to the conjoint elimination of both critique as well as to any felicitous art and politics. crossover to the other side of images and words. November 21, 2005 In raising these examples, it is not my intention to state what a political art should be in my opinion. On the contrary, I sought to explain why no such norms can be established. Not, as often alleged, because art is somehow foreign to politics but because it has its own politics – a politics whose forms anticipate the will of artists but also a politics composed of the inter-

Jacques Rancière was born in Algiers in 1940. He is a French philosopher and emeritus professor of aesthetics and politics at the University of Paris VIII, where he taught from 1969 to 2000. He has written numerous books on politics, aesthetics, cinema and literature. He also writes regularly on cinema for the journals Trafic and Les Cahiers du Cinema. His recent books include Politique de la Litérature (2007), La Haine de la Démocratie (2005) and Malaise dans l’Esthétique (2004). His latest books translated into English are Film Fables (2006), The Future of the Image (2007) and the Hatred of Democracy (2007)

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 57 Repression and the Information Boom

Zuhair al Jezairi

Humans have, since time immemo- eties played three roles: That of rial, exchanged information. To say observation (keeping watch and and to listen have been as basic notifying), that of policy-making and as instinctual as breathing and (decision-making, leadership and eating in forestalling death. The drafting laws) and that of teaching earliest forms of communication (inducting individuals into the group predate spoken language. Cave through rites of passage). paintings were already messages about hunting and various dangers. Iraqi Curiosity Packed in caves seeking shelter According to one local anecdote, from the changing weather and it was “Chako mako?” the Iraqi idi- other looming threats, a primitive omatic equivalent for the American tribe used to delegate one of its “What’s up?” which burst the com- own to keep watch and inform puter. Such was the need of Iraqis the rest of any imminent danger. for news in a country swept in When such an eventuality did arise, unexpected upheavals. Were the one elder or an assembly of elders Iraqis living in less exceptional and were then responsible for taking a less repressed times, souks or mar- decision, issuing orders and inform- kets would have provided a space ing each of the tribe’s members of for the exchange of information their tasks and duties. The course along with the exchange of goods. of action was not decided by one In such spaces, information is not or more in reaction to a pressing only the stuff of intimate conversa- danger. Rather, much of what was tions, but also that which can be decided followed established rules, announced by one to a multitude. rituals, laws and beliefs. Accordingly, In addressing an anonymous crowd, teaching youths and novices these the herald performs one aspect of rules and regulations was of a modern news media. In fact, he is crucial importance in leading and a persistent figure whose role can managing the needs of the group. be traced back to the Babylonian It is therefore possible to posit age, announcing to all the decrees that information in primitive soci- of the authorities. Until recently, the herald would canvas the streets the wise and the companion. Even and souks informing citizens of new the actual elder seemed to have laws, religious legal opinions or relinquished some of his privileges fatwas as well as of the latest mov- as he followed the news broadcast. ies shown in local cinemas. Besides Sitting in front of the television, this the souks, mosques have remained remote little village seemed current a central space for instruction and and part of the world. channeling information to the faith- Newspapers were the medium ful while outside the reach of civil of the literate and the learned. authorities. They also played, most Television, on the other hand, is notably during the 1920s, a central defined by its availability. It seeks an role in communicating the tenets audience, enters private dwellings of ideologies. For instance, it was in with vivid audiovisual drama that a mosque that I first heard of Coca fulfills the needs of the illiterate vil- Cola, a non-alcoholic and there- lager. More than a mere box which fore religiously sanctioned drink. broadcasts sitcoms of Bedouin Following the demise of the 1920s themes such as honour, betrayal revolution, mosques receded and and vestal love, television is a were partially replaced by cafés. It bridge that links the tribal world to was there that people congregated the modern world. It broadcasts around the effendis and the literate the world live: Watching the news who read the dailies and listened of Blair’s visit to a European nation, to the radio in search of world the Sheikh by my side addressed news. me with a loud voice meant for Modern communication media everyone to hear: “Tony is wiser broke the monopoly of ruling elites, than Bush… Do you not think so?” clerics and the learned few over I, of course, had to agree with this knowledge. Fast and available, it piece of wisdom imparted to all his multiplied the speed of informa- subjects. tion exchange. It also promoted Television communicates experi- impersonal informational exchange, ences from far beyond the limited be it audio, visual or printed, over world of the villagers. It opens unto direct oral and interpersonal com- the unexpected and challenges munication. The following anecdote what is orally transmitted and is telling: At the frontiers of the what is physically and sensorially dry lands, by the Al Houwaiza lake, known. In fact, television tests the we were received as guests of the limits, traditions and givens of the Bou Mouhamad family. In the large closed tribal environment. And guest room, a television occupied although great leaps have been a central place exactly as an elder taken between the time of the would have. Prominent and central, cave tribes and our so-called global that television replaced the roles village, information media still car- usually played by the clan leader, ries the same tasks: Keeping watch the wise elders and even the local and scanning the horizon is now “bully”. This new tele-Sheikh con- the task of news departments with densed, in its flow of sounds and their armies of reporters, investi- images, the roles of the storyteller, gators, high-tech communication

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 59 hardware and broadcasting units, submitting them. These question- while modern governments and naires were to be submitted every parliaments now carry the task six months. Such was the level of of sounding popular opinion and surveillance in Iraq. drawing future policies. And while Under threat, and forced to tell the caller or herald used to inform on friends and relatives, citizens the multitudes, his task is now were constantly interpolated so performed by populist information as to make mere silence an infrac- services. tion of the law. In fact, citizens It is quite noticeable that what were gradually made into unpaid used to be decided swiftly among volunteer informers working under a few is now open to endless that infamous slogan put out by public debates. But, as in previous the Ministry of the Interior: “In a tribal eras, the task is one and the society where each does not police same: Informing, observing, explor- everyone else, we would need ing, deciding and teaching. All this a policeman for each”. In such a is now within the domain of the society of informers, fear prevails. printed and audio-visual media. Trusting no one, each person is prey to doubts and avoids “confid- Curious Authorities ing in friends and relatives fearing and Curiosity Killed that one improper word could If people needed to know of what be relayed to the internal security happens above them, the authori- forces.” ties needed to always be informed about what happened beneath The Censor and the Forbidden them. Recognising that information The web of professional, coerced can turn to acts, activism and social and volunteer informers forcefully practice, the authorities planted applied a series of laws which pro- an endless numbers of informers hibited the publication of material in public spaces such as mosques which “promotes defeatism, serves and cafés. The role of these secret colonial or Zionist interests, does agents was to keep those in power not fulfill the aims, interests and aware and in touch with the pulse aspirations of the people, harms of the streets. the concerns and goals of the Arab In the mid-1980s, a campaign homeland, causes injury to allied to survey and control Iraqi soci- states, slanders the reputation of ety required that all citizens fill a national liberation movements questionnaire containing questions across the world or is of low artis- about one’s family and relatives tic quality and harmful to good up to the fourth degree of kin- taste”. Such a long litany of inter- ship. It also contained questions dictions tended to multiply and about relatives who were pos- was kept open-ended for both the sibly imprisoned, executed or on authoritarian ruler and more so the run. It also contained flagrant for individuals caught in the bind of threats to those who would refuse fearful self-censorship. to disclose (or provide incorrect) Under such a constant threat information, or even be late in of death and fear of punishment, Iraqis learned to sublimate and monopolised information and knew repress the pre-linguistic human the smallest details, were now instinct for exchanging information. exposed to everyone. The exorbi- Living under the shadow of a “total tant lifestyles and practices of the informer”, exchange was purged ruling family were eagerly viewed of anything deemed sensitive and on DVDs sold in Liberation Square. as such was reduced to very little. Tabloid newspapers could now run Accordingly, it was the authorities these stories with impunity, where- who then monopolised informa- as not long before, during the bitter tion. Everyone else was cut-off and lean days of the international from communication and reduced embargo, similar stories about prof- to becoming subject to surveillance. ligate parties were overheard and What was allowed was carefully duly swallowed like ill fate. measured and rationed. People To wander around Liberation were prohibited under threat of Square, I used to wear my worst death from listening to “enemy” clothes. Everywhere, one could find radio stations and from watching little makeshift studios for copying satellite television. and recording CDs and tapes of In such a reign of terror, com- the atrocities committed by the munication is reduced to mere authorities. Why did they docu- whispers within the closed circles ment all that torture and violence? of trusted friends. And yet, Iraqis Within that authoritarian hierarchy, gradually came to prefer silence in each wanted to prove his work their personal world of cautious accomplished. All the way to the deafness, choosing to speak not, highest leader, documents were nor to listen: Fear of punishment is made and sent. A long history of ideal for killing the curious search violence was now available on for knowledge. tapes. A secretive past has awakened and was in public view. And a The Information Boom people, once in denial, picked it up Upon the fall of the regime, a diz- and embellished it. An imagination zying informational boom occurred. once repressed was set loose. The world of repression and No matter the cruel conditions secrets was suddenly divulged to all. and pressing demands of a pres- The streets were littered with the ent in turmoil, a mere exchange files of the secret services. Secrets, with a neighbour or taxi driver once carefully protected, became would inevitably bring stories of available to all. Sold for a few that past flooding in. Emaciated and dinars, these files which had cost unshaven, the missing stepped out many their lives were now read of burrows and secret dens. With and discussed, often in amazement waxen faces, they walked onto at the private information they the streets carrying the banners of contained. Alas, those informers their parties. were more often than not the clos- Yet some remained missing. est of friends and relatives. A few days after my arrival in The world was turned upside Baghdad, a rumour spread about down. The authorities which once a prison dug underneath the tun-

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 61 nel of Liberation Square. Men would reappear. An intimation that and women hurried to the site. occupied his days and on which he Amongst them, fathers, mothers built illusory hopes that comfort and that unforgettable bereaved vil- and torture. lager running as if in two directions, The return of the dead her black cloak lagging in the wind awakened vengeance; and in the behind, with arms outstretched. absence of any deterring force, the Inside the tunnel, young men dead hunted the executioners who attempted to break open a steel attempted to flee, most often with door. One of them calls: “We’ve their looted wealth. come!” And hears in the mere In such a situation, satellite tele- echo the response he longs for. vision became vital. People wanted to know everything there was to The Return of the Dead know of this violent past that was All at once, the dead awoke. All flooding the gates of the present. those that were kidnapped, or Myriad stories were told of forgot- perhaps one should say flagrantly ten persons reappearing from the collected, surfaced again in commu- tenebrous dungeons and of thieves nal graves. These men and women and criminals controlling the back who were not allowed a funeral or streets and alleyways. Kidnapping a mere prayer were found again. became a lucrative occupation. Found and then properly buried. Depending on identity and status, Relatives could now do what was the release of a captive could cost once prohibited: They could grieve. between 15 and 200 thousand At least a corpse was now avail- dollars. able whereas there had once been To drive around the city, I used no more than a mere printed a run-down car, a “Brazilian”, in notice which informed the parents order to avoid the attention of car that their sons and daughters had thieves. I saw nightmarish scenes: A “betrayed the nation”. Without a wounded man hunted by an armed corpse there is no evidence of one; two boys thrown on card- death. And an empty grave is just board boxes, bleeding to death; that. passers-by asking questions without The streets of the city were stopping for answers; a woman lined with posted notes of those screaming, asking for help as a car still missing. Not everyone was for- raced against traffic firing gun shots tunate enough to find the corpses in the air. The city was a jungle of their loved ones. This land is where brute force ruled. replete with the unknown dead. My uncle Abdel Amir was one among News, News, News those who refused to believe these Discussing the news was not a ghastly notices. He would wander mere pastime. News meant life or the streets searching for a name death. It was not about what was or picture that could lead him to happening elsewhere. The news his missing son Samer. He had an was everyone’s. Close and personal, intimation that his son was still the news told of imminent dangers. alive, perhaps abroad and that he And in the absence of police, each had to fend for him or herself. It to come. If the media can buttress demanded a quick decision and the confidence of the people, then action early the next morning. it should. For it is inevitable that News was hotly debated among genuine and coherent change can family members: Should we move only come from a real transforma- to another location? Should we tion of the general public. consider going shopping for goods? Should we send the kids to school? November 23, 2005 Should we abandon our homes? What about the future, after all this senseless violence? Questions that could be only answered, even if temporarily, by whatever news were at hand. The long bloody years of the regime spent the Iraqis’ ability to hope in a better future. The flagrant discrepancies between the ruling class and the rest of the population lay to waste the patience and diligence of the people. Now, in this sudden and unheralded moment of complete and wanton openness, dread reigns. Accordingly, the dissemination of information is pivotal in increasing or decreasing tensions. Whether the media will exploit and thrive on sensational news or promote discussion will, to a large extent, impact the situation

Zuhair al Jezairi was born in Al Najaf in 1945. He is a novelist and journalist who studied German literature in Baghdad, then worked as a journalist in Baghdad, Beirut and London. He has several published books and has contributed to a number of documentary films. Previously editor in chief of the newspaper Al Mada, he currently acts as editor in chief of the independent Iraqi news agency Awsat Al Iraq.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 63 Lebanon in Two Camps: A Partisan Fear of a Free Citizenry

Mohamad Abi Samra

Perhaps no one in Lebanon a quiet evening at home. But the could have foreseen that the huge events which followed the blast explosion and immense blast echo- would inspire the young girl with ing throughout Beirut on February a new sense of awareness of what 14, 2005 would signal the end of a her country was experiencing and humiliating and degrading era and of what really mattered to her promise a new dawn for the coun- countrymen and women. try and its depressed inhabitants. Prior to this blast, people Citizens’ Fury – those who later became the The extent of the shock of the Lebanese of March 141, the human assassination was as immense as catalysts of the Cedar Revolution the shock of the response to the – had been drowning in their own act and the political will which rose pessimism. They despaired of ever in its wake, trying to find a way out being rid of the suffocation plagu- of the grey period of its post-civil ing the country. It would take the war reality (1989-2005) – a period tonne of explosives targeting Prime where the Baathist clutches of Minister Rafiq Hariri’s convoy as it Syrian rule controlled all that was left parliament to wake them up Lebanon. and unfurl a series of epic stories, For two days, the trauma of the whose extensive chapters may one assassination led to paralysis. But day be written in the chronicles of the trauma gave way to a determi- history. nation in communities, groups and A short anecdote of an oth- individuals to rise to the challenges erwise lengthy story features a before them and face the options; 17-year-old student, who was as to continue living under the same interested in Lebanese politics as oppressive and repressive force she was intrigued by her Arabic les- that assassinated Hariri, or to rise 1 March 14, 2005 was the day sons at school. Her feeling was that up against it and shake off its grip when approximately a mil- her lessons resembled the routine on them, once and for all. lion protesters gathered to demand the withdrawal of of the daily news broadcasts her They would answer with their new- Syrian troops from Lebanon. father mundanely followed during found will. The young girl said Lebanese courage to say, in a loud voice, that political issues used to mean “noth- we blamed the Syrian regime for ing to me; and never distracted this crime.” “It’s obvious, don’t you me, for a moment, from my per- think?” was Saad Hariri’s response sonal or social life.” The girl who in English to a British journalist, comes from a typical middle class who asked him who was respon- Christian family, said that, after the sible for the killing of his father. This assassination of Hariri, “the person statement in English would be “the I was changed fundamentally […] slogan we would write on the ban- The wave of fury that came over ner we carried at the funeral which me when I heard the news of the was attended by over 150,000 assassination was unlike anything I other people. We, the twenty had ever experienced before in my friends, would call on all our friends whole life. I sensed something huge and march together in the mass was going to happen and change funeral procession on the day of the entire course of the country… February 17, 2005.” because I knew that my anger was not just my own, nor a personal A Grave Turned Shrine feeling. I knew that it was going to As Hariri and his bodyguards were take me and so many others like commemorated and brought to me, out of our state of isolation their final resting place at Martyr’s into public action” Square in downtown Beirut, the She insists that her anger was young student, who attended the not a result of any feelings towards funeral with her parents, met some the former prime minister as a friends and acquaintances. She political figure. In fact, she says “I took photographs of that majestic, had no real or specific position yet painful event. In the days that with regard to his ‘politics’; the only followed, she would continue to real connection to him was our visit Hariri’s grave, like so many citizenship and the fact that he was other individuals and groups. There, the former prime minister of my they would stand silent, sad and country. And he was brutally killed despondent, whispering or weeping, in the centre of my city, along with lighting candles and laying flow- 20 other Lebanese citizens – who ers near the grave. It was as if by were like me… or not like me… attempting to understand the man and the only thing that spared me – the person and the politician, his their fate was pure coincidence.” life and his fate – they were some- Twenty of her friends gathered how trying to comprehend the fate on the evening of February 14, of their own destiny. 2005, “motivated by the same Day after day, the wave of visi- anger. As we watched the newscast tors to the grave increased in the together, we all agreed that we vast space which they renamed would participate in the public “Freedom Square”. The grave soon funeral procession called for by turned into a national shrine – a Hariri’s family. We began to discuss symbol of the possibility of the the nature of our participation and birth of a new Lebanese national- whether or not we would have the ity which became manifest in the

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 65 breathtaking human scene on the lay in the direct line of fire on day of March 14, 2005, celebrating the Christian side of the Green the beginning of Lebanon’s libera- Line (demarcation line) in Ain el tion from the suffocating Syrian grip. Rummaneh. They brought her to On the day the human mural of Shiyyah in an attempt to save her the Lebanese flag was created, the from the crossfire of the warring young student forced her father to parties from both sides, during the stand next to her and carry one Two-Year War (1975 – 1976). of the red placards, along with all As soon as the fighter saw the the others involved in this symbolic girl, he realised she looked familiar. endeavor. Meanwhile, her uncle He quickly remembered that she returned from Cairo to see for was a former classmate at the high himself what was going on. When school he had attended before the his young niece convinced him to war erupted, just over a year ago. raise the Lebanese flag, he became After looking into each other’s eyes part of the making of these spec- and without exchanging a single tacular scenes – at the square, at word, they instantly recognised one the scene of the crime. It was the another. The uncle-fighter suddenly same flag he had rejected in his felt outside himself; he was over- adolescence and youth, as a mem- come by a cold rush of shame and ber of the revolutionary left. He humiliation at the situation in which had demonstrated in the streets he found himself. of Beirut against the raising of a The girl had reminded him of “nationalist symbol” of a country – himself as a student – a person whose people would soon become he had forgotten in the madness divided and prepared for the wars of the war and its deadly enmi- of the long “years of ashes” (1975- ties. It was as if her gaze instantly 1989). disengaged him from his present state and condition as a fighter in Deliverance from Shame a warring militia. The halo of hero- As the girl and her uncle walked ics that the war had imparted to side by side in the square, he its fighters suddenly turned into told her a story from his past a symbol of disgust and shame as a young fighter in the armed – the uncle/former fighter told his revolution, at the onset of the war niece that the Lebanese men and – which he referred to as the “years women of March 14 had taken to of ashes”. the streets to rid themselves of this The uncle told the story of legacy of shame after the assassina- a girl who came to the military tion of Rafiq Hariri. office of his organisation (where he was posted as a fighter in Realities Linked by Images Shiyyah, a Muslim neighborhood In the few days following the in the southern suburbs of Beirut), explosion and Hariri’s funeral pro- accompanied by a group of inter- cession, television cameras were nal security service officers. The placed throughout Martyr’s Square. internal security officers had taken They revealed the multitude of the girl from her house which images and scenes taking place: Daily visits to the grave-shrine, the scene of the explosion. It was daily visits to the gaping hole left as though the event had, spontane- at the scene of the crime; the ously and simultaneously, created raising of party flags and symbols the reality and its representation, in and of Lebanese flags; a candle lit; addition to the viewers and makers a rose tossed; prayers; a teardrop; of these representations. a passing epitaph posted on the The impact of this shocking mosque’s public bulletin board; event, its effect on the conscious- people lining up in a human chain ness, core, streets, squares and linking the gaping hole with the images of Lebanon turned the grave-shrine; the rotating shifts of space, in the blink of an eye and protestors at “Freedom Camp”2; in the aftermath of the explosion, as well as reports by the likes of into a place of public national Yussef Bazzi3 and the subsequent declaration, unprecedented in deluge of daily reports by so many the once-mute centre – a centre local and international journalists. that, for three decades, had been The nightly candlelight vigils ghost-like, the cursed and murder- – where strangers stood, side by ous arena of a ‘Lebanised’ civil war side, hoping and praying for minis- (1975). ter Bassel Fleihan4 to emerge from a pending death by third degree Between Murder and Fire burns – became a silent testament Those were the decades of the to the feeling of solidarity amongst “years of ashes” – the ashes that the strangers, touched by one we licked off every house, square another like the whispering flames and street, every instant, until we of candles. became a seized, confiscated coun- 2 Freedom Camp was a campsite “Their footsteps were light,” and try. Day after day, we accepted to set up in Martyr’s Square (later referred to as Freedom Square like “never before, silence envel- become malleable material mould- by the writer) by young oped the crowd”, Hassan Daoud ed by the events, news, images and members of the March 14 would write in his beautiful account “political” discourse manufactured coalition, who were calling for 5 the resignation of pro-Syrian of this gathering. by public ghosts (the Baathist President Emile Lahoud and The novel spectacle and the Syrian oligarchy) and their agents the removal of Syrian and sights, sounds and emotions from the subservient Lebanese pro-Syrian elements from the Lebanese military, security and associated with this new experi- political ranks in dark, secret places intelligence services. ence were broadcast live to the as clear and public as the light of 3 A journalist at Al-Mustaqbal small-screen televisions in peoples’ day. newspaper, writing on March homes. These daily realities and That is how we lived, bowing 20, 2005. scenes would make a direct con- to political death, social erosion, 4 Bassel Fleihan was a former nection with people, touching them corruption, human and cultural member of parliament and with their warmth. The painful hemorrhage throughout the war Minister of Economy and Commerce. He died on April event, the public’s experiences and years, then under Syrian dominion. 18, 2005, succumbing to burns individual incidents would appear It took the blast of the colossal he incurred from the bomb instantly and continuously in every explosion to wake us from our blast that killed Hariri. He was sitting beside the former Prime home. long slumber. Minister at the time of the The stream and world of sights, Not only did this sudden explosion. images and sentiments linked pri- awakening create a vast, vibrant 5 Al-Mustaqbal newspaper, March vate homes to the large square and Lebanese space for a political and 27, 2005.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 67 public national declaration, it also schoolbook history that attributes produced extended “television” the start of the Mount Lebanon days for the new globalised “real- War of 1860 to a fight between ity TV” – televised days whose two boys. instantaneous images magnified Speaking at one of his sessions the power of the live reality and with reporters – mouthpieces for its daily events in the streets and the public ghosts – the Lebanese squares and around the shrine. General-President, so concerned In those long days of new with appeasing the “glorious strat- realities mixing with overflowing egy”, made a public announcement images, the young student became calling for the streets and public addicted to that which she used spaces to be cleared, for “people to find boring: Her father’s habit to seek the refuge of their homes”, of watching the news. Her mother grossly forewarning them of a civil begged her not to spend too much war of ghosts. time in front of the TV to try to push her daughter away from what A War Threat the event had awakened in her Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, the “mas- consciousness, in the streets and in ter” of Hizbullah and its resistance, the public spaces. The girl refused, would also be forced out of crying out, “They did not just kill his silence during the course of him… they burned him to death! these events. The toppling of the Do you realise what burning him Karameh government6 in Freedom means?!” Square forced him out of the Hizbullah “Military Zone” in the General “Joyous Strategy” Southern Suburbs for the first time. We arose from our slumber and He would lead a demonstration of onto the streets which once loyalty to Assad’s Syria and Baathist resembled empty models and party in Riad el-Solh Square7 on monuments before being brought March 8. back to life by a human appetite Those who took part in Hariri’s for public political declarations funeral procession and who against assassinations secretly protested near the grave they planned by public ghosts. Our continuously visited, would never coming out also brought out have imagined that what they were our republic’s President, Emile doing would be met by such anger, Lahoud – the general-appointed fear, bitterness and loathing by any president, so thrilled by the joyous other Lebanese. That is, until they 6 So named after the Prime strategy of the “unified path and witnessed the March 8 demonstra- Minister Omar Karameh, who destiny” of the Lebanese with the tion crawling, as if towards war, led headed this government’s cabinet. Baathist Syrian occupation – from by Hizbullah to Riad el-Solh Square, his silence. He would speak. And, the square adjacent to the grave- 7 Riad el-Solh Square is located in downtown Beirut, a few with his customary ineloquence, he shrine. hundred metres away from described the crime as “a base (or Lebanese flags, waved by the Martyrs Square (renamed vile) act”, as if he were describing a masses of this angry demonstration, “Freedom Square” by March 14 and the writer) and Hariri’s brawl between two kids in a village appeared to come directly from a grave. square – mimicking our tedious culture of kitsch and parroting, like mummified masks, in comparison attempt to do the same. to the new, crisp and clean flags of To put a quick end to the the free camp in “Freedom Camp” events and frighten Lebanese – the camp where students demon- citizens from trying to rid them- strated near the grave of its ill-fated selves of the control of the Syrian owner – a fate which steered the Baathist occupation, Hizbullah, course of Lebanon’s independence or the party of al Taklif al Shar’i from the Syrian Baathist regime. (official command by religious The March 8 demonstration law), sent its constituency to the resembled those of countries run streets on March 8. The result by fossilised dictatorships and would be the intensification of the totalitarian regimes, similar to will of Lebanese to turn out and the former Soviet Union, where demonstrate in Freedom Square, miserable people marched in on March 14, 2005. The act of demonstrations carrying petrified March 14 infuriated the “chief of banners and slogans bearing simul- resistance and liberation”, Sayyid taneously a mixture of obeisance, Hassan Nasrallah. His immediate loyalty and loathing. response was to offer a prize, from Building on this example and his endless resistance campaign rooted in the Assadi Baathist and its most holy symbol (an Israeli regime, rallies in Damascus turned rifle captured by his movement out in juxtaposition to the Cedar in one of its military operations), Revolution, harbouring their bit- as a letter of credit guaranteeing terness against the Lebanon of loyalty and devotion to the Syrian freedom and independence and intelligence officer – who would against the report by the inter- pass through the streets of Beirut, national committee investigating in fear and for the last time, to say the Hariri assassination. Lebanon farewell to the chaste and loyal cannot be free and independent beloved of his intelligence services. according to Baathist ideology How beautiful and breathtaking – unless it is “secretly” and “publicly” was the way that the people of governed by a Syrian intelligence March 14 snuffed out the flame of officer, entrenched in Anjar8, the the March 8 demonstration called headquarters of Syrian intel- for by the official command of ligence in Lebanon. For over two religious law and war. They (March decades, it was this officer and his 14) were gathering for Lebanon 8 Lieutenant-General Rustom Ghazali was the Syrian Chief security apparatus who were the and the living in it, a colourful of Intelligence in Lebanon guarantors and governors of the horizon, without anger, fear, enmity, from 2002-2005, succeed- Lebanese political administration. bitterness and war, supporting the ing Ghazi Kanaan, who had served in that post for two Hariri could no longer tolerate political process, unity and strength. decades, before becoming the ramifications of this governing Syria’s Interior Minister in 2004. apparatus. He would distance him- A Rally of Deception Officials claim that Kanaan committed suicide on October self from it, slowly and warily; his The student, whose days of bore- 12, 2005. Ghazali was named a punishment would be execution – dom with the news were over, suspect in Hariri’s assassination to set straight the “unified path and agreed with her schoolmates that by Judge Detliv Mehlis, who headed the first phase of the destiny” and as a lesson to anyone they would participate in the international investigation into who would think, for a moment, to March 8 demonstration, thinking it the assassination of Rafiq Hariri.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 69 was yet another demonstration or “Freedom Square” if the Riad el- protest in the series of colourful Solh demonstration frightened and liberating protests which had them. One of them replied that taken place in “Freedom Square”. what worried them and what But her school (a girl’s school) did they were thinking about was not cancel classes for that day, so not “fear”, but rather finding the they were unable to participate in difficult means and ways that will the resistance party’s large demon- allow them to live in the same stration. country with those participating in That evening, after listening to that impenetrable, belligerent and Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah’s speech hijacked demonstration. and watching excerpts of the Hassan Daoud wrote10 that a demonstration in the evening news, woman named Afaf told her friend, she couldn’t believe that the resis- on the day of Rafiq Hariri’s funeral, tance leader’s rally to Riad el-Solh that she had decided to leave her square was about loyalty to Assad’s place of residence in the Southern Syria and its cronies, threatening Suburb (Hizbullah’s stronghold and the “makers of the scenes” from headquarters/fortress). She was Freedom Square with the ghosts of feeling that she was in the midst the past civil war. of a formal mourning period for the deceased, while the people of The Grey Demonstration Dahiyeh (the Southern Suburb) As a fearful observer of the March were “so distant, as if Hariri’s 8 demonstration, I walked with funeral had happened in a differ- it from Bechara el-Khoury Street ent country.” But on their day, they towards Riad el-Solh Square. A exited their Dahiyeh – their ghetto glimpse of Freedom Square shock- – to Riad el-Solh Square, in another ingly revealed to me that it had country. They came out under offi- reverted back to its state of grey, cial religious command from Iran eerie desertion. When I reached and cried out, “Berri, Nasrallah and the tents of Freedom Square, I Dahiyeh (all of Dahiyeh) …!” found them eerily empty of all but a few silenced protestors. Fearful The Leader Appears of the cold and the eeriness, many Some of the Lebanese media scenes from the grey years came was not taken over by the Sufi back to me. I did not realize then spell, or hijacked by the presence that Hezbollah’s grey demonstra- of the (Sayyid) master and leader tion – which marched with the of the resistance – the magnate of strength of its human shields and its slogans, masses and rituals. This the power of their weakness and Lebanese media was not deceived their fear of freedom, eternalizing by the “official religious command” the Sultan of Weakness and Fear manifested in the likes of a “war upon them, and his mastery over public”, into which Hizbullah melt- 9 Al Hayat newspaper, March 12, others – resembled a “stroke of a ed the Shiites of Lebanon… until 2005. sledgehammer on water”, to quote it (Hizbullah) was able to assemble 9 10 Al Mustaqbal newspaper, Waddah Charara . them, encircle them and mobilise February 27, 2005. I asked the women from the sons of the poorest and weak- est among them, towards arenas of Setting the platform’s security death and a celebration of death in took an entire hour prior to the its “demonstration of shrouds” (the appearance. Meanwhile, the mas- famous demonstration where the ter of ceremonies entertained Khomeinist-party dressed its par- the crowd with his own brand of ticipants in the grave-shrouds which zajal14, empty in form and entranc- were handed out as holiday gifts). ing at the same time, until the long Akin to that “demonstration awaited moment finally came… of shrouds” – and the tactics of The master of ceremonies assembling, encircling and mobilising declared, “Do you know that the – the March 8 demonstration set leader Sayyid Nasrallah is here forth from Dahiyeh, the ghetto and among you?!” fortress, to the other (new) square The reply was typical, with cries in Hariri’s monumental construc- of praise and loyalty, “God is Great” tion project, so dazzling, stunning and “Death to America” (their and bewitching – like the unveiled “Great Satan”). femininity so vilified in the doctrine During this moment, the private of Hizbullah. This bedazzlement security of the “master-leader” was became clear by the crowd’s reac- secreting him from building to tion to the place; they were visibly building throughout new down- fascinated, but equally unsettled town Beirut, after “the mayor of and startled by it. This was the the capital had instructed the feeling the Secretary-General must relevant infrastructure engineers, have had, passing through the dark the day before, to facilitate the halls of the huge (now closed) work of Hizbullah’s security appa- Buddha Bar11 – the sort of place ratus. Hizbullah’s security people which comes to us from the land investigated the downtown sew- of the ‘Great Satan’, to corrupt us age network under the Riad and divert us from the righteous el-Solh square, aided by police path of resistance and martyrdom dogs” (according to an eye-witness which is the only guarantee for the account by Radwan ‘Akil himself).15 crushing victory over the West and the destruction of their evil, deca- Fear of Being Orphaned dent civilisation. All of this alerts us to the fact that 11 A nightclub in the downtown area, near the Riad el-Solh Radwan ‘Akil described the Hizbullah’s war community is also square, site of the March 8 scene as follows, “From behind a police community – perhaps this demonstration. protective, bulletproof glass, fitted police-nature is at the core of its 12 Martyred, maimed or impris- inside a window of the Asseily militancy. It also alerts us to the fact oned by Israel in this context. building, the head of the resistance that the legendary strength associ- 13 Annahar newspaper, March 9, emerged, making his secured- ated with the master-leader and 2005. ghostly appearance, to address the intimidation emanating from 14 A traditional folk genre of his enraptured crowd, introducing the belligerency and impenetrability improvised poetry that is usu- them as members of his war com- of his crowd was solely produced ally accompanied by a rhythm from musical instruments. It is munity and describing them as the at Riad el-Solh square in order to especially popular in Syria and ‘families of the martyrs, the maimed, “apologise to Assad’s Syria and the Lebanon. 12 the liberated prisoners and of the Baath” – after the injury done to 15 Annahar newspaper, March 9, imprisoned’13. this regime’s fragile and transparent 2005.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 71 feelings by the “obscenities” hurled munity were meant to intimidate at them from some of the protes- the feeling of free public expres- tors of Freedom Square. sion in “Freedom Square”. Instead, The constituency of Hizbullah they contributed to an even let loose the reins of their hysteri- greater demonstration of solidarity cal and superstitious imaginations. and strength by the Lebanese of There wasn’t an indecent rumour March 14 and its Lebaneseness in that they didn’t attach to the other its great, million-person festivities protesters – using their endless – a celebration of the final purging repertoire of vilifying women or of the fear, humiliation and disgrace any male with a feminine trait, as is which had rested in their hearts for the norm of this “martyr culture”. so long. The first party speaker placed the And if the celebration of March assassination of Hariri within this 14 rectified the inability of past culture’s framework, by adding attempts to end the war, the March to Hariri’s description as a “giv- 8 demonstration only reinforced ing man”, a man “having given his its loyalty to the community of war blood” – transforming the man and its public ghosts. According into a party “martyr”. It was as if to Hazem Saghiyeh, this “wolf- Hariri went to his death willingly; as posture”was the embodiment of a if he was on a suicide mission on political sense drawn from hostility, the sacrificial altar of the “brotherly recalling the definition of national- relations” between Lebanon and ism and politics emanating from Syria. Arab junta16 regimes.17 Meanwhile, the scared orphan Saleh Bashir was dubious about of Assad’s Syria and Baath would terming “what the Lebanese did proclaim, “Nobody can force us after Rafiq Hariri’s assassination out of Lebanon, its mind, heart or as demonstrations”. According to future.” Yet, Assad’s Syria would him, “they do not belong to one withdraw from Lebanon, without a set group, nor do they manifest trace of gloom or fear – except in primitive behaviors, nor do they the hearts of its “orphans”. engage in rallies with a discourse Fouad Siniora, the friend and of war – of compensating for it, of lifelong companion of Rafiq Hariri, maintaining it, of vowing for it or of predicted, “The world would only finishing it”; unlike Hizbullah in the turn on the criminals”, after the March 8 demonstrations. series of assassinations and rash of ad hoc bombings afflicting the Familiarity among Strangers country in the aftermath of the I – who walked in the midst Syrian army and intelligence with- of the free Lebanese men and drawal from Lebanon. women citizens at large, on the day of March 14, 2005 – understood The Purge from Disgrace why I had never before been The language of General “Joyous overcome with such strong and 16 Regimes which took power Strategy” about the “vile act” and confident feelings. The demarcation through acts of coups d’état. the March 8 mass congregation of lines of the war society had been 17 Al Mustaqbal, 27 March, 2005. the scared and irrational war com- removed, really and truly, 15 years after the war’s end. These feelings hallucinogenic trance. overcame me; and, it felt to me There was a sense of faint like a full cycle of Lebanese his- familiarity – tearful, questioning, tory had come to a close between bewildered and angry. They did 1975 and 2005. As I looked into not call for revenge, but rather the the faces of the joyful young men chance to participate silently, or and women around me, I recalled in partial silence, in the injury and how depressing my modest and the sadness that their individuality uncertain role had been in drawing felt, en masse. Nor was this group the features of the Lebanese war fed by a harsh power controlling society, when I succumbed to the or robbing the feelings and cores revolutionary songs and depress- of individuals and groups – unifying ing discourse of our Pan-Arabist their gestures, nuances and words; youth, during the first two years of transforming them into a mass or the war. collective in one, in the singular I – who had walked with the tense. crowds in Hariri’s funeral almost In the tranquil, tearful funeral, a month earlier – noticed the they were aware that, with their mourners looking into each oth- participation in this pain, they ers’ faces, in a different way, in a would be capable of reconciling way they were not used to… or, themselves and between them- in a way that made them forget selves, so that they could thrust the long, miserable war, the years off the subjugation of that unjust of ashes which had scattered and power that demeaned them and imprisoned them in defeat, humili- had tried to kill their will to live ation, degradation and fear. They and to be independent. had spoken to each other; they had known each other before; they The Coloured Fragility were clear to one another… from In a quick comparison between another life. the two demonstrations of March It was as if the first time they 8 and March 14, based on obser- had ever gone into the streets and vations and the many journalistic squares was when they walked writings accompanying them, one in the funeral. And, in the funeral, can establish the following: these strangers, silenced by grief, What the Lebanese of March would move forward as a gather- 14 did was born of a contempo- ing of people similar, different and rary present. Their cultural and united. Each individual and person social sources are diverse: A con- displayed a novel familiarity, fragile nection with the outside world, presence, spontaneity and impul- immigration and return, television siveness, while remaining resolute and globalised satellite broad- – incapable of being “dispatched” casts, Monnot street and the new and absorbed by a dense mass downtown Beirut, Internet and assembly demanding power and new communication tools, new calling on “the one, higher sultan”, fashions and trends and modes of whose inspiration comes from contemporary expression, nightlife signs delivered by a Sufi-like and and entertainment – restaurants,

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 73 cinemas, seeking pleasure and joy, stationed nearby. This was done for contemporary music and the cul- the sake of “unifying the mythical ture of physical freedom – and an nation” which assassinated Rafiq abundant female presence, indeed, Hariri because he finally rose up the presence of the feminine in all against it and sought its removal her colours, her fashion and her from Lebanon. His tragic assassina- fragility… All of this and others tion, without our paying attention is beyond politics, especially with – we, who had rejected his policies regard to the Arab meaning of for so long – was the beginning of politics manifested in political party ridding Lebanon of its tragedy. festivals and rallies, military training camps, revolutionary youth and the November 24, 2005 “cubs” of the one party. In opposition to the above, the March 8 demonstration emerged: Veiled bodies shackled in their movement, tamed into a petty way of life constructed by an ideological and militant party framework… so that nothing remains of the person but a body steeped in the party spirit and its masks – incapable of concealing this laden, miserable weight that creates masses herded from a higher pulpit relaying the empty discourse of its flawless, infallible speakers. Could this be the reason why Fadi Tufayli18 wrote – from Holland, far from the Lebanon of March 14 – a letter apologising to the Lebanese for the shame he had brought upon them and himself for having been a member of the Pan- Syrian Nationalist Social Party? It was an apology – a confession to having taken part in turning the Armenian School in Zkak el Blat19 into a military base belonging to a party, where party members mingled with Syrian intelligence personnel. There, they would write reports and collect and map information on neighborhoods, its 18 Al Mustaqbal, March 6, 2005. residents, their relationships and 19 An area in the centre of their visitors which they would Beirut that borders downtown. present to the intelligence officer Mohammed Abi Samra was born in 1953. He is a Lebanese novelist and journalist whose books include Pauline and Her Phantoms (1990), The Previous Man (1995), Image Dwellers (2003) and Lands of Fear and Shame: A Journey (2004). He currently works at the Annahar daily newspaper.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 75

PANELS

Whither Lebanon?, Hazem Saghieh, Wissam Saadeh, Nahla Chahal, Kamal Hamdan; Moderator: Bilal Khbeiz Lebanon and the Many Returns of the Repressed, Hazem Saghieh After the Syrian Withdrawal, Whither our Lumpen-Democracy?, Wissam Saadeh Lebanon: Compromise or a New Social Contract?, Nahla Chahal Whither Lebanon?, Kamal Hamdan

Pulling Focus: Art and Curatorial Practice Reconstruct Science, Carol Squiers, Steve Kurtz; Moderator/Coordinator: Lynn Love Science in Images: From Eugenics to Human Cloning, Carol Squiers Crime, Art and the Life Sciences, Steve Kurtz/Critical Art Ensemble Whither Lebanon?

Hazem Saghieh, Wissam Saadeh, Nahla Chahal, Kamal Hamdan Moderator: Bilal Khbeiz

Since February 14, 2005, the an effect on the country’s future date of the assassination of Prime course and destination? Minister Rafiq Hariri, the situation The subject of this panel in Lebanon has been undergoing which the four participants have a process of reformulation along attempted to tackle, is timely and new and unprecedented lines. This relevant. In fact, “where is Lebanon reformulation is evident in the level heading?” or “whither Lebanon?” of thought, as well as in the politics has been a recurring question that and economics of Lebanon and on has constantly resurfaced since both its internal and external fronts. the founding of Lebanon in the How do we formulate a dis- 1940s. But, not since the 1970s has course around the decisive events the country witnessed events like – the withdrawal of the Syrian the ones that took Lebanon by troops, accompanied by the series storm after Home Works II, in the of political assassinations – which autumn of 2003. have led to the political polarisa- In the wake of these events, tion of the country over the past the question and title of this panel year? Furthermore, to what extent became the subject of much- is it possible to claim that the heated debate. The participants of direction of the country’s future this panel were probably able to is determined by these events? intuitively deduce that certain perils We should perhaps begin by ask- would threaten Lebanon following ing: How can the way in which the assassination of Prime Minister we understand these events have Hariri on February 14, 2005; but surely no one could have foreseen or predicted the extent and scope of the catastrophic events that the country would face in the ensuing months. “Whither Lebanon? Where is Lebanon heading?” This question provoked great anxiety and fervour in 2005 and was at the centre of an increasingly intensifying debate throughout 2006. Today, it is the subject on almost everyone’s mind and of almost every discussion. Perhaps we need to append to the original question – which, in 2006, took on an extremely pessimistic connotation – a simpler, yet more worrisome question: “Whither the Lebanese?”

Bilal Khbeiz, 2007

Bilal Khbeiz was born in 1963, in Lebanon. He is a writer, poet and journalist. His books of poetry include Of My Father’s Illness and the Unbearable Heat (1997) and A Memory of Air, Perhaps (1991). His collections of essays include The Moment You Open Your Eyes is the Moment of Disaster (2007); The Enduring Image and the Vanishing World (2005); Globalization and the Manufacture of Transient Events (2002); That the Body is Sin and Deliverance (1998). He has participated in various exhibitions including the Sharjah Biennale in 2007 and 2003; Venice Biennale (2003); Witt de Witt, Rotterdam (2002); and the Hamra Project, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut (2000). Since 1994, he has worked as an editor for the cultural supplement of the daily, Arabic language newspaper, Annahar, in Beirut.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 79 Lebanon and the Many Returns of the Repressed

Hazem Saghieh

In 1975, during the early days a child and forgot the insomnia that of the war, a Syrian intellectual kept me on watch for late night residing in Beirut wrote: “When visitors. It was in Lebanon that my Lebanon caught fire, I felt the books were published and distrib- calamity twofold: Personally and uted. Moreover, through Lebanon, nationally. I, bent on Arab national- I became intimately aware of ism, felt fire consuming not only my modern culture. I learned how to country but also my own home. interact with my wife and children Although there are many direct in ways less oriental. I learned how and original causes that led to the work can be organised and regu- destruction of Lebanon, this war is lated. I learned the management of nevertheless gratuitous. Yet, I can- time. While it was in the West that not but think that Lebanon was I first encountered modernity, it fated to such wanton destruction. was nevertheless in Lebanon that For no matter how soiled and rutty, I attempted, successes and failures this country was a small window aside, to practice it even while open unto democracy. It welcomed under the pressure of an oriental the winds of modern culture environment.” which turned it into the intellectual It is Yassine al Hafez. A writer laboratory of the Arab world and who experienced a range of radi- foregrounded Beirut as its cultural cal Arab politics, from nationalist and political capital. The target was to Marxist, until he came to stress precisely this window.” Elaborating on modernity and rationalism further, he wrote that not only did without reneging, like others of his Lebanon “offer me shelter after generation, on Marxism and Arab more than nine months spent in nationalism. And it is safe to pre- prison (and it is in prison that the sume that had he lived longer, had realities of the Arab political struc- he not succumbed to cancer in the ture are exposed), it also made late 1970s, he would have eventu- me feel, following a brief spell of ally dropped whatever remained of estrangement, the warmth I, for so his unique version of Marxism and long, had sorely missed. I slept like Arab nationalism. Such a presump- tion can certainly be hotly debated ouflaged its actual mechanisms with although, perhaps, to no avail. Yet, fragments borrowed from cur- what is certain is that he, unlike rent and novel ideologies such as other Marxist and Arab national- Arab nationalism, state nationalism, ists, did not castigate this country. socialism, liberalism and others. The Rather, he saw in it a democracy marriage between the nation-state that lacked elsewhere. He, born of and the many clannish partiali- an Armenian mother and raised ties released the repressed and in a rigorously masculine and repressed the free. The Christians tribal environment, was certainly and more precisely the Maronites, attuned to notice what others were the formerly repressed. It missed. What is remarkable in was they who, following a number how al Hafez praises the Lebanese of historical junctures and cultural experiment lies in his belief that circumstances were to play the this country was being punished for role of the local intermediaries for having embarked on a journey that, the advent of the nation-state car- no matter its many failings, was ried on Western wings, following conspicuously advanced. what seemed like an interminable Can this Lebanon, as described Ottoman rule under which they by al Hafez, be retrieved? suffered the brunt of regulations It is my opinion that Lebanon’s tailored for non-Muslim subjects. sectarian factions and active forces Yet, this Maronite led nation-state be invited to agree on the nature pressed the other communities of this question before attempting and clans to receive this imperious an answer. If they agree that the new fact as a bitter defeat. Protests question is as such, a light will then filled the ‘Syrian’ coastal cities and glow at the end of the tunnel. But violence spread across the South, political reality leads us elsewhere. perpetrated by those who came to For whenever we ask: “Whither be known as “al ‘Isabat” or gangs. Lebanon?” We find ourselves Eventually, the defeated had to asking: “Lebanon, whence?”, thus repress their other aspirations and folding the suggestion culled from capitulate to a de facto situation. al Hafez’s observations. The Druze could not but feel To say that a current event in the defeat. For the 19th century sectarian societies is, in fact, always which gradually carried forward a previous event should by now the birth of modern Lebanon be well rehearsed. Such of course was already, for them, the start is the consequence of a structural of an inevitable regression which calcification in sectarian formations had started with the murder of which makes of every future a Bashir Joumblatt. As for the Sunnis, restart, or an objection to a start. they had to relinquish clannish It is most probable that the most extensions and trading posts far active and weighty element in inter- within Syrian cities and moreover, Lebanese conflicts was begotten to succumb to non-Sunni and non- with the birth of modern Lebanon. Muslim rulers. On the other hand, And because it had previous origins the Shiites measured their defeat and preambles, it successfully cam- in terms of the demotion of Jabal

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 81 ‘Amel and its forced separation In following both a chrono- from Northern Palestine. logical and conceptual order, the The fall of the Ottoman Empire first of the repressed to return and the rise of an independent were the Sunnis. Cut off from the nation-state could not form an expanse of Sunni Islam across the untainted progressive subject. For, Arab lands, they returned first as it must be said that progress and Nasserite Arab nationalists before regression could not have figured morphing, a few years later, into on our agendas back then. Clans solidarity with the struggle of the and sectarian communities cannot Palestinian resistance. But the tax their inflated egos with any Sunnis, tied to their occupations search for objectivity. Also, the pro- in the public sector and to the gressive trend, represented in the domains of private business, were nation-state, was already tarnished always inclined towards stabil- by the monopoly of one sectarian ity and as such, were ambivalent community. And so the Maronites, in their politics regarding the delegated by local history to Lebanese nation-state. By the time play the role of the intermedi- Rafiq Al Hariri appeared on the ary, appeared as cruel teachers political scene, it was already the exacting high fees from all the late tendency for Sunnis to speak of applicants. expression and gratification instead When scanning modern of repression. Although this shift Lebanese history, it appears that came late,years after a civil war the repressed is summoned by that was particularly destructive one sect after another. With each to urban centres and after equally summoning, a shock postpones, yet strenuous years spent with their again, the already difficult coupling “objective allies”, who ruled over of modernity with clannishness them in the name of “regional and the nation-sate with sectarian custody”, the assassination of Rafiq identities. These repressed identi- Hariri was crucial in exposing the ties would launch one return after limited repression they had to another, as the nation-state led endure as Lebanese citizens, rela- by the Maronites was increasingly tive to the exorbitant repression narrowing and fixing the meaning they had had to endure under the of the nation and its concomitant various versions of populist Arab version of modernity. And, although nationalisms. this process of exclusion which In turn, with the Druze, the employed a number of softened repressed returned in the details mechanisms such as disavowal, of a political rhetoric which tells of suppression and repulsion, was a deep-seated anxiety concerned practiced and almost accom- with demographic disadvantage. plished between 1920 and 1975, Often, this problem was avoided it was nevertheless clear that the through a diligent search for unwanted components of the new strong allies or, as was once the nation-state could successfully resist case, through the formation of a liquidation and formulate their own “National Movement” which self-conscious discourse. inflated and expanded that small sectarian group. acknowledges the symbolic capital After a short social-demo- of other groups and ceases to graphic exercise led by Moussa assume the task of representing al Sadr, the Shiite version of the the others; and therefore ends repressed returned explosively in the centrality of the romantically the form of a fundamentalist Islam, assumed rural and Christian iden- following the Iranian model and tity of Lebanon. then through an essentialist mystifi- - In socio-economic terms, it cation of the resistance, long after it intimates an openness and willing- had already accomplished its objec- ness to share posts and status, as tive tasks. well as fairly distribute the fruits of Undoubtedly, the Sunni trans- economic growth. Particularly in formation which began in February view of the last thirty years which 2005, engendered a wider but also have shown that holding primary fundamental base that can enrich positions within the state such as and finally embody that old call to the presidency and the army’s chief participate in the sovereignty of command are no guarantee against the Lebanese nation-state. It also grave frustrations suffered within set in motion a process which, if society. successful, can undo the Christian The Christians never had such monopoly over the state and an opportunity during the years replace it with a more diverse and of tempestuous radicalism which complex consensus. Yet much has frightened the minorities. Today, to happen before we see the frui- there is such an opportunity. And, it tion of this transformation; above behooves the Christians to partake all, an equal transformation and in the adventure with added con- partiality to the state by the Shiites, fidence. It is of great importance who may then find a way to miti- to call on the Shiites to shift from gate their anxieties and move away gazing at a horizon mobilised by from repression towards a stage of communitarian forces and defined expression and gratification. by regional forces to one that is As in the tango, this dance internal and Lebanese. In fact, all requires more than one dancer. are eagerly called upon to take the Even if apparently paradoxical, initiative and avoid the well-known every time Christians voice their calamities that will arise if the welcome to the Sunni transfor- Shiites were to wait for their trans- mation, they, in fact, obliquely formation until after they had lived encourage the Shiites to do the and suffered a disaster such as that same. This welcome is multi-lay- which befell the Sunnis. ered: Now that Israel is out and none - In terms of ideas, it replaces a depend on the roles it may still play, folkloric nationalism which is often the Lebanese are invited to organ- chauvinistic if not racist towards ise their own versions of patriotism Palestinians, Syrians and other non- within one general national bond, Lebanese, with a constitutional thus avoiding transgressing the nationalism. natural diversity of this nation and - In terms of national culture, it its given place within the world. A

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 83 sobre and reasonable patriotism is coloured by the various sectarian communities. But when each group believes itself to be a nation and a people, we will once again become what one Western diplo- mat described us as in 1860: “Two equally barbaric tribes.” The repressed, the lot of them, must return in order to be divulged and gratified. Only then can this nation regain some of the features described by Yassine al Hafez, albeit mixed with that bitterness we know so well from having to walk the tortuous paths of a past we can claim as an entrance to the future. Hazem Saghieh is a writer and a journalist. He worked for the Beiruti daily Assafir between 1974 and 1988. He then moved to writing editorial columns for the Arabic daily Al Hayat published in London for which he founded and oversees still the editing of the weekly political supplement Tayyarat. He has written and published extensively on Lebanon, Arabism and political Islam.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 85 After the Syrian Withdrawal, Whither our Lumpen-Democracy?

Wissam Saadeh

The political trend that prones struggle and join the movement of “mumanaa”1, or the discourse of resistance. forbearance from the treacher- Empowered by the moral high- ous seduction of notions such ground, this discourse of resistance as democracy, used by western affords itself a scope where the powers to lure masses into sub- pristine icon of the masochist dis- servience and the advancement of sident is countered with the image their interests or desires, presents of the corrupt collaborator lick- 1 “Mumanaa” was first used by itself as a wide front of resistance ing boots at the gates of foreign Ibn Khaldun in his Muqaddimah, against the colonial assaults of our embassies. From within this scale, it in reference to a collective mindset disposed for resis- day. When it charges against the has granted a motherly clemency tance to the temptation of forces pressing for widening the to the political movements, who by refinement. Ibn Khaldoun realm of democracy, or the sever- and large have elected democracy, observed that once social groups settled in cities and ing of the sway of despotism, it is freedom and the end of the state acquired sophistication and the not unlike the dissident who has of exceptionalism2 as their prime appreciation for luxury, they been left to the gaols of humili- battles. They are not branded with lost their power to rule and defend their standing against ation, torture and forgetting for the charge of treason, rather, they outside invaders. years and who ventures on a are regarded as having been duped, 2 States of exceptionalism are hunger strike on the “intuition” as not having been aware of the prevailing over regimes of that his tormentor – a seasoned consequences of their acts, mind- governance in the Arab patriot himself – is caught at that less of who is manipulating them world (Egypt, Syria). Enacted at various stages in their moment in a diplomatic impasse, from the backstage. contemporary history under or subjected to concerted inter- To have been charged with the guise of their “wars” (or national pressure – purportedly an treason would have been easier. truce settlements) with Israel, these supra-legal measures “imperialist offensive”. We are to The problem is that such charges suspend regulations pertain- trust that this dissident – perhaps a cannot be simply slapped onto all ing to democracy, freedom of masochist – was able to determine those who have lost patience with expression and civil liberties. In Lebanon, the postwar era right from wrong and keep his the discourse and its dark repute. has been marked with “excep- compass sharp. He may very well In the unraveling of its logic, the tional” (each one was deemed have undertaken the hunger strike struggle against colonialism ranks to have been the first and last) constitutional amendments to in protest of his continued incar- second to the struggle against fit the political order. ceration to continue his nationalistic sedition and the struggle against treason itself ranks second to the foundational myths that will not struggle to prevent the masses – us come back to haunt us. – from being duped and captivated There are no duped. from within the nation. The edifying Communities make decisions to paradigm of the resistance front is blind themselves either to the the fortification of the self against cause of accepting despotism, or all that can dupe or deceive. First the cause of “endorsing colonial- and foremost, it stands as a defense ism”. This act of blinding, be it against usurpation by colonial and shallow or sagacious, is borne imperialist ventures (no matter within the duplicity of the dis- 3 In the year 2000, the Israeli the scope of its designs), a brace course mobilising the community. It army pulled out of the territory it occupied in the southern against the lure the usurper inspires is instrumental to its presentation, tip of Lebanon (a bordering in the object of his coveting before, cogency and diffusion. zone it referred to as a “secu- during and after the event. The duplicity reached significant rity buffer zone” that had been occupied since 1978, totaling It is pointless to retort to this heights when communities had 12% of the Lebanese territory), discursive representation by assert- to deal with events such as the except for a small hamlet of ing proof of our maturity and of March 14th commune6 that mobil- pastureland known as the Shebaa Farms. The “path of the strength of our moral defenses, ised Christians, Sunnis, Druze resistance” refers to the coali- or simply by noting that there is no and democracy activists to band tion of political movements political value to the notion of “the together at Martyrs Square. The and parties, with Hizbullah at their helm, branding a slew duped”. The modus operandi of opposition front represented all of slogans that include the the resistance front rests on three those gathered, whose number liberation of the Sheb‘a farms predicates, namely, staving off fitna exceeded a million souls, as a mass hamlet. or discord, exposing treachery and of duped, unaware of what they 4 The Fitzgerald Commission vigilance to confront attack. were doing, or at least, unaware of was appointed by the UN Secretary General’s office to There are no duped. Neither what was in store of them. Soon gather preliminary field findings were those masses marching to after the hypocritically regretful in the immediate aftermath redeem “the path of resistance”3 regard was bestowed onto those of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri duped, nor were the masses one million “duped”, the loyalists (February-March 2005). It was demanding that “the truth about” of March 14th became regarded as headed by Irish investigator on the assassination of Rafiq Hariri loyalists of a revolution betrayed; Peter Fitzgerald and included a team of international inves- be exposed, duped. Demanding and thus were the duped trans- tigators. It was mandated to the truth be exposed is not merely formed into the betrayed. publish a report with recom- a demand for spelling out what the The attempt to rescue the mendations to lay the ground th for a full-scale investigation that majority of Lebanese suspected March 14 event from the double would lead ultimately to a trial from the first moment following charge, first as being an object by an international court. the crime. It is a demand for a of deceit, second as an object of 5 Shortly after the Fitzgerald public process of recording that betrayal, is not futile. The impor- Commission was presented at begins with the successive reports tance of March 14th 2005 lies in its the UN, German judge Detlev 4 Mehlis was appointed by the of the Fitzgerald Commission and being a historic event with implica- UN Secretary General to lead Detlev Mehlis’ investigation5 and tions for democratic practice, or the UN-sponsored investiga- the ensuing steps of accountability with enough significance to support tion into the assassination. His appointment came into effect and penalty. Its chief virtue is to the assertion that an Arab country in June 2005. It was renewed regenerate memory and institute is able to bring into being its own several times until Mehlis was a precedent memory to level “spring of democracy” in the spirit replaced by one of his colleagues in the investigation between the historiography of the of Eastern European countries and team, Belgian-born judge Serge second republic and the need for without the cover of American gun Brammertz.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 87 ships. What emerged on March war” whose reaches are expanding 14th was a mere potentiality or a in our region, beginning in Palestine latent possibility: The event itself and Iraq and “colonialism” as a was profoundly democratic even bracket in the history of the world though it was not the product of that has definitively lapsed. This genuine democrats. The impor- “state of war” contains within it tance of its democratic potentiality colonial (and imperial) undertones, lies in that it was able to thwart just as colonialism carried within it successfully the irresponsible politi- crusader dimensions. cal maneuvering of the March 8th The March 14th event would event whose consequences posed not be able to identify itself in its a real threat to the Lebanese body own terms, if the perception of a 6 Former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated on politic as well as to its social con- colonial offensive and its implica- February 14th, 2005, when struct. This potentiality should be tions are not fully refuted. Instead his car and convoy were preserved and protected and there of vesting energy in the pointless blown to smithereens as it drove on the seaside road is no way to do that without a exercise to differentiate between from the parliament building radical rejection of the logic guiding despotism and colonialism, we to his residence. Just hours the resistance front, beginning with ought to be pondering the practi- after the news spread, people started to convene around a rebuttal of its rhetorical tools. The cal means to develop national and the site of explosion, shocked, process is not as simple as Walid democratic defenses to thwart panicked and mournful. The Joumblatt would have it, namely the sweep of the state of war and spontaneous gatherings grew into a daily ritual, the crowds by agreeing to counter “colonial its cycle of chaos and terror that swelling gradually. There was desires” but disagreeing on the stunts efforts of democratisation wide conviction that the Syrian means and the overall cataloguing and social leveling of markets and regime was behind the assassination and the demand for of priorities. derails peace in the Middle East. the end of Syrian tutelage (or Surely the encroachment of The state of war is responsible hegemony) over Lebanese “colonial desires” is a notion that for transforming this region into politics grew louder and louder. As an ”anti-Syrian” front was needs to be unpacked because something akin to a pile of refuse becoming cogent, so was a it stands on fledgling grounds. in the geopolitics of the Cold War, counter “pro-Syrian” front. On Evaluating the American occupa- with cancerous bulges metastasising March 8th 2005, the anniver- sary of the Syrian Baath Party tion of Afghanistan and Iraq as in its body and eventually hitting seizing power in Syria in 1963, a historical undertaking in com- the social constructs of western the pro-Syrian front (compris- parison to the European colonial democracies. ing chiefly Hizbullah and a constellation of smaller political experience or, going even further It is conceptually impossible to parties) organised a massive back, to the Crusader invasions of avoid wholly rejecting this notion protest in Martyrs Square, in the Middle Ages is pointless. In that of an “imperial offensive”, in order support of Syrian tutelage over Lebanese post-war political regard and at the risk of digression, to imagine different ways of appre- life. They gathered a crowd it is useful to recall the wisdom hending useful strategies to bend of hundreds of thousands of th of the Ottoman sultan, Selim III, its sway, or resist it. Moreover, it people. On March 14 2005, th the anti-Syrian front organised who at the end of the 18 century, would be impossible to evaluate a counter-protest, gathering an had the clarity of mind to cau- the real significance of an event equally-sized crowd, demand- tion against drawing comparisons such as March 14th, whose pro- ing the pull-out of Syrian forces from the Lebanese territory. between the Crusader invasions foundly democratic features are While the former was a pre- and Napoleon’s expedition to glaring in spite of the dearth of dominantly Shiite crowd, the Egypt in 1798. In this vein, we are democrats who shaped it and to latter was a distinctively more plural crowd (in sectarian or compelled today to make lucid understand that it cannot betray communitarian terms). distinctions between the “state of itself, nor can it be betrayed. True, in some respects, it may democracy’”. For one, the word 7 The March 14th 2005 protest seem as if the largest majority construction makes apt reference demanded also the resignation of the cabinet and the of Sunnis, Druze and Christians to political systems where rule holding of parliamentary elec- gathered at noon on that sunny does not obey methodology, but tions. Eventually, the cabinet day to pose for a photograph for also a system that does not rest on resigned. After negotiation and diplomatic mediation between posterity, as they had never had standardised conventions of repre- all the protagonists involved the opportunity to do before. The sentation, nor a regular renewal of directly in Lebanese politics, splitting of that alliance on the eve authority. This is not necessarily due parliamentary elections were held in late May and June of of parliamentary elections was a to its liberal purview, but rather 2005, under the purview of felicitous event, it saved them from to the fact that the will to prevail the election law promulgated smothering the gathering. It is most is split from within, incapable of in the year 2000. Prior to the elections, the various political felicitous that the alliance of Sunnis, imposing itself consistently and protagonists aligned in a binary Druze and Christians opposite cogently over time. pro- and anti-Syrian configura- the Shiites went awry7 and led Obviously, within this lumpen- tion were concocting alliances th beyond that divide in order to the groups astray after March 14 . democracy, or communitarian secure seats in parliament. The Otherwise, thwarting the structural state8, a particular sectarian group cohesiveness of the pro- and problématique that the March 8th (or millet9, community) has to anti-Syrian blocs was quite shaken during that time. This protest brought to the fore would prevail. This role had been the “reshuffling” in the overall politi- not have been possible. The splin- monopoly of the Maronite sect cal landscape de-emphasised tering of this independence front is from the establishment of the the grouping of the Shi’ite community in a single block in thorny in another respect, namely, Lebanese entity up until the eve of the face of a Sunni-Maronite- that it took place right at the the civil war which erupted at the Druze alliance. instance when an awakening to the instance when its hegemony failed 8 Power-sharing between reli- realisation that what had been set to regenerate itself. Indicators of gious communities is mapped in place was different from what its potential failure became clear in the writ of a national covenant, drafted at the moment was being said, hit widely. In other when it was unable to maintain of sovereignty. Purportedly words, that the Syrian tutelage of the state of exceptionalism in founded on the demographic the post-war state was the final 196910 and again in 197311. Until principles, it was more a reflection of economic and guarantor buttressing its sectar- then, Maronite political and cultural political power between com- ian structure, the defining feature hegemony had been accepted as munitarian groups. It grants the of the Lebanese state since the the grounds in which the Lebanese presidency of the republic to the Maronites (with extensive French Mandate and until this day. entity was moored. It occupied power to arbitrate between However, this does not imply that the central paradigm. While other executive and legislative the Lebanese state and its margins sectarian groups overtly criticised branches), presidency of the executive branch to the Sunnis, of democratic practice, that had its chauvinist dominion, rejecting presidency of the legislative fostered its particular breed of cos- how it marginalised them, they branch to the Shiites and mopolitanism in the pre-war era, essentially bargained for recogni- leadership of the army and the central bank to the Maronites. would collapse in the absence of tion and power-sharing. Even when an arbiter or guarantor. they attempted to overrule its 9 Millet is Turkish inflexion of the Arabic milla, meaning religious The particularism of the authority and imagined themselves community or religious sect. Lebanese sectarian regime is other central paradigms, they were The notion was salient through- such that between threadbare mere mirrored reflections. To illus- out the period of the Ottoman empire, when the sultanate had democratic virtues and the tutelage trate the measure of the political the power to determine the sponsoring it, it is very difficult to hegemony of the Maronite sect, standing of non-Sunni Muslim ascribe it epithets from conven- it is interesting to observe how religious communities and regulate the conduct of their tional usage. The most useful I the dual trends that competed for lives. Millets were recognised have found would be “lumpen- power within the sect itself (the inside the polity.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 89 Constitutional Bloc12 versus the cabinet, Rafiq Hariri). This conflict, National Bloc) became salient for connoting a Sunni-Shiite rivalry, was the entire polity and referenced not centred on filling the hegemon- political trends within other sects. ic seat, still vacant since the waning This situation remained until the of the status of the Maronite sect. end of General Shehab’s mandate13. Rather, it was located in a marginal At the conclusion of the civil realm, borne in the failure of sects war, the hegemony of the Maronite to regenerate their role in the pol- community was no longer ten- ity. Neither Beirut’s rehabilitated able14; however, none of the other city centre nor South Lebanon 10 Clashes between the Lebanese army and PLO fight- sects presented a viable alterna- were able to supplant the founda- ers (in alliance with Lebanese tive to take over at the helm. This tional and paradigmatic centrality political movements) had bro- vacuum was compensated by the of Mount Lebanon. In this vein, ken out off and on, in a pattern 15 that would herald one of the “Syrian tutelage” of the country’s the provenance of General Emile major schisms of the civil war. post-war state. The impact of the Lahoud, formerly head of the army, After the PLO announced the authoritarian regime’s (authoritarian to the presidency of the republic launch of armed struggle to liberate Palestine (in 1965), politically but totalitarian ideologi- in 1998 is deemed a turning point. countries where Palestinian cally) tutelage did not curtail the On the one hand he hailed from refugees were settled were country’s frail democracy, it merely the institution that the majority exposed to violent retalia- tion from the Israeli army. increased its frailty. More signifi- of Christians deem to be their lot A conference, instigated by cantly, it codified the rules of the and on the other hand he held Nasser, organised in Cairo, deliberative process, not in the one of two positions allotted – by framed a consensual agreement between participating sense of renewing authority, but convention – to Maronites in post- Arab states to extend support more so in the vein of instigating war Lebanon, namely leadership of to the Palestinian armed resis- a teetering imbalance between the army and directorship of the tance. By then, General Fouad Shehab was president of the contenders at the helm. This was central bank. The two men who republic and he endorsed what the case for the span of its aegis16. had presided over the republic would become known as the In spite of everything, it was the prior to Lahoud, René Moawad17 Cairo Agreement. This marked a reversal in the power Syrian tutelage, as well as dynamic and Elias Hrawi, did not hail from struggle within the two main entities opposed to its domin- Mount Lebanon. Thus the mandate political sensibilities dividing the ion, that sustained the country’s of General Emile Lahoud, a military Maronite community. The first was staunchly pro-American, lumpen-democracy. The dynamic man from Mount Lebanon’s heart- anti-Arabist, promoted the entities impelled the Syrian regime land, mark the end of the reigning endorsement of the Pact of to strengthen the authoritarian conflict between the heads of the Baghdad (for example) and led by president Camille Chamoun. hold of the local security forces two realms of governance. In his The second was pro-Nasserite network, bit by bit, but short of inaugural address, he presented a (hence pro-Arabist) and not establishing a security regime new reading of the Taif Accords18, as vehemently pro-American, led by General Shehab, who outside the framework of the reversing the standing of the succeeded Chamoun to the lumpen-democracy. presidency at the margins vis-à-vis presidency of the republic. The power conflict that pre- institutions. The Maronite commu- 11 More alarming clashes broke vailed during the first phase of the nity did not take full stock of what out in 1973. By then, it was second republic, born under the Emile Lahoud had reclaimed to the clear that the hegemony of the Maronites could not stunt aegis of Syrian tutelage, opposed authority of the presidency until the increasing power (military the head of the legislative branch March 14th 2005. The Maronite and popular) of the coalition (i.e. the head of parliament, Nabih Patriarchy’s sustained rebuttal of between the PLO and the th Lebanese leftist, progressive, Berri) with the head of the execu- March 14 protestors’ demands secular front. tive branch (i.e. the head of the for Lahoud’s resignation was not only in defense of the standing of came to regard this emblem dur- the presidency in the absolute, it ing the month between February was also a defense of the extended 14th and March 14th when the 21 12 Prior to independence, under scope of power re-appropriated to “Independence Intifada” gripped the French colonial mandate, that seat by Emile Lahoud. the streets. After the crime on in the 1920s and 1930s, the This instance marks the first sign February 14th, the Sunni community independentist movement was divided between two main of the restoration of the central- was caught in a dilemma and could trends. The first, led by Bechara ity of Mount Lebanon. The second no longer reconcile between pledg- el-Khoury and Michel Chiha, instance of restoration occurred ing loyalty to the rhetoric Hariri formed the Constitutional Bloc and the second, led by Emile during the 2002 parliamentary upheld versus his political maneu- Eddeh, formed the National elections with the alliance of the vering. This rhetoric, at the cost of Bloc. The first advocated for a Christians and Druze. Oddly his own death, never dared to spell clear-cut independence from France, the latter, for a slower enough, this second initiative was out the withdrawal of Syrian forces transition towards sovereignty. motivated to counter the first, but from Lebanon. Thus was the Sunni 13 General Fouad Shehab was ultimately both impelled the push sect prematurely thrust into the elected president of the repub- for the revitalisation of Mount drift of the movement demanding lic in 1958. He hailed from Lebanon as a central referent. sovereignty and has labored to the the intelligence service, but had headed and founded the Above and beyond these consid- best of its ability to mask its lack army in 1943. He represented erations, communal groups were of maturity. After the attempted a trend in the country’s élite divided in their bias between the assassination of May Chidiac22, the (including prominent figures from the Maronite community) two trends. The first group included independentist pull of the Sunnis with a positive bias towards a minority within a minoritarian seemed to reach a midway point it Nasser’s pan-Arabism. trend amongst Christians, still has yet to transgress, when Fouad 14 The 17-year long civil war pledging support to Syrian tutelage, Siniora23 spoke of an “enemy” fight- was ended by a truce negoti- allied to the “national and Islamic ing Lebanon. By definition, the ated in 1990 by most of the 19 protagonists involved in the resistance” , self-appointed with enemy is the entity that the group war, brokered under American, the task of mobilising the Christian ought to be prepared to fight, or Saudi and Syrian sponsorship, community against the remarkable expect to be guarded from in the in the small Saudi town of Taif. The “Taif Accords” pro- leadership of Sunnis emblema- eventuality of a war and yet the posed serious reforms to the tised by Rafiq Hariri. The second Sunni leadership insists at the same constitutional text addressing group included the majority within instance, that Lebanon’s enemy is structural inequities in power sharing and curbed some of the majoritarian trend amongst Israel. Is it conceivable for Lebanon, the power allotted to the Christians, calling for independence as an entity, to survive with two Maronites. The Taif Accords from Syrian tutelage and seeking enemies? were voted in Parliament in 1991 and integrated into the pro-actively to weave dynamic The reversal of roles is paradox- constitutional text. alliances with Sunnis and Druze, ical. On the question of sovereignty, 20 15 The Taif Accords mark the vic- beginning in the year 2000 . beyond claims and counter claims tory of the pro-Syrian factions If we compare the events of demographic superiority, the in the war. The Syrian regime, unfolding in the year 2000 with country is overrun by three trends. long implicated in the civil war, with military and intelligence the present moment, we notice The first trend expresses gratitude corps present on the ground that the trend towards re-centring to the Syrian regime and the men in Lebanon, was able to wres- the focality of Mount Lebanon has entrusted with security and intel- tle a link between the postwar th Lebanese state (stability and gained step. It remains the oldest ligence (the gist of the March 8 security) and the maintenance and most salient signifier of the dis- protest)24; the second cheerfully of a “Syrian tutelage” in the course that prioritises sovereignty bid its farewells to withdrawing country. The Accords stipulated a redeployment of the Syrian and independence. And this is Syrian forces (the majority of the military leading to an eventual precisely how the Sunni community Christian communities); the third pull-out.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 91 watched the pull-out with an “until munity, determining what is within we meet again” message (the the purview of the sect and what Sunnis, Druze and their Christian is outside, were always blurred. In allies). So the three options are this context, the Shiite community “thank you Syria”, “goodbye Syria” constituted itself by contrast and and “until we meet again Syria”. differentiation, compelled towards a This is the outcome of the collapse self-contained totality, with a cease- of Syria’s tutelage over Lebanon’s less back and forth movement of lumpen-democracy. Might these be rural and urban migration inside it25. the labour-pains for birthing a new Under the leadership of communitarian hegemony? Hizbullah, the pull towards self- Rather than answer in the contained totality has reached affirmative immediately, it might be its acumen, to the extent that 16 UN Security Council more useful to start by unpack- the question regarding Lebanon’s Resolution 1559, promulgated ing the question in its two implicit future echoes the question regard- in October 2004 (a couple of days prior to the parliamentary interrogations: Why have both the ing Hizbullah’s future, or perhaps vote extending the extra-con- Sunni and the Shiite communities, the question, “where is Hizbullah stitutional mandate of reigning respectively, failed and continue to leading the country to?”, or president Emile Lahoud by three years), stipulated the end do so, at morphing into the central, “where will the Lebanese and non- of all foreign intervention in or foundational sects in the coun- Lebanese reactions to Hizbullah’s Lebanon and the pull-out of all try? Why have neither the Sunnis actions, lead the country to?”. How foreign armies stationed in the country. Resolution 1559 came nor the Shiites inherited the role can there be any solution if there is when the crisis dividing the billed by the Maronites? no resolution with Hizbullah? forces aligned with Lahoud’s The Shiite community can- It is impossible to please mandate extension and the forces opposed to it, reached not become the referent or Hizbullah by agreeing to the pos- its acumen. It is deemed to foundational community in the tulate that the liberation of South have come as a result of joint Lebanese configuration because Lebanon26 was the necessary lobbying by Jacques Chirac and Rafiq Hariri. The Syrian army it is circumscribed in its being ground for launching the battle for units stationed in Lebanon a “total community”. As a com- independence. This would imply as well as the political team munitarian formation, it is the that when it set out to liberate entrusted with the “tutelage” pulled out from the country last to have constituted itself in the south, Hizbullah was in effect in April 2005, by diktat of the discursive and institutional terms laying the ground for its own Resolution and by popular within the Lebanese polity as late dismantling. Furthermore, it is not demand from the March 14th Bloc in Lebanon. as the 1960s. Moreover, it was true that there was consensus not an active constituent agent in in support of the national-Islamic 17 René Moawad hailed from the 27 north of the country. He was the construction of the sectarian resistance until liberation and the first post-war president of state; rather, its coming into being that it disbanded afterwards. It is the republic, but was assassi- was congruent with the moment important to note also that the nated almost immediately after he was sworn in. Elias Hrawi of disarticulation of that state. The showcase of the Shebaa Farms has hailed from the Beqaa valley sectarian state possesses the means been very badly scripted. The point and was elected president after to produce and reproduce rela- remains that the Islamic Resistance the assassination of Moawad. His tenure ended in the year tionships between sectarian groups, has failed at achieving what any 2000. which has guarded against their movement of armed resistance 18 See footnote 14. reification into total communities can claim or aim for, by virtue of or closed ethnic entities, politi- its being confined to its sectarian 19 The pole in the Lebanese scene headed and mainly com- cally and institutionally. As such, the nature and its discursive universe prised by Hizbullah. boundaries of each sectarian com- anchored in transcendental thought. Neither would the majority of the The Sunni community could Lebanese regard it as the canon for not perform a hegemonic role, as patriotism, nor would Hizbullah’s did the Maronites, because the constituency accept it as such. heartland of the community failed Movements of armed resistance to come together and claim a usually hold the yardstick for mea- stake in the polity (in the guise suring patriotism and claim the of a majoritarian entity), as it did, 28 high-ground of authority to rule for instance, in Syria . While the 20 In the year 1998, Elias Hrawi’s the country after they have suc- Sunni sect could not regenerate its extra-constitutional term cessfully liberated its territory. Not role and portend to appropriate (extended by three years after it had concluded in 1995) in the Lebanese case. If the resis- itself the weight of a majority, the had to end. There was wide tance were to uphold the yardstick leadership of its scion, Rafiq Hariri, disagreement amongst political for national valour, then the coun- was remarkably different from its protagonists as well as regional and international powers try would be divided. In order to traditional leaderships until then. (Syrians, Saudis and Americans) avoid trudging down that path, the Unlike previous figures, Hariri suc- as to the most suitable candi- Lebanese resorted to the chimeric ceeded in legitimising his leadership date. Emile Lahoud, the head of the army and the Syrian notion that “lending support to the of Sunnis in urban centres as well regime’s preferred candidate resistance is in effect the measure as the rural heartland. Hariri’s was elected president amidst of patriotism”. Our duty today is popularity has been too hastily some wrangling. His tenure marked the end of Hariri’s to unpack this potentially explosive attributed to his liberal politics (a presidency over the executive notion and rather than belabour, positive attribution) or his neo-lib- branch. He was appointed along with Hizbullah, at making eral politics (a negative attribution). prime minister again in the year 2000. The rising discon- conceptual differentiations between He also represented a moderate tent against Emile Lahoud, as “armed resistance movement” and version of “political Islam”, as illus- well as the overt disaffection “militia”, we ought to impede the trated for instance, in his tenacious of Hariri with him, marked the beginning of the formation of movement from portending as a rejection of legalising civil marriage, a pluri-communitarian front militia. First and foremost should or in his sustained support for against Syria’s management of be the implementation of the the construction of mosques. In Lebanese politics. rule of law over the totality of that regard, he can be compared 21 In the year 2000, Emile the territory and that should be with Turkey’s premier, Racep Tayip Lahoud’s term was due to end, according to constitutional prefatory to negotiations with Erdogan, although Hariri’s bent for writ. It was extended for four Hizbullah. The period of summon- the patrimonial contrasts him with years, amidst increasing con- ing to internal dialogue has lapsed the latter. In the present polarisa- troversy and wrangling. His relationship with Rafiq Hariri and we have now reached the tion of the country, with a crisis being too tense to effectively instance for negotiation, knowing opposing a “majority parliamentary work, the front of disaffected that internal negotiations are never bloc” with a “majority demographic protagonists began to take shape by 2001. It gelled around far from external negotiations. If bloc” (most of the Christians and opposition to a second exten- the dialogue deliberated on the most of the Shiites ), the Sunnis sion of Lahoud’s tenure (and acceptable modalities for Hizbullah have to become aware that the implicitly against the deepening dominion of Syrian tutelage) in to relinquish their arms, then more their demand to know the 2004. This front was the core negotiations should be focused on truth about Rafiq Hariri’s assassina- of what would become known th the manner in which Hizbullah will tion is brandished as the exclusive as the “March 14 Bloc”. After the assassination of Hariri, that defer to the supremacy of the rule domain of their sect, the more front styled its popular street of law throughout the entirety of it loses force and credence as a protest as an “Independence the country, with no exceptions national demand. Intifada” precisely because it pressed for the end of afforded to the leadership and high- The concert of Lebanese Syrian tutelage and reclaimed ranking cadres of the resistance. sectarian communities have to Lebanese sovereignty.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 93 let go of the illusion that only a fusion”. The more beneficial model historic compromise will save the for an electoral law is one that country from complete chaos. In consecrates competition, not the absence of a dominant group consensus. In the present context, or discourse able to uphold and regarding the entire territory of guarantee it, an all-inclusive, bold the country as the single geograph- compromise is an impossible ic unit for representation seems undertaking. It is more useful to the most appropriate proposal. This vest our energies in a series of said, the more important innova- 22 May Chidiac, a well-known partial compromises that aim at tion would be to institute wide and news anchor at the Lebanese expanding the democratic realm regional decentralisation. Broadcast Corporation of this sectarian system, inching The expansion of the demo- International (LBCI) was the target of an attempted assassi- the state of lumpen-democracy cratic realm of the sectarian regime nation in the summer of 2005. closer towards the model of liberal is the only means to lead the coun- She survived miraculously in democracies. In addition to the try, step by step, to this formula: A spite of serious injuries to her body. The attempt on her life overall development of institu- country with an undeniably Muslim followed a string of assassinations and structures, the liberal majority and a strong inclination for tions that targeted figures that democratic model would free the western values of modernity. were not part of a cohesive group. Fingers invariably point- market-economy from the grip ed at the Syrian regime. The of the mindset of plundering and November 18, 2005 assassinations included colum- quick-fixes and safeguard the mer- nist and historian Samir Kassir and former Communist Party cantile purview of the country with General Secretary Georges a more equitable growth, based on Hawi, important political fig- methodological, cyclical and interac- ures in the March 14th Bloc. tive distribution of wealth. 23 Fouad Siniora was one of In order to expand the demo- Hariri’s closest and most trusted advisors, the chief architect cratic realm of the sectarian system, of his economic policies. it might be useful to imagine inno- Appointed minister of finance vative constitutional amendments, and minister of state for finance during Hariri’s multiple such as changing the sectarian- tenures as prime minister, he based leadership positions ascribed was appointed prime minister by the National Covenant in the after parliamentary elections in 2005. various realms of governance. As the hold of a sect over a particular 24 One of the main slogans of the March 8th protest was institution is unfastened, the actual “thank you Syria”. purview of the institution will be 25 The model of an ethnically resized to fit its appropriate scope. cogent, total community, is not It will also resolve the problem of absent in Lebanon. Perhaps extending mandates of the leader- the most glaring exemplar is illustrated by the Armenian ship of the republic (which entails community. The Armenian a breach of the constitution), the community was integrated parliament and the cabinet. As into the sectarian strucure at the moment of its formation. for the electoral law, at present, The Druze, by contrast, waver the wisdom of “good representa- continuously between mobilis- tion” that has guided the shaping ing and dissolving as an ethnic entity depending on interest of electoral laws is as pointless as and conjecture. the wisdom of “fostering national 26 The Taif Accords postu- lated that all armed factions in Lebanon lay down arms. Hizbullah were ‘self-appointed’ (exclusively) with the duty to liberate the Israeli-occupied southern tip of the country. There was a gradual build-up in the consensus around their self-appointed role which reached its peak between the years 1996 and 2000. In the year 2000, Israel pulled out from the entirety of the territory except for the Shebaa Farms hamlet. Hizbullah has pledged to maintain armed resistance until that small piece of territory is freed and thus has not yet relinquished its arsenal or disbanded its military units. 27 There was never a complete consensus to Hizbullah’s exclusive monopoly over resistance to Israeli occupation. Some political movements deem the security and liberation of the entire territory to be the role of the army rather than that of a political movement confined in a single community. After the Israeli pull-out, there was growing and overt dissent against Hizbullah maintaining that exclusive monopoly. 28 At the end of the Ottoman rule, Sunni communities from the rural hinterland and mountains of Syria mobilised to integrate the polity as a majoritarian entity. Furthermore, Wissam Saadeh was born in 1977. He studied political science at the Saint emboldened by nationalist rhetoric, they unseated the Joseph University and philosophy at the Lebanese University. Saadeh has authority of urban Sunnis earned a Diplôme des Etudes Approfondies (DEA) in the field of political on the grounds of suspi- thought. He is a journalist and editorialist in the daily Assafir. Saadeh has cious ethnic filiations to Turks, Turkomans, Circassians, Kurds published several essays on philosophy in such periodicals as Contemporary and Bosnians, hence the poten- Arab Thought. tial for disloyalty to Arabs.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 95 Lebanon: Compromise or a New Social Contract?

Nahla Chahal

Confessionalism in Lebanon is not The second point is that only a legacy; it is a constructed Lebanon, like all other countries system – I would almost venture to in history although perhaps to a call it a rational construction. What greater degree than others – and follows is not a historical overview this assertion is open to analysis which can often be tedious when and argument – does not exist they come in the guise of an indis- in isolation. Rather it is affected pensable introduction. This is not by and indeed accessory to, what even an introduction. If the cur- transpires around it in its global rent debate is about the options geographic context. The country’s available to Lebanon and the way urgent need to reconstitute its in which each of us positions our- internal dynamics according to new selves vis-à-vis these options, then definitions and new agreements let us start by determining the is occurring at the same time that nature of this particular junction. political storms are raging through- I will venture, first, to say that out the entire region – turning the assassination of the late Prime the country’s state of affairs on its Minister Hariri, the withdrawal of proverbial head and exposing it to the Syrian forces from Lebanon a host of unknown possibilities. and all the events related hitherto, do not constitute “the nature of Tumultuous Posturing, the present junction”, but rather, yet Ingrained Lebaneseness only some of its manifestations. Let me begin with the dispar- This nature and its manifestations, ity – which has become somewhat although related, are not one and old and even more firmly rooted the same thing. This assumption – between Lebanon’s perception presupposes our ability to distance of itself and its actual reality. This ourselves from that which we may disparity, wherever it surfaces, feel strongly about. Perhaps exercis- becomes the source of numerous ing caution or rational judgment crises. is the only thing left for us to do Lebanon is not a self-evident today. nation. Although one may argue that this condition is the same as also played this role had its national that of many other national entities project not been derailed. in the region, our present concern This required role, its defining is with Lebanon. features and how it converged in The positioning or posturing of the “Lebanese model” are well what can be termed Lebaneseness known: Lebanon was to be a medi- went through a founding moment ator or arbiter between the Arab then took a tumultuous course, or interior and Europe. This particular path. I think that now, at the end of role presupposed some crucial this path, we can put forth the idea features: that Lebanon is no longer a subject - An extensive degree of domes- of questioning or reconsideration. tic freedom, beginning with free This fact is a precious and measur- trade and capital mobility, including able accomplishment, evident in the high levels of banking secrecy and numerous boundaries that even freedom of thought and lifestyle. the civil war was unable to breach. To proclaim diversity and plurality However, this does not mean that in Lebanon is to state the evident; Lebanon is an absolute entity; this however, it was an important ele- is an afterthought that becomes ment of the contract. Diversity and increasingly important in view of plurality require consensus; and the the potential consequences of tur- consensus which was required and bulent regional events on Lebanon, actually occurred in the making of in particular and on the region, in the contract, in turn, safe-guarded general. diversity and plurality. We should start by looking at - An extensive degree of neutral- the context of Lebanon’s found- ity with regard to the region, in the ing stage: The creation of Lebanon form of the margin required for required a social contract in the enabling the role of mediator. truest sense of the term. Indeed, Lebanon's role of arbiter or if Lebanon shares with other mediator between the Arab inte- countries in the region this lack of rior and Europe (or the West) not self-evident nationhood, it never- only dealt with finance, business theless is unique in having been and trading goods, it also extended established on a clearly negotiated to education and publishing social contract, duly ratified through and hence to ideas and politics. general consensus and defined in Furthermore, there were several terms of articles and principles. other secondary services: Tourism, This social contract – known healthcare, etc… in its political/legislative form as Lebanon, therefore, conducted the “National Pact’”– rested on its role in addition to creating a regional function that Lebanon a venue; and the two functions performed or was able to perform. were co-related and interdepen- The region was in dire need of dent. However, it would not be such a role-player at that juncture an exaggeration to claim that this in its history. Palestine, due to the role of mediation was inevitably features of its social structure, temporary; and, the need for it by geography and history, could have the Arab interior would, obviously

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 97 and eventually cease. International An additional factor must be relations changed on all levels, considered: In the past period commercial and otherwise, as did and indeed the more recent past, centres of influence. since the beginning of the 1990s Meanwhile, and for a multi- and official end of the civil war, tude of interrelated reasons, once we have been caught in a period the role of mediation dissipated, of waiting. The original project Lebanon's second nature – as for Lebanon, represented in the a venue – in turn, was brutally person of Prime Minister Hariri, violated. Lebanon lost its neutral was in crisis because it was based status after the Palestinian armed on the resumption of Lebanon’s resistance movement arrived and role as mediator, with, of course, rooted itself on Lebanese territory. some modifications of its features. Years of protracted civil war This assumption was premised would finalise the collapse of the on what I shall briefly term "the role of mediator which was the Madrid frame of reference" which main feature underpinning the had ambitions of establishing a Lebanese formula. The vacuum stable and open region, including left by Lebanon's forced absence a successful and thereby practical, allowed for numerous other settlement with Israel. regional centres to emerge and Subsequent developments, thrive in their assumption of the however, shattered this frame of various aspects of that role. reference: The Iraqi invasion of Other indications that Lebanon’s Kuwait, the First Gulf War, the role as arbiter had ended and had assassination of Rabin, the arrival of become expendable are that the neo-conservatives to the U.S. presi- situation in Lebanon was left to dency, September 11 and finally, culminate in civil war, with the total the war on Iraq and its subsequent absence of any decisive Arab or occupation. It is immaterial which international intervention to stop of these events had more impact; it – whether out of sheer neglect nor are the conspiracies, or the or for reasons related to other sequences of events relevant when regional struggles. we consider their overall outcome In other words, the civil war or impact on existing structures. may not have been, after all, the What was ultimately at stake cause that ended this role and was that Prime Minister Hariri its demand in the region. Rather had gambled on building all these and more specifically, it may have highways and bridges, rebuilding been a sign or indication of the the famed downtown and so on, waning importance of this role, on the premise that the advent due to regional and international of the Greater Middle East was developments and transforma- imminent. And, he went on with his tions. I am not looking to solve the undertaking utilising dubious means conundrum of the chicken or the leading to a “constructive instability” egg, but I am seeking to discern the – which in itself amounts to a war multiple layers of meanings of one project and a recipe for protracted event. wars in various forms; furthermore, the kinds of business suitable Lebanon’s reality is naturally more under such conditions differ from intense and intricate than the the kinds of business suitable dur- consecutive points under review ing peacetime. The rise, spread here; and, it is equally difficult to and even dominance of primitive isolate a single decisive factor that sectarian feelings – precisely in the determines the particular direction past decade and noticed by all of this reality. Finally and because with great anxiety or disdain – can of this complex interaction and be explained not as an emotional the many factors involved, there is extension of the conditions of war, always the possibility of emphasis- but rather as an expression of this ing one determining factor over particular period of anticipation another. Therefore, it would be and alienation. This context has unwise not to take into account generated a kind of sectarian fanati- the importance of the role of the cism devoid of the usual functions person, or the inevitable subjective of confessionalism in Lebanon and and its ability to influence the way therefore, totally crude. a reality and its inner actions are The period of waiting, labeled interpreted. the status quo and embodied by Prime Minister Hariri, finally came A Task Postponed: to an end. It ended not only by his Renewing the Social Contract assassination, but also because it We currently stand before a actually lasted longer than it should task that has been postponed for have, feeding on a combination of some time: Renewing the social illusions and foreign aid which only contract. This task requires firstly, the man – and maybe no-one else renewing the notion or definition – could have provided. I shall not of the contract; and secondly, the dwell on the elements that made foundations that enabled it to this exception possible, for this come into existence, in particular, lies outside the scope of this topic. Lebanon “as a role” (I am aware However, I will go off on a tangent that this expression is more aggres- concerning one particular matter: sive than “Lebanon’s role”). The violent death of Prime Minister Finally, the task requires renew- Hariri cannot become a pretext ing the contract’s inherent features for changing what he represented, or concepts, including: “Freedom” or conceal the dilemma Lebanon as a form of mutual tolerance – and with it, Prime Minister Hariri’s and recognition of differences; own project – was already facing. and “limited” which is different in Keeping the above in mind, meaning from neutrality and all the many of the factors pertaining other characteristics that formerly to certain events do not vanish constituted a single interconnected, with the end of these events, but functional and rational entity. The extend to subsequent periods, omission of any of its components accumulating and mutating as impairs the whole and requires a they stray from the path in which redefinition and reconstruction of they originated. This complexity, the whole Lebanese formula – a among other things, means that fundamental point which I raise

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 99 and leave open for discussion. to and accepts these conditions The Taif Agreement1 did not exists. Contrary to this approach, accomplish this task; besides, we solidifying democracy in France cannot place the National Pact and requires the acceptance of diver- the Taif Agreement on the same sity and the legitimacy of diversity. footing. Nor can we consider that Meanwhile, certain realities develop the latter revised the former and (not just hypothetical situations) renewed it in conformity with the which confirm the need for alarm new requisite, namely grabbing and for review. The many crises of the historic opportunity for such French secularism, including the a renewal. The Taif Agreement is a affair of the hijab (headscarf or veil) milestone intimately bound to the and the angry youth riots of the circumstances in which it came banlieues are but examples of this about and consequently bears the dichotomy. traces of these circumstances. Of Democracy in Lebanon is course, that does not raise any based on its own mechanisms doubts or questions about its legiti- and dynamics which deteriorate macy. But, it is essential to state this when they are utilised in the point in order to fully grasp what mere management of confessional has been achieved and what has equilibriums. In the past, many deal- yet to be accomplished. ing with this issue submitted an Another point I want to broach analysis and deconstruction of the – this may seem a departure concept – and found it reasonable from the subject, although I think to describe the Lebanese political not – is democracy. Certainly, system as “political feudalism”. Since there are general principles that then (and even at the time), no define democracy. However, each real serious analysis of the value of democracy is based on foundations this notion has been (or was ever) particular to itself. In France, for made. Nor was any serious analysis instance, democracy and republic conducted on the alterations that are one and the same, even if they affected this political system and may contradict each other widely the multiplicity of features inherent in practice. French democracy is a in its framework. militant and ideological democracy At least two of these alterations built on the idea of secularism and or features are the renewal of the citizenship from which the idea political, social, economic and cul- of integration derives its force. In tural elites and the weakness of any Great Britain, democracy rests movement that does not conform mainly on the idea of public or civic to the mechanisms and dynamics freedoms. Democratic extremism of the Lebanese political system, i.e. 1 The Taif Agreement, (also known in the French model – and what the relegation and marginalisation as the “National Reconciliation I mean here is the deviation that of secular movements to the point Accord” or “Document of National Accord”) is an agree- follows the concept and its imple- of political insignificance. ment that was reached to mentation – leads to the need for Indeed, this is not an attempt provide “the basis for ending enforcing unification and prioritising to promote such movements with the civil war and the return to political normalcy in Lebanon”. homogeneity, based on the convic- a value statement. Rather, it is an (wikipedia.org). tion that a paradigm that conforms attempt to show that the existence of such movements is sometimes with the following points: vital to stave off the catastrophic Firstly, the present crisis is not a effects of a system in crisis. consequence of the assassination It may be the case that no of Prime Minister Hariri, despite movement developed that was the significance of that event, not capable of confronting and putting to mention its horror. Neither is it an end to the civil war in Lebanon. the result of the Syrian withdrawal. Yet, the absence of such a move- Nor was the Syrian presence, ment is significant. And I do not despite its hideousness, its cause. mean a word here or an article Rather, it is the outcome of finally there, since these were available. being confronted by the necessity I’m talking about the lack of any of renewing or revisiting Lebanon’s social, political and intellectual social contract with all its underpin- conditions which merged to put nings, to the extent that conditions an end to the war and offer a render this difficult task possible. practical agenda or instruments Whether the conditions for this for implementing that end; which possibility are available is not exclu- is significant in itself. There are sively a Lebanese question, but one many other examples of this kind, closely related to the situation in in addition to examples that prove the entire region. The dilemma for that there is an absence, or non- Lebanon is that its internal crisis existence of the structures and is taking place while the region is resources required to manage cri- moving towards the edge of the ses and the means or instruments unknown. This regional condition to prevent them. This absence of is an essential factor as far as the structures, resources, means and previously-mentioned task is con- instruments invariably effects the cerned. processes or workings of public By the same token, the pres- consciousness itself, as well as the ence and power of the American kinds of environments that can stratagem cannot be ignored. The create within themselves exciting United States is a major player analyses and perhaps the ability to and its vision, interests and objec- come up with potential solutions tives are essential to the unfolding and resolutions. And, so as not to of regional – and thus, Lebanese be misunderstood, I do not think – events. It will utilise Lebanon as that social and political structures an item on its agenda, according to are built voluntarily, but rather what it deems its best interests. according to a given framework. Yet, Second, the conditions required I also do not believe that they can for implementing the task of be built by virtue of themselves, or renewing the social contract may that their outcomes are predeter- not be within reach. In other words, mined by their own pre-conditions. neither the conditions nor the possibilities are clear. What is required The Current Crisis is not the now is to find ways to keep moving Result of the Assassination of Hariri forward, not in a comprehensive Finally I want to invest the or consistent way but rather, in above in Lebanon’s present crisis, eclectic patterns. By understanding

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 101 this reality, we must understand ers. Their claims that both powers and acknowledge the relativity of were destructive and neither held the truth that each party is hold- a promise of deliverance for Iraq ing on to so firmly, while we wait were dismissed – in spite of their for conditions in our environment veracity – as unrealistic. We all to settle. The importance of this know how the story ends. Today, notion or strategy lies in how criti- Iraq is in the midst of a destruc- cal it is that we reach a collective tion of untold years. It has become acknowledgment of the legitimacy clear that local forces cannot call of all viewpoints and tone down on the Americans to act on their the radicalisation of issues on all behalf. It has also become clear sides. that even if they could employ the Third and as a consequence Americans, they would not be able of this environment, we are fac- to dismiss them at will, as they are ing an extremely complex and not a charitable organisation. The complicated situation. It would be Americans have their own strategy catastrophic to reduce this situa- and interests; and they are more tion to an oversimplified dichotomy capable and stronger than any of – as the prevailing trend has been the local players. in Lebanon in the past period. The In the end, I have no desire demarcation line between attitudes, to make arbitrary comparisons opinions and allegiances cannot and projections that ignore the be broken down into two bipolar particularities of countries, such as slots: “With or against the Syrians” predicting that Lebanon is a candi- as is commonly the case. That is date to become Syria’s Kurdistan, besides the issue. Others have i.e. its backyard for assault. Nor do I experienced this problem before take the threat of impending chaos us. Here, Iraq comes to mind brandished by Arab regimes – chief which for among other reasons among them the Syrian regime, is a good example of my point. with its attempt to inflate the There are many who vehemently legitimacy of its continuity when and absolutely opposed Saddam’s it has lost all the foundations for regime, including those he cruelly that legitimacy – very seriously. It pursued and persecuted; neverthe- will prove impossible for Syria to less, they rejected the first war on deal with the Lebanese crisis on Iraq in 1991, the ensuing sanctions this basis; and I think certain demo- and the American war of 2003 in cratic forces in Syria are doing their addition to the present occupa- best to come forth with certain tion of Iraq by American troops. clear statements and alternatives This stance was extremely difficult to this position. Finally, and taking because it symbolised a refusal into consideration all the preced- to accept within absolute limits a ing points, can we, in Lebanon, choice between dictatorship and agree on recognising and accepting American colonisation. The people our differences and avoid slipping who maintained this stance may into violent confrontations of any have seemed irrational during a kind, while we wait for the right time dominated by these two pow- moment to reconcile our social contract with a new definition of its components and the necessary conditions for presenting it and adopting it, locally and regionally? Can we agree on making a spirit of public debate the prevailing spirit, rather than categorically polarising ourselves into fervent partisan- ships? The menace and danger looming over Lebanon are much greater than that threatening others. It may be that we cannot prevent major and turbulent events from ravaging other parts of the region, but perhaps it is within our means not to make light of the challenges ahead.

November 18, 2005

Nahla Chahal is a writer, journalist and political activist with a background in political sociology. After teaching for 11 years at the Lebanese University, Chahal moved to Paris to focus on her research. She is president of the Arab Women Researchers Association (ACAF) and an editor for the Al Hayat daily newspaper. Her more recent publications include: ‘Une Irakité Latente’, published in Le Moyen-Orient Sous le Choc (2003), La Formidable Capacité d’Intégration du Système Libanais (2002) and Avril à Jénine (2000).

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 103 Whither Lebanon?

Kamal Hamdan

I confess that, as an economist, I I am convinced, at one level and have – in vain – tried to respond in principle, that Lebanon’s confes- to the following questions more sional diversity or plurality could be than once: What is the future of a source of wealth and enrichment; Lebanon? Where is it heading? that an understanding between Which economic approach should the sects based on the interactions be used to try and answer this between confessional social reali- question; should it be dealt with ties, a collective memory, diverse from a micro-economic perspec- cultural genres, rites and heritage tive; or should we focus on the could all be undoubtedly positive. alarming public debt? Do we look However, despite this supposition, at the real or at the ‘projected’ one must not forget that principles economy; or should we examine are one thing and the confessional economic disparities, emigration, reality in Lebanon is another. unemployment, confessionalism, The means through which the economic structures, infrastructure sects were married to the state, allocation and uneven regional in addition to this confessional development? marriage itself, have created a Indeed, all these subjects fertile ground for breeding a fun- deserve research and further damental dichotomy and a form examination. However, the coun- of schizophrenia – almost a quasi- try’s confessional structure and collective schizophrenia – in the alignments elicit the statement more general strata of the public – which I will try to defend – that and in the more innocent and “there is no positive, or optimistic benign of people. It has clouded response to the question pre- the power of the rational mind; sented here: ‘Whither Lebanon?’ or and it has promoted incentives for ‘Where is Lebanon heading?’”. In every kind of foreign interference, fact, a positive response can only whatever the nature, beginning be linked with the long-term eman- with Syria to Israel and the United cipation of the state from sectarian States, i.e., tutelage in all its forms. institutions. With the tense confessional reality of the state and the proverbial positive challenges such as encour- “marriage” of the sects to the state, aging us to excel at creating a however, the issue is far greater strong model for multi-confessional than merely being a collective con- coexistence, fortified by the art of dition. The state is now a hostage communal living in the pursuit of of the relationship; subsequently, happiness and equality. If the dan- the stakes have risen and wagers ger intensifies with the confessional on the victory of a new form of inclination towards “purification” hegemony over the state have within the sects, then, today, we flourished (whether the form of are at the apex of this trend within that hegemony is singular, dual or each sect. I am of the opinion that, multiple). Moreover, these wagers with the loss of diversity on both adapt to the patterns of change of the national and confessional lev- both internal and external political, els, the cost to Lebanon – and to economic and demographic factors. each sect would be exorbitant. The After all, it is widely understood emergence of the “Christian” proj- that hegemony in confessional sys- ect in the 1970s hints at this great tems is a fundamental issue, since cost; and, today, the same appears there can be no balance in a con- possible with the intensification of fessional system unless one party is the confessional mobilisation in the dominant within the framework of Muslim milieus – whether Shiite or this balance. Sunni. If I ask myself, “what can be Several formulas were attempt- done?”, the possibility of an answer ed, leading up to the 1970’s and a becomes more of a delusion than number of partial-formulas were a fantasy with regard to this com- tried in the 1990’s, after the civil plicated given. war, when illusions were fostered I have not yet discussed an that one system of confessional economic outlook or prospect hegemony could be exchanged for because the issue at hand is politi- another. It is precisely in this type cal, in all senses of the term. But of climate that we find the prevail- in this context, the most pressing ing conditions that feed upon and economic issue for Lebanon is tempt certain minds to wager on linked to the capacity to revive the the victory of yet another (new) project of a centralised state – not hegemony of a third kind. The dan- in the strict, totalitarian sense, but ger of such a gamble is intensified rather in the sense of a modern, as sects become further inclined centralised state, complemented towards total “purity”, or internal by broader forms of administra- homogeneity and increasingly rigid tive and economic decentralisation. internal alignments which in them- Obviously, there has been a great selves cancel out diversity. Such deal of discussion about Lebanon’s posturing also eventually eliminates class disparity, uneven regional the opportunities to return to the development and sectarian idio- side of the “Other” in a pluralistic syncrasies, among others. However, confessional reality, regardless of if we pooled our resources and whether or not this confessional strength behind the project of a reality can be positive or present centralised state – a just and fair

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 105 state (and I will elaborate on some placing the new generation, with of the fundamental requirements its progressive outlook, as the of such a state later) – we would natural commanders of this battle make significant, tangible strides – instead of the financial “houses’’ to this end. We will succeed if we whose calculated alignments and remain loyal to our aspirations of balancing acts date back to the 19th building a strong, exemplary state, century. Who will have the courage setting the example for a pluralistic to change this situation? order and excelling in creating the art of communal living, reinforced Third and most importantly, we by equality and prosperity. propose a new, modern law defin- All the political parties raise ing the notion of “residence”: slogans against sectarianism and in One-third of Lebanese citizens live, support of national unity and state- willingly or unwillingly – and some building. However, in reality, they have been like this for decades – in are all exposed by an analysis of areas outside those where they their practices and their networks were registered at birth. Yet, we of alliances and vested interests. ask them to participate in public, That said, if we could bring to the political and municipal life and to fore some of the groups or associ- partake in elections according to ations who focus most on “building laws that do not reflect the realities the state first and foremost”; and if of their area or place of residence. we abandon our slogans, then per- This, in all honesty, is a (political) haps there is hope for once more farce. Citizens cannot participate linking and consolidating that which, in improving their representation, in its present form, is pushing us their life conditions, environment, towards disintegration. employment opportunities – such as repairing the sidewalks they The first proposition for this course walk upon, ensuring the cleanliness of action is a new electoral law of the air they breathe – without based on the principle of pro- laws that are compatible with the portional representation in the modern concept of residence. absolute sense, without confes- Therefore, a new and modern law sional quotas or restrictions of any dealing with residence and all that kind; electoral districts also should it entails is required. Based on this be defined and demarcated at the law, proper electoral laws and effi- governorate level and perhaps cient administrative structures can gradually reduced to smaller units subsequently be designed. within governorates in progressive stages. Fourth and without further delay, we ask that a civil law be legislated Second, we propose a change in for dealing with the jurisdiction the state’s administrative structures over the personal affairs of citizens and divisions, for we are prisoners – even if this entails resorting to the of a system of administration dat- street and exercising our right to ing back to the Ottoman period. challenge the status quo using the This project is a guarantee for various forms of non-violent confrontation available to us. Indeed, the sects and render a positive role the absence of civil law has been for sectarianism. An environment the key impediment to integration, of cultural pluralism through which unity and progress. people’s freedoms are strength- ened by living their rites, rituals Fifth, in pursuing the national and and daily affairs requires a proper state-building project, we must economic program. One should work on developing a more mod- not underestimate the importance ern definition of “Arab identity” of liberating the public sector and that would not only break with the its services from the monopoly of Arabism or Arab identity of slogans, sectarian agents (or middlemen), but also with the Pan-Arab unity their traditional confessional lead- project. Such a definition would ers and the state bureaucracy. By allow us to see and remember it emancipating the public sector and for what it is, based on all that we its services, it will become pos- have experienced over the past sible to realistically implement the 50 years; i.e, a project replete with principles of the right to health- its martial and neo-security orders care, education and social security and systems, autocracies, monar- through a concrete action plan. chies and secret police mentality. There is an enormous amount At the same time, we need to of study and research which has ensure that we move forward with- already been conducted on this out slipping back, consciously or subject, with administrative and subconsciously, into subservience to management protocols nearly other, newer forms of colonialism ready for implementation. However, and their crudity. We must develop the chances for this implementa- a more modern and contempo- tion are doomed as long as there rary conception of Arab identity; is an absence of a national bloc one that is more compatible and which in itself goes beyond sectar- equipped to deal with the realities ian lines and confessionalism and of the age and economic realities changes the balance of power in we live in. This new Arab identity the status quo. must also be prepared to deal with the more positive manifestations of It is Lebanon’s new generation globalisation which in itself would which must undertake this mis- reduce the impact of its negative sion. Yet, in order not to fall into effects on our society. Coming to a demagogic trap in our vision of terms with this reality is a great any socio-economic program, we challenge; it is a battle whose out- must pay special care and attention come could help us resolve issues, to the reality that we too are a including our relationship with Syria part of this society. Therefore, we and the compatibility of armed must adopt the principle of shield- resistance and state. ing our position, while at the same time become more accommodat- The sixth point – and here is ing and open to others. We must where economics plays a role – is also pay attention to maintaining a to try to liberate the state from competitive edge which requires

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 107 certain sacrifices and mandates giving the utmost that we can in the transition period, according to each person’s capacity and potential, in order for our economy to become viable.

November 18, 2005 Kamal Hamdan is an economist, analyst and consultant specialising in contemporary Middle Eastern socio-economic and political affairs. Since 1977, he has been the head of the economic division of the Consultation and Research Institute. He is also the economic analyst for the magazine Commerce du Levant, published in Beirut.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 109 Pulling Focus: Art and Curatorial Practice Reconstruct Science

Carol Squiers, Steve Kurtz and Lynn Love Moderator/Coordinator: Lynn Love

Public discussions of science are science education programs on often dominated by a “gee-whiz” television. For example, on any attitude that does little to engage given day, in almost any place in its claims or implications. At times, the world with television, one can members of the non-scientific pub- find programming that weaves lic recognise the cultural authority into the picture scientific facts of science but fail to question it. about extreme weather, tsunamis, Who can blame them? Science is hurricanes, tornadoes; or notable vast, spanning such disciplines as creatures, sharks, spiders, rep- ecology, forensic pathology, genet- tiles, gorillas, elephants, bacteria; ics, applied and theoretical physics, breakthrough medical solutions, zoology, palaeontology and more. treatments for cancer, heart The claims of science are strength- disease, AIDS and other infec- ened by a unifying set of methods tious diseases, or those that will for gathering data, organising and help us defy the process of aging. presenting it. Couple these meth- Sometimes these topics consti- ods with the highly-specialised tute the programming, as on the language and tools of research and Discovery or National Geographic an informed response to science channels, for instance, and some- seems daunting. Must it be? What times these topics round out the political ground does the public news: Extreme weather reporting sacrifice by avoiding an active is often accompanied with infor- engagement with science and all mative reports about weather in that it claims? general and profiles of the scientists For the amount of power it who study it. It doesn’t take much wields, science is the least exam- examination to realise that our col- ined mode of representation in lective enthusiasm about science mainstream culture. Sure, science and its progressive contributions fascinates and there are numerous to culture sells, even if it does not examples of our predilections for always buoy the intellect. On the a good discovery story in news- whole, however, we the consuming papers or magazines, or gee-whiz public take for granted our ongoing exposure to science as the basis contains a unifying core, a method of explanations of who we are, for formalising inquiry, gathering or as it is used to persuade us to quantitative data, organising it in buy certain products or embrace similar fashion across the scientific certain policies. We recognise that disciplines, vetting it for publication the potency of scientific explana- and dissemination and eventually tion, for example, the “script of life” presenting it as true. This is called as revealed and promoted by the the scientific method. Couple the Human Genome Project1, offers method with constantly evolving a profound new definition of life, tools and means of producing data, identifiable as a shared set of classi- as well as critical evaluation of the fied inscriptions. Yet we do little to specific projects and assertions of question the practices and implica- science seem difficult. tions of the science that produced But perhaps more than any the “Human Genome”. Why? Why other reason for our trepidation do we take for granted what the with science, we simply are unwill- purveyors of science tell us? Why ing to imagine that science lacks a do we permit scientific explana- given reality, beneath its inscriptions. tions as an authoritative source for It is too hard to think that there stories about ourselves? really is no untouchable sacred Well, there are strong conceptu- centre to ground and authorise al incentives. Science, as most other an innocent and progressive order intellectual pursuits, as life work, of knowledge. I make this claim has become highly professionalised. not as a cultural relativist, but as a Like lawyers or engineers or archi- writer who has been interviewing tects or historians for example, we scientists and documenting the understand that scientists too train scientific enterprise for years, with and apprentice for many years the rich recognition that science before becoming professionally is a set of disciplined practices sanctioned to work as contributing deeply enmeshed in narrative, professionals, either in academia or politics, myth, economics and tech- industry. nical possibilities. In other words, We devalue ourselves by allow- I believe that scientists genuinely ing professionalism to stand in get at things that enable concrete for authority about science and ways of life. But I am not convinced therefore reduce our participation that the scientific method is the in the traffic in meanings that sci- only means that scientists use to ence projects. More reasons for get at those things. Based on my opting out exist: Science is vast, experience in science as a writer, I 1 The Human Genome Project spanning dozens of disciplines from suspect that fact and fiction share (HGP) is a “project undertaken anthropology to forensic pathology, the space of science; because with a goal to understand the molecular biology, physics, zoology, scientists and those who actively genetic make-up of the human species by identifying all the to name but a few. Just consider rely on science for making meaning genes in the human genome the breadth of two major scientific of the world are specified human and mapping how individual publications: The weekly journals subjects and therefore performa- genes are sequenced. The project began in 1990 and by Science and Nature. And yet, while tive as social and political agents. some definitions, it was com- science is vast in its purview, it And fiction, even in science, offers pleted in 2003”. (wikipedia.org).

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 111 an escape into a better world good time. Scientists, I have learned than that which actually exists or firsthand, often carry out their has happened. And finally, because political lives in their science, rather fiction easily shares the limelight than becoming spokespersons for with those seemingly irreducible why a scientific theory should not notes from which a reliable under- be replaced with a thinly veiled standing of the world can be built: religious dogma. At times, navigating Those things we call facts. Despite science and its claims is as much the incentives to do otherwise, it a defensive cultural practice as it needn’t be so difficult or daunting is an assertive strategy for remak- to engage the specific concerns ing, or re-routing, meaning. For me, and assertions of science and to this is not a question of literacy so be fair, many academics and a few much as it is a question of strategic public intellectuals and journalists and creative resourcefulness. managed to do so. But I am impa- I said at the beginning that this tient and disturbed by the authority is a discussion about science which and stability of science, so impatient is true. But tonight this is also a that I’ve quit my job in science to discussion about art. And since write differently about it: To be I’ve organised this programme willing to imagine a science that under the intended provoca- tells stories at least partly based in tion, “Arts and Curatorial Practice fiction and enables concrete ways Reconstruct Science”, I owe you of life at the same time; and to an explanation or at least an intro- participate in crafting a science that duction to what I mean. In a few non-professionals, dilettantes and minutes, Carol Squiers, who is a even amateurs can participate in. curator at the International Center We risk certain perils if we for Photography in New York and ignore our own hand in the cul- Steve Kurtz, a professor and art- tural potency of science or if we ist based in Buffalo, New York, will accept it uncritically. Consider for a describe their work. Both Carol’s moment the trend in many small curatorial practice and Steve’s towns across the United States artistic practice take on science, that public schools stop teaching for better or for worse. Though the theory of evolution and instead very different as practices, I admire adopt the theory of intelligent Carol and Steve’s work for an design. Intelligent design, as you important reason. Their work is probably are aware, is essentially part of what can be understood as religion masquerading as a scien- a reconstruction in progress of sci- tific explanation of the origins and ence. But what do I mean by this? development of living organisms. In the academic world of cultural If ever there were a reason to be studies and sociology of science, steeped in the value and the pitfalls there exists a notion of change of the theory of evolution in the within a given scientific discipline, United States today – including or across science as a whole, that how molecular biology relies upon has always intrigued me. This is evolution in both practical and the- the concept of reconstruction, oretical terms –, now would be a also variously called restructuring. This concept hails primarily from or ethnic and racial minorities feminist critiques of science. It’s not within science, or even scientists necessarily a surprising concept. working without the economic Basically, through case studies of privileges of scientists in the U.S., minority groups within science, par- the U.K., France, Germany and ticularly women, scholars of science even Israel, would literally discover have described a reconstruction of different facts about their natural certain disciplines due to the spe- material while following the same cific visions and concerns of these method. What is remarkable, from groups of scientists. my perspective, is that they do not For example, in primatology, the set out to do so in a determined discipline of science that studies way. All the case studies follow sev- the behaviour and physiology of eral generations of scientists who monkeys and apes, critical science do not enter the discipline with scholar Donna Haraway has argued a particular intention such as to that starting in the 1970s, women change our perception of monog- scientists discovered different social amy and primate behaviour. In dynamics among apes and monkeys other words they’re not organised than previous generations of white as a political force; their data even European and American male sci- contradict. Nor are these scientists entists had observed. The women anywhere close to asserting that all scientists’ interpretations challenged facts are relative or that science is the parallels of primate behaviour merely a social construct. On the to social norms of human domestic contrary, the reconstructing scien- behaviour such as monogamy, or tists profiled in various case studies gendered division of labour in the are professionals who abide by the family or even the very notion of truth-value enterprise of science. “the family”. And within a period of But the challenges they collectively twenty years, women scientists in make within their fields point to primatology re-routed the scientific the lack of a dominating authority narratives about primate behaviour within science. that resulted in significant changes The work of these scientists across the discipline. By extension, and the cultural critiques about the work of these women in pri- them are a source of inspiration. I matology provided the public with think it is productive to examine a different source material for using places other than science, places primates and their behaviour as a that are professionalised and sub- basis for or confirmation of stories scribe to various shared methods, about ourselves. to determine whether there are The case study of primatology is other reconstructive possibilities famous within science studies and or trends that impact the cultural very dramatic, but there are others, authority of science. And since both historical (such as women this question has been simmering working in X-ray crystallography) for me during the past half dozen and current (such as women scien- years, as I have moved profession- tists in Telomere research). It seems ally between the world of science no surprise that groups of women and the world of art, it’s logical for

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 113 me to look to the art world for from an exhibition series that she’s evidence of reconstruction. More been working on which appeared and more, I see artists and curators at the International Center for taking up issues in science. Since I Photography in New York. Steve began working in the 1990s, femi- Kurtz is a cofounder of the art col- nist video artists have produced lective Critical Art Ensemble. He work on assisted reproduction; is the first artist investigated for AIDS activists, many of them artists, bioterrorism under the US Patriot took on issues of the medicalisa- Act. Kurtz will discuss the privatisa- tion of the body and the politics tion of knowledge and how artists of drug development. As the year use public space and critical inter- 2000 approached, many curators vention as a means to expose the organised exhibitions about the processes, biases and truth claims impact of genetics and the Human of science and technology. Genome Project. And the arts and curatorial practice that takes Lynn Love up science is still ongoing. I don’t November 19, 2005 find every attempt by artists and curators rich in the ways that I am seeking to complicate science and render it an actual currency for non-scientists. But there are examples, two of which would be Carol and Steve’s work, that I believe form a kind of basis for a reconstruction located in arts and curatorial practice. Their work has the power to engage a wide audience and to demand a revision of prevailing beliefs, not just within science, but about science as well. It has the power to and has already involved and engaged scientists themselves. But I would argue that this effort is not now a fulfilled reconstruction. The reconstruction of science through arts and curatorial practice require an ongoing examination of science in thought- ful terms and require the attention and flexibility of critics and writers to sustain it. Please allow me to introduce Carol Squiers and Steve Kurtz. Carol is a critic and curator of contemporary art. She’ll discuss some of the issues and images Lynn Love writes about media arts, science and technology. From 1999 to 2005, she was affiliated with The Rockefeller University in New York, first as a science writer and then as the university’s Media Relations director. Love is based in New York.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 115 Science in Images: From Eugenics to Human Cloning

Carol Squiers

Between 2001 and 2004, I human genome. organised a group of exhibi- Some of the questions that tions at the International Center arose for me while I contemplated of Photography in New York in this series of shows were the a series entitled, “Imaging the following: How do you make pho- Future: The Intersection of Science, tographic exhibitions about an area Technology, and Photography”. The of science which is so new that exhibitions were loosely inspired images of it might not yet exist? by the scientific prophecies and And even if they did exist, how do PR promises generated by the you go about finding them? Looking Human Genome Project1. This is for the answers to these and other an ambitious effort by scientists questions has taken me into fields and biotech entrepreneurs in the of inquiry and archives of images U.S. and the U.K. to decode the that were both compelling and dis- entire human genetic code. The turbing. It was nevertheless clear to idea is that with such a code in hand, scientists and medical professionals would be able to read the chemical building blocks of each individual. Then they would be able to design medical treatments and genetic tests that would immeasur- ably improve our lives and allow us to remove from future generations 1 The Human Genome Project (HGP) is a “project undertaken any genetic errors – including aes- with a goal to understand the thetic ones – that we desire. Many genetic make-up of the human aspects of this essential idea have species by identifying all the genes in the human genome been attacked as simplistic and and mapping how individual even dangerous, but its promoters genes are sequenced. The toiled onward until April 14, 2003, project began in 1990 and by some definitions, it was com- when scientists announced that pleted in 2003”. (wikipedia.org) they had finished decoding the me that the new genomic research Historic eugenics – as opposed was probably going to provoke a to contemporary eugenics – com- revolution in human health and bined isolated and little-understood that exploring its history and impli- bits of scientific knowledge with cations would be timely. I’m going class and racial prejudice, as well as to take you through some of the the political expediency to produce images, the research and the con- a pseudoscience that has had a cepts that helped construct these profound impact on the U.S. and shows. many other countries. The lead- The first image shows a pho- ers of the eugenics movements in tograph by Arthur Fellig (better the U.S. were scientists or other known as Weegee) entitled, well-educated people allied with “Showgirl, Sherry Britton, Reading powerful institutions like Stanford, Apes, Men, and Morons”, circa Columbia and Harvard University, 1944, from Perfecting Mankind: as well as the American Museum Eugenics and Photography, the first of Natural History in New York. show in the series. I’ll explain the In this image, Sherrie Britton, a photograph’s relevance to the topic well-known strip-tease dancer in 2 In the Name of Eugenics: in a bit. Manhattan in the 1940s, is shown Genetics and the Uses of The pseudo-science known reading a popular anthropology Human Heredity, 1985. as eugenics is one starting point book by Earnest Albert Hooton, for the modern history of human a professor of physical anthropol- genetics which is why I chose the ogy at Harvard who wrote several topic for the first exhibition. In popularising books on anthropol- Left: the 1995 preface to his important ogy commingled with eugenic “Showgirl, Sherry Britton, book on the history of eugenics messages. Reading Apes, Men, and in the United States, Daniel Kevles Hooton tried, unsuccessfully, Morons”, Arthur Fellig, 1944. wrote, “The spectre of eugenics to become a celebrity intellectual, Right: hovers over virtually all contem- appearing in publications such as Dr. E.A. Hooton, Harvard, LIFE magazine, August 7, 1939. porary developments in human LIFE magazine. The image of him genetics…, [which]… originated with the eugenic idea that the physical, mental and behavioral qualities of the human race could be improved by suitable management and manipulation of its hereditary essence. During the heyday of eugenics – much of the first half of the 20th century – social prejudice often overwhelmed scientific objectivity in the investigation of human genetics.”2 Kevles’ observation was compelling to me when I first read it and its implications have only become more significant to me as the years have passed.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 117 posing with a collection of skulls race of men” by the process of ran in LIFE in 1939. selective breeding which he later Like some physical anthropolo- termed “positive eugenics”. Policies gists, eugenicists were obsessed and theories that discouraged with measuring the human form the reproduction of “undesirables” as a way of trying to find ways to were subsequently termed “nega- quantify and define both desirable tive eugenics”. and undesirable people. Huge col- Galton began to use photogra- lections of skulls were assembled phy in around 1878. He invented in order to measure the supposed a technique that he called “com- brain size of various groups of posite photography” in which people, and to measure such things he superimposed photographic as the angle of the forehead. The portraits of various individuals. more pronounced the angle, the This was based on similar work closer you were to apes. This was he had done with maps and considered a negative association. meteorological images. Galton LIFE magazine called Hooton “witty” thought that facial characteristics and described his belief that a “bio- correlated with mental traits and logical purge” of the human race that composite portraiture was a was necessary to protect it from kind of “psychological inquiry.” He defects. first used head shots of British Anyone who knows the history prisoners, looking for the “typi- of photography probably knows cal” physiognomic features of each something about eugenical pho- criminal group by re-capturing tography, especially through Allan several of the portraits onto the Sekula’s 1986 essay, The Body and same photographic plate to make a the Archive. In this essay, he dis- composite portrait. But Galton was cusses the composite portraiture disappointed with the outcome: and eugenic theories of the British His pictures seemed to have elimi- statistician Francis Galton. Galton nated the negative irregularities occupies a seminal position in my in the men’s appearances, leaving research because he coined the only “the common humanity that term “eugenics” and then tried to underlies them…” On the screen use photography to prove his theo- is his ‘Comparison of Criminal and ries. So, I began my first exhibition Normal Populations’ (from circa with a few examples of his photo- 1878), the “normal” people being graphic work. officers and men from the Corps Galton pursued scientific investigations in a variety of subjects including heredity, physical anthropology, geography and meteorology. In 1883, he coined the term “eugenics” from a Greek root meaning “good in birth.” In Composite Photograph: the book Hereditary Genius (1869), ‘Comparison of Criminal and Normal Populations’, Francis Galton claimed that it was pos- Galton, ca. 1878. sible to produce “a highly gifted of the Royal Engineers. and “Fitter Family” contests. Following Galton, the upper The “Fitter Family” contests class of American society avidly were staged at state agricultural Top: took to composite photography fairs throughout the U.S. in the ‘Eugenics and Health Exhibit’, both for fun and intellectual amuse- 1920s and early 1930s, where local Topeka, Kansas, 1930s, ment. Henry Pickering Bowditch, families came to be measured Unidentified photographer, Courtesy of the American Professor of Physiology and Dean and questioned by eugenicists Philosophical Society. of the Harvard Medical School, who awarded prizes for eugenic Bottom: made composite photographs after excellence. This is the “Eugenics ‘Small Family Winner’, 1927. reading Galton’s influential articles and Health Exhibit” put on by Fitter Family Contest, on the subject which sparked a the American Eugenics Society in Kansas State Free Fair, 1927, Unidentified photographer, craze for such images. Bowditch Topeka. Courtesy of the American followed Galton’s line of thinking This is a “Small Family” winner at Philosophical Society. that composites could be used for serious scientific study. In an 1894 article on some of his research, he took 12 portraits each of Boston horse-car drivers and horse-car conductors and then superimposed them. Another set of images was taken of Boston physicians. In the article, he claims to have discovered a hierarchy of “intellectual expression” written into the composite physiognomies with the doctors at the top, the conductors below them and the drivers at the bottom, neatly arranged by class position. While this seems amusing now, it is important to understand that in Bowditch’s mind and no doubt in the minds of many readers at the time, these images and his conclusions about them were completely acceptable and constituted a valid scientific practice. Just as composite photography was popularised through the print media, so too was eugenics which was promoted in lectures, books and exhibitions. In the U.S., eugenicists had substantial influence on public thinking, educational cur- ricula and congressional lawmaking. They drew average Americans into active participation in eugenics with events such as the “Perfect Baby”

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 119 the Kansas State Free Fair in 1927. most extreme form with sterilisa- To compete for the title of tion laws that were in effect in ‘Fitter Family’, a family had to sub- 24 states by the early 1930s. The mit to a physical exam, syphilis attention-getting flashing lights on test and psychiatric evaluation. this contraption were used to dra- The information was entered on matise the differences between the an examination form as grades “fit” and the “unfit.” The installation in categories like “physical, mental was sponsored by the American or temperamental defects” and Eugenics Society whose mission “special talents, gifts, tastes, or supe- was to propagandise eugenics. It rior qualities.” First-place winners targeted schools from the elemen- Top: received silver trophies, like the tary level up through university ‘America Needs…’, ca. 1927, Unidentified photographer, winners for ‘Best Couple’ at the and hosted exhibits that had popu- Courtesy of the American Texas State Fair in 1925. Many of lar appeal. The members of the Philosophical Society. the surviving portraits of award- American Eugenics Society came to Bottom: winning families, like this ‘Medium range from progressive reformers ‘Medium Family Winner’, Family’ also at the Kansas State to well-born, rabid racists. Fitter Family Contest, Kansas State Free Fair, Wolcott’s Free Fair, were taken by profes- The “unfit” were avidly studied Studio 1927, Courtesy of the sional photographers. They were by the eugenics movement which American Philosophical Society. probably distributed to local news- looked at families who exhib- papers where the winners might ited what it defined as social and have gotten front-page coverage. physical pathologies. After locating In contrast with the ‘Fitter appropriate subjects – people Families’, there were “unfit families”, who were extremely poor or who who were the people eugenicists were in jail or mental institutions wanted to eliminate through nega- – eugenicists traced their family tive eugenics. This practice took its trees by interviewing doctors and other healthcare workers, friends and family members. Invariably, such people were found to have relatives who were paupers, criminals or “feebleminded,” a catch-all term of the day used to refer to anyone who seemed somehow mentally deficient. All of the families featured in the most famous studies are from rural areas where eugenicists felt the “feebleminded” were repro- ducing unchecked. This is a detail from a genealogical chart made of one family. It gives an idea of the kind of derogatory language that passed as scientific observation. This photograph is from a five- part series published in 1930 on the “Bungler” family – like all such families, they were given a pseud- onym. These members of the clan Now I’m going to leave the were obviously less fit because rural southern United States in they were illiterate. This couple was 1930 and jump to somewhere in deemed more advanced than other Western Europe in 1998. This is an relatives. image by Hans Danuser entitled One thing that struck me Frozen Embryo, Series II and it is while researching this was the one of the photographs in the resemblance between family study exhibition entitled How Human: Life photographs and those that were in the Post Genome Era which was carried out for the FSA (Farm on exhibit in 2003. Unlike Perfecting Security Administration) a few Mankind which displayed images years later by Walker Evans and made for and by advocates of others, depicting poor rural folk eugenics, How Human is comprised posed with roughhewn wooden of images mainly made by artists backdrops. who engage scientific topics related

‘The Tribe of Ishmael’, Ca. 1921. Unidentified photographer, Courtesy of the American Philosophical Society.

‘A Bungler Family’, I.S. Caldwell, 1930.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 121 to the Human Genome Project. embryos that are not used to For this series on the prenatal create children may be preserved body, Danuser went to various for future use by the couple that research facilities that specialised created them, using freezing meth- in human embryos – doing sur- ods that would preserve them for gery and testing pharmaceuticals decades. on them, or extracting stem cells Eugenicists would probably have from them. The frozen embryo favored this technology over others. is a by-product of the assisted It would have given them the ability ‘Frozen Embryo, Series II’, Hans Danuser, 1998–2000, reproductive technology known as to intervene in one of the most Collection of JGS, Inc. “test tube” fertilisation. Any “spare” basic of life’s processes: Deciding which potential human being is ‘Genomic License No. 8 (Ars good enough to bring to term and Manifestus)’, from 1998-99, consist- which should never be born. But ing of photographs, a “Genomic they could not have imagined the License Agreement” text and body complexities of this technology and tissue samples on micro-slides its products and the many uses to (blood, cheek cells). Miller’s inter- which it could be put. est in these issues began when he Those uses have provoked read a news article in 1980 about contentious debate in the U. S., a recent U.S. Supreme Court deci- especially around the issue of sion that allowed the patenting of stem cells which are derived genetically engineered micro-organ- from fertilised embryos less than isms, thereby creating a major shift a week old. At that stage, the in the scientific marketplace. Miller embryo is a cluster of cells smaller reasoned that if bacteria could be than the head of a pin. Because patented, then animals and humans embryonic stem cells can be could be next. So individuals would developed into any other kind of be well advised to secure the cell, they are prized by scientists legal rights to their own genomes who see in them the potential before anyone else did. In the mid- to treat or cure diseases includ- 1980s he began considering the ing Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and possibility of copyrighting human heart disease. Although Danuser DNA. Although he could find no seems not to take an overtly legal precedent for it, he started political stance regarding frozen by claiming copyright over his own embryos, it is worth noting that he genome. Then he distributed his has been photographing certain own “Genetic Code Copyright” highly contested environments forms internationally by mail and and techniques of modern science over the internet, attracting thou- and technology since the 1980s, sands of people who then claimed including atomic energy produc- ownership of their own unique tion, nuclear waste sites and animal genetic makeup. testing facilities. The Frozen Embryo For the “Genomic License” series are perhaps his most visu- series, he developed classifica- ally abstract works in which he tions for hypothetically licensing seems to ask the viewer to image DNA codes. He obtained what the freezing depths to which the he calls the genetic “rights” to potential for human life is con- certain desirable characteristics signed. from his subjects which he then Reproductive technologies has the right to sell. In this piece, and the manipulations that are he displays the licenses for the or will be possible with their use specific creative traits of eleven are among the themes that ran artists, having collected blood or through the exhibition. One artist cheek cells from which DNA could in the exhibition who has been be extracted. Although cloning using ideas about genetic research an entire human being using only in his art is Larry Miller. The piece these DNA samples is prohib- he showed in ‘How Human’ was ited in Miller’s agreement with a

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 123 buyer, he permits that the DNA a former forensic photographer for that carries the desirable traits be the New York City Office of the mixed into a genetically engineered Chief Medical Examiner. human being. It depicts New York City police It is all too facile to host an and other searchers at the World exhibition that is wholly critical Trade Center site after the attacks of the genetic revolution. While it of September 11. They were might be difficult to see anything gathered outside a makeshift tent progressive in the seemingly ava- where forensic specialists worked Top: riciously out-of-control biotech to identify remains. Nearly 20,000 Office of Chief Medical Examiner #3, industry, there are areas in which human remains were found, some Richard Press, 2001, genetic technology can play a ben- as small as a fragment of bone or Collection of JGS, Inc. eficial role. a scrap of skin. Only 292 of them Bottom: One of them is in the area of were whole bodies, so DNA and Office of Chief Medical DNA identification which is utilised other kinds of testing were crucial Examiner #8, Richard Press, 2001, for a number of different reasons. for identification. But by the end of Collection of JGS, Inc. This photograph is by Richard Press, February 2005, using all the methods at their disposal, they identified the remains of a little over half of the 2,749 people who were known to have been killed at the World Trade Center. This image from the series shows a technician with vials of frozen remains waiting to be identified. Another situation in which DNA identification can play a progressive role is in law enforcement. Since 1989, 163 falsely convicted people in the U.S. have been exonerated of serious crimes with the help of DNA. One of them is Ronald Jones, a Chicago man who was accused of rape and murder and convicted and sentenced to death solely on his own coerced confession. This photo by Taryn Simon is one of 50 portraits she took of the people who were exonerated through the efforts of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. She asked the subjects to pose at the sites of their arrest (which is what this specific picture shows), the sites of their alibi or the scenes of the crime. But there are also major privacy scientists and artists who collabo- concerns about DNA testing for rate with scientists. The idea for identification. The creation of DNA the show is that in the late 20th data banks by government agencies and early 21st centuries, science and the use of DNA dragnets by has increasingly become driven by police have aroused particular pro- astonishing methods of visualisation. test. The DNA dragnet practice first Whether the subject is the surface emerged in Britain where 4,000 of Mars or the interior of a human men were rounded up and tested cell, scientists look at images not in the 1987 rape and murder so much as documentation but as case of two girls. In the U.S., such sites of discovery. Ronald Jones, scene of arrest, dragnets have had less successful This revolution has occurred in South Side, Chicago, Illinois. Jones served 8 years of a outcomes than elsewhere and have large part as a result of the com- death sentence for rape and caused more controversy. puter which has had a profound murder. The fifth and final show in my effect on the scientific imaging of From The Innocents series, Taryn Simon, 2002. series was The Art of Science which the body since the early 1970s. Courtesy of the artist and contained images made both by With it, scientists can capture Gagosian Gallery.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 125 electronic signals with an array of and light individual cells in frog different instruments. embryos. Frog embryo cells split The images in this exhibition and double every 20 minutes for were produced in order to under- approximately the first four hours stand how human and animal of life, moving from fertilised egg biology functions and how and why to a few thousand cells. The movie it goes wrong. All were created follows the lighted cell divisions in digital form and with but a few as the quantum-dot illumination exceptions, projected as digital files. moves from the periphery of the They represent a small sample of cells to their nuclei, demonstrating the enormous range of scientific that cells can move information to visualisation. I’ll talk briefly about their DNA. Within 24 hours, the one piece from this exhibition embryo contains some 40 million which features the action of quan- cells. In the movie, scientists can tum dots. see the exact point at which DNA Quantum dots are a new transcription begins in a new life. and extraordinary technology I’ll end by saying that I learned developed to enable scientists to a number of different things from investigate the beginnings of life by doing this series of exhibitions. studying the cells of living embryos. One thing I learned is that mak- Quantum dots are human-made, ing art about science is difficult, nanometre-scaled semiconductor especially art that engages people crystals that can emit light of any on a visual and an intellectual level colour in the spectrum depending simultaneously. I have a newfound on the size of the dot (a nano- respect for science and an abiding metre is one-billionth of a metre). distrust of what can be done in the Scientists can inject up to a billion name of science to make a profit, quantum dots into a single cell in especially in areas like genetic mod- order to illuminate the progression ification, about whose long-term of cell development and behaviour effects we have no real evidence. and record their findings in digital While fueling important scientific images. discoveries, scientific imaging and These stills, from Ali Brivanlou’s other techniques raise significant time-lapse movie, show experi- issues as well. Primary among them ments using quantum dots to label is the disquieting fact that all of

Quantum dots, still photo from a movie by Ali Brivanlou life, including our genetic code, has Kevles’ words continue to haunt been reduced to pixels and pro- me: “The specter of eugenics hov- cessed as data. As science rushes ers over virtually all contemporary ahead to its remarkable discoveries, developments in human genetics, we must continue to probe the perhaps even more now.” impact of the computer on the very core of our humanity. November 19, 2005 Genetic and biotech revolu- tions have developed largely under the radar of average and even non-average Americans. By the time serious protests started against genetically modified food, for example, Monsanto already controlled 90% of the world market in genetically modified seeds. The fearsome promise and hopeful anxiety of the genetic era unfolds each day. Astonishing news items regularly appear, with headlines like ‘Scientists Cross Pigs with Spinach’ or ‘Stem Cell Mixing May Form a Human-Mouse Hybrid’ which surely indicate that our lives are going to be profoundly affected by new science. How and when that will happen is unknown. But Daniel

Carol Squiers is a critic, a writer and a curator at the International Center of Photography in New York. She has published The Body at Risk: Photography of Disorder, Illness, and Healing (2006), Over Exposed: Essays on Contemporary Photography (1999) and The Critical Image: Essays on Contemporary Photography (1990). She has also contributed to several publications such as Artforum, Vanity Fair, Village Voice and the New York Times and to numerous exhibition catalogues, including Peek; Photographs from the Kinsey Institute (2000) and Barbara Kruger: A Retrospective (2000).

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 127 Crime, Art and the Life Sciences

Steve Kurtz/Critical Art Ensemble

What I’m about to discuss movement, the green movement, very quickly are public myths and but in terms of using breakthrough monsters and the enterprise of science in direct action campaigns, investigating linkages between particularly in molecular biology art and science. I should start off and in proteomics1, we found by saying that the Critical Art nothing. I don’t think that it ever Ensemble’s investigation into sci- was believed that there actually ence is just a means to an end. To might be tools that could be use- us, science is just another set of ful to those of us constructing a knowledge systems, methodologies resistance to new authoritarian and processes we can marshal for applications of biotechnology; and our own purpose which in almost it appeared very unfortunate to every case is to root out various us that all of these resources were authoritarian tendencies in the being given over to corporations public landscape, whether scientific, and militaries. So that’s where we political, economic, cultural or any- started. thing else one could name. CAE What led us to this start- attempts to expose these tenden- ing point – because for its first cies and hopefully develop the ten years or so, CAE was mainly tools and the tactics to be able to interested in information and effectively resist them. That’s always communication technology – was been the core of our practice. a photograph. In 1995, I was at a One reason we began examin- photo conference. I was out for ing the politics and representations lunch with one of the artists and of science is that it appeared to us she said, “Would you like to see that the activist community was a picture of my child?” I said, “Yes, not using many of the scientific sure I would like to see that.” And resources available. These materials it was a charming picture of a little weren’t being investigated with any four-year-old on a swing. And then 1 Proteomics is “the large-scale kind of enthusiasm or rigour. There she said, “Would you like to see study of proteins, particularly their structures and functions” were certain key issues that were my child at eight cells?” and I said (wikipedia.org). very compelling to the ecological “What?” In her wallet she had a laminated picture of her child in a petri dish just prior to implantation (she had had the child in vitro) and that was when I realised, “There’s something going on here that has to be thought through from a radical perspective”, because I really didn’t even know how to process this photo in any reasonable way. Yes, I recognise what cells are and including the technicians who I understand the development of would be putting them to use. This an embryo, but that’s when it really image is our cryopreservation lab2. hit home, that for me, most of this Cryopreservation is one of the science and its related processes processes we learned to do for was a complete reification. What this particular project. We also had are scientists actually doing in a the ability to extract DNA on site. concrete sense? I really had noth- Our hope was to create a situation ing but a fantasy of it. And so that’s in which an audience/participant when I thought, “If there is going could get an idea, very quickly, that to be a political ramification, what such work is not something out would it be and how could I know of the ‘X Files’. Rather, the process if all I have to examine the situation is really plain, mundane work that is my fantasy about it?” Immediately, anyone could do with minimal the CAE became concerned with training. The first task a visitor/par- reproductive technology, quickly fol- ticipant was asked to do was to lowed by eugenics and its current take an actual egg or sperm donor second wave. We came to believe test. Once you have a look at one of these tests, you see your stake in new reproductive technology right

Right Up: Steve Kurtz (F. M. Project).

Right Down: that positive eugenics is inherent to Donor Profile (F. M. Project). the institutions of capital; and we Left: thought this was the place to start DNA Boy (F. M. Project). making this politics visible by creating a living microcosm of a flesh market. 2 Cryopreservation is “a process In ‘Flesh Machine’, we wanted to where cells or whole tissues are preserved by cooling to take molecular and cell biology labs low sub-zero temperatures, and put them in cultural spaces. such as (typically) 77 K or We wanted to have everything −196 °C (the boiling point of liquid nitrogen)”. (wikipedia. in them completely accessible, org)

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 129 away. You can see what the flesh fertility agency which offered, as market is going to sell, how it will part of its guarantee of quality, be marketed and what will be your the promise that they would not place in it. Honestly, we did not accept donations from artists). It change anything in this document. continues: Physical stamina, physi- This is not a “détourned” or cal activity and finally – it does get collaged medical form; this is an there finally – conditions that actual medical document. Here is actually have medical impact. But what it reads: Weight at age 25, hair primarily, as you can see, this docu- colour, hair type, present hair loss ment is about qualities that can be (because God knows you don’t aestheticised and marketed. The want a bald baby), eye colour, skin second element you will notice is colour, country of origin, special that what is being offered are all interests and hobbies, – and now, qualities a person would need to here we really get into it – what be a good capitalist worker. You describes you at age twenty: Active, find nothing about empathy, shar- average, inactive; musical abilities, ing or “is this a loving person”. skills in the fine arts. (Actually, while Forget all that stuff. “What’s your doing this research, we found one stamina? Are you going to be

Up Left: Behold, graphic. (Cult of the New Eve)

Up Right: Poster (F. M. Project)

Down: Behold, graphic. (Cult of the New Eve) able to work all day or not?” That’s Genome Project3 which is quite what a client needs to know and unusual for technology. For the that’s what these future parents are most part, when we think of the buying. According to the market, promissory rhetoric of technol- they’re buying genetic advan- ogy, we think of the Enlightenment tages for their future children for promises: That our lives will be a specific economic system. When more convenient, we will have new audience members took that test, communities, greater democracy they were either rejected or got a and new and improved bodies. “certificate of genetic merit” which This rhetoric works well when we used as a means of separation: you’re selling a computer or a Who could go on with the process telephone, but it works very poorly and go on to other labs and who when you’re talking about genetic had to stay behind was determined manipulation, because it raises by the first test result. And even concerns (rightly or wrongly) about though everyone knew it was just eugenics and the manipulation of a performance, it still had the effect qualities that science and medicine of creating a rather disturbing form should not be manipulating. Those of separation. associations make product develop- Cult of the New Eve was a ment and sales rather difficult, so project where we looked at the a new set of rhetorical tropes to rhetoric of bio-technology and market this product was necessary. in particular that of the Human If you throw out the Enlightenment

Poster (F. M. Project).

3 The Human Genome Project (HGP) is a “project undertaken with a goal to understand the genetic make-up of the human species by identifying all the genes in the human genome and mapping how individual genes are sequenced. The project began in 1990 and by some definitions, it was completed in 2003.” (wikipedia.org).

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 131 The Cult Group (Cult of the New Eve). model, in the West there is only of an exaggeration! I know the one remaining popular, cultural, Human Genome Project is going promissory rhetoric: Christian to create some exciting new devel- rhetoric, whence comes all the talk opments, but come on! So the about miracle cures, Edenesque CAE thought, “Why not just repeat abundance, “God’s blueprint” and these new promises to the public?” even immortality. But instead of framing them within In fact, this project originated the authority of science, we would when I was attending a lecture by make pronouncements on the real Lee Hood who was one of the using the social constellation with Human Genome Project’s gurus the least amount of authority: A (very significant in terms of its cult. One of the launch points for hardware development) and he this project was the opening of the opened with: “I’m going to make Museum of Contemporary Art in you all immortal”. I was stunned Toulouse. We were set up in the and could only think that is a bit lobby waiting for people as they Molecular Invasion, Installation View, 2002, World Information Organisation, Amsterdam manifestation. came in. that ramp you reach a plateau It was the perfect time to be where you are dependant on the there; people from all over the quality of your cell repair capabil- countryside were coming to see ity (which is true). I believe there the new museum; and as I said, are already immortal people and we just repeated what was being immortal fruit flies. You just need to said by some scientists and tried get the benefits of these genes to to get people to join the cult. If confer immortality on people at a they did, we would give them younger age (because God help us our beer and wafer, made from if we are all walking around eter- transgenic yeast that contained a nally when we’re really old!) before random human genome library we suffer too much damage.” So from the first donor to the Human while this can sound like a credible Genome Project, whom the cult pronouncement when said at a worshipped as the “New Eve.” scientific conference, when the cult What we wanted to show in this said it, it was no longer a credible performance was that there could statement at all. be a legitimation crisis in science if ’Contestational Biology/ we all simply stopped and reflected Molecular Invasion’ was the only upon how its products were being time we did a project that could marketed to us. When the cult be interpreted as doing rather than told someone they were going to performing science. I bring this be made immortal, that person action up just to talk about limits was very skeptical – as I think for a minute. As you can see, in they should have been – but we most of our performances we are managed to push that skepticism making use of scientific methods further. For example, this is one of and scientific processes and knowl- my favourite quotes: “Death rates edge, but we are not really doing go up sharply with increasing age science nor are we scientists. We but once you go off the edge of are much more interested in doing

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 133 cultural criticism of science and the trying to lead the way in the political economy of science; that’s construction of a defence kit that our obvious endgame. No one would not be easy to criminalise, as in the CAE has a scientific back- were the Earth Liberation Front’s6 ground, we’re all amateurs, we had tactics of burning fields, bombing to learn as we went; and I should labs or fire-bombing SUVs. We add we use the word “amateur” wanted to beat authority at its in the best sense of the term: As own game and use the pseudo- a person who is under minimal legal techniques the corporations market pressures when exploring use to strong-arm farmers into scientific resources and one who using their products. We believed has no direct professional or finan- that any genetic modification in an cial stake in a given structure of organism and which was supposed Top Image: knowledge. to function as a trait of adapt- Aftermath of spaying the In ‘Contestational Biology’, we ability, could be transformed into GMO plants with the enzyme asked ourselves what products a trait of susceptibility under the inhibitor pyridoxal 5 phos- phate. might emerge if research tra- right biochemical conditions: Only jectories were not pressured by plants that have been modified Bottom Image: Details from the WIO corporations, militaries and govern- will have a foreign gene. This gene installation. ments. As a specific example, we was usually placed in the plant to wanted to make a defence kit for protect it from something in the traditional and organic farmers. environment (a herbicide, an insect, 4 As the pollen of GM plants We wanted to create a means for etc.). Thus the gene produced a blows around in the wind it can contaminate other fields them to defend themselves against trait that makes the plant better and through a slow process the genetic migration of trans- adapted to the environment. We reproduce itself in a wider and genic products4.When the fields of believed we could put chemicals wider area. organic farmers were contaminated into the environment that would 5 “The Monsanto Company is with GM pollen, the Monsanto attack that same gene. No other a multinational agricultural 5 biotechnology corporation. It corporation would sue farmers plants (or other living things) would is the world’s leading producer for patent infringement. You would be injured because they would of the herbicide glyphosate, think the farmers could sue for not have this foreign gene. Thus, marketed as ‘Roundup’. Monsanto is also by far the having their seed banks corrupted, the gene that was once producing leading producer of genetically but the law went with Monsanto. adaptability would be transformed engineered (GE) seed.” This was a way to intimidate other into a point of susceptibility due to (wikipedia.org). farmers into using their products. the shift in environmental condi- 6 The Earth Liberation Front We wanted to do this not because tions – a point of weakness that (ELF) is “the collective name for anonymous and autono- of the health issues connected to other plants would not have. mous individuals or groups that the production of genetically modi- As amateurs, we had no idea use ‘economic sabotage and fied organisms (GMOs) which is how to do this, but we knew who guerrilla warfare to stop the exploitation and destruction of a minor issue for the CAE. Rather, did: The producers of the prod- the natural environment’. The we wanted to defend them against ucts. Once they patent a product, organisation has been active in a trend that may be too late to the research must be opened to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom where stop: The control of the world’s the public. Part of the research the movement was founded in food supply by a handful of corpo- they did was to see what could 1992. The ELF was classified as rations, particularly the ramifications go wrong with their product on the top domestic terror threat in the United States by the FBI of this situation on developing a biochemical level. With this in March 2001”. nations. We were interested in information, we started a series of (wikipedia.org).

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 135 public experiments to see if this Louis in Scotland. We got the same research was accurate. The leads stimulants (not actual plague, but were good and hopefully we have harmless bacteria that behave in a pointed the way to a new conver- similar manner) which the British gence of science and activism. military used for their initial tests; ‘Marching Plague’ is another and we went to the location where project we were working on the trials were originally done. As at the time. It involved having you can see from the image, it’s the various kinds of harmless bacteria middle of nowhere. The weather and trying to recreate the 1952 was horrible, very windy and our plague trials that were done by goal was to try to hit a pontoon the British military on the Isle of full of guinea pigs from a mile away with spray suspension, a liquid bacterial broth. We set up base camp in the little fishing village of Stornaway. We had to bring all our own equipment with us so we kept a little makeshift lab in our hotel room – incubators and some other necessities. I have no idea what the hotel owners must have thought, but at least we didn’t get arrested again. We had an SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) member on hand to make sure no guinea pigs were hurt during the experiment; and off to sea we went. We drove our boat a mile away, got our sprayer ready, got lined up with the wind using smoke targeting to get the trajectory we needed and launched the bacteria with the spray gun. The device is pretty much a reasonable copy of the original, except we used a block of foam instead of a triangle because we thought it would be more stable than the original one. Then we picked up our guinea pigs and tested them for our bacteria. The FBI, as you might imagine, was really keen on us not doing this. This particular recreation showed that science can be incredibly

3 Images: foolish when guided by military The Marching Plague project ambition. This is one of those great examples of a true theatre from the exhibition. Happily, the of the absurd. Within the frame curators did not comply. Then of scientific rigour alone, when we when we reached Germany, we don’t think in terms of politics or discovered they have beer police practicality, it does make sense. If protecting the local beer industry you try to create a ship-to-ship from outside competitors. It is tactical weapon using plague, the apparently against the German first thing you have to do is test if beer purity laws to have a GMO the bacteria can be delivered to beer. This whole problem started a target. And, if it can’t be “weap- during a ‘Cult of the New Eve’ onised” in the traditional sense, you sermon at the ZKM (Zentrum have a very difficult job, because für Kunst und Medientechnologie/ the plague is very sensitive type of Center for Art and Media bacteria: It doesn’t like to get too Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany), cold; it doesn’t like to be too hot; where I was getting heckled by a and it doesn’t like light. Their results man yelling that he was “here to were of course not very good; nor represent beer purity.” At the end were ours. of the talk we found out that my You have heard the myths; now heckler was a cop. He pulled out where are the monsters? What his badge and told me I couldn’t are the monsters? With ‘Flesh bring GMO beer into Germany. I Machine’, it was obvious: If you’re said, “Even if we used a German going to talk about reproduction, recipe to make it?” But he wasn’t the Church will make a showing. impressed by that, so I offered Complain they did. It reached a him a small cup of it for him to peak when I was challenged by the drink; but he said he had taken an Archbishop of Salzburg to a debate oath never to drink impure beer. on Austrian national television. Luckily, he let us off with a warning (One of the things I learned as a because we only had a six-pack. side note: If you don’t speak the During ‘Contestational Biology’, language, don’t accept the debate Monsanto sent their lawyers to invitation. That’s the first thing to threaten us. That didn’t work. remember.) ‘Free Range Grain’ was one of the For the ‘Cult of the New Eve’, projects with which we got into we had a couple of incidents. trouble with the FBI because we When we went to France we built our own molecular biology lab didn’t know cults had been made to test whether food was geneti- illegal the week before; this set off cally modified. Of course, if you’re a real firestorm of complaint. In not a professional scientist the addition, the crisis of the real in only reason you would want to do theatre was reinstated: If you’re that – and there can only be one performing a simulation of the reason – is terrorism. So a bit of real, should this be treated as real trouble came our way for possess- even though it’s a performance? ing the necessary equipment. With The mayor of the city denounced ‘Marching Plague’, my troubles with us for this in the local papers and the FBI and the Department of demanded that we be removed Justice are pretty well known.7

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 137 Bean (Free Range Grain)

7 On May 11, 2004, Steve Kurtz’s wife of 20 years, Hope, died of heart failure in their home in Buffalo. Kurtz called 911. Buffalo Police who responded along with emergency workers, apparently sensitised to ‘War on Terror’ rhetoric, became alarmed by the presence of art materials in their home Art and science projects are separate from critical discourse. which had been displayed done on a regular basis. Carol There’s a lot of profit to be made in museums and galleries throughout Europe and North Squiers showed us a healthy in the life sciences and anything America. Convinced that these sample; so why aren’t these artists that can disrupt the marketing and materials – which consisted of getting in trouble? It is a question free flow of that capital is going several petri dishes containing harmless forms of bacteria and of how far you are willing to go. to attract the authorities. Second, scientific equipment for testing How far are you willing to pene- although this information is sup- genetically altered food – were trate the political workings of these posed to be part of our common the work of a terrorist. The police called the FBI. For more disciplines? First, if it’s done in such culture, it is extremely privatised in information about the case, a way as to place an unquestioned the global capitalist system. For that including the charges against power under interrogation; then reason, there will always be some Steve Kurtz, please see: www.caedefensefund.org/over- you offend a lot of people with an kind of price to pay in order to view.html#kurtz. interest in keeping the discipline obtain it. Whether one has to go through university and get a PhD the norm just a little bit, to invade or use one’s ability for the corpo- that private sphere just a little bit is rate-state, somewhere, someone enough to bring on the monsters. has to pay in cash or in labour to the benefit of private interests. If November 19, 2005 you don’t, there will be trouble. The final problem for the CAE is that This is a transcription of Steve Kurtz’s contribution to the panel. all our projects are always framed The images featured are courtesy of Critical and filtered through the categories Art Ensemble. of the political economy which is the last straw. Once you start to say, “Science is not a value-free, objective discipline that is beyond market and political forces” and go onto perform this belief, you will meet with disciplinary agencies; if you have a different, effective way of publicly representing science and its applications, the authorities are going to come. Capital is not going to stand for the slightest friction in its profitable endeavours, even at the modest scale that the CAE is working. Our projects are not constituted by radicalised black- block gestures. They are challenging and push the boundaries; they’re certainly not beyond what should have legal protection. Unfortunately, that doesn’t matter. To deviate from

Steve Kurtz is a founding member of Critical Art Ensemble (CAE). CAE is a collective of tactical media practitioners of various specialisations, including computer graphics and web design, wetware, film/video, photography, text art, book art and performance. Formed in 1987, CAE’s focus has been on the exploration of the intersections between art, critical theory, technology and political activism. The collective has performed and produced a wide variety of projects for an international audience at diverse venues ranging from the street to the museum to the internet. Critical Art Ensemble has also written six books, the most recent being Marching Plague: Germ Warfare and Global Public Health. Kurtz is an Associate Professor of Visual Studies at State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 139

PERFORMANCES

Who’s Afraid of Representation?, Rabih Mroué Give me a Body Then, Ali Cherri Berlin: The Symphony of a Big City – Live Electronics, Mahmoud Refat I Feel a Great Desire to Meet the Masses Once Again, Walid Raad Who’s Afraid of Representation?

A performance by Rabih Mroué Performed by Rabih Mroué and Lina Saneh Scenography by Samar Maakaron

On stage is a large white screen on the screen, as she plays the role rolled up horizontally, in such a way of Vallie Export. These motions will that it remains invisible to the spec- be repeated throughout the perfor- tators. To the left of the stage are mance, with Lina playing the artist two small tables and a chair. A cam- that she will choose at random.) era placed at the depth of the stage Rabih (preparing the chro- is directed towards the audience. nometer): Top! (meaning that the Another camera, placed outside countdown has begun.) the stage, is directed towards the Lina (from behind the screen, in stage. Enter the actors Rabih and the role of Vallie Export): My name Lina. They untie the cord of the is Vallie Export… I’ve created a rolled up screen, it falls vertically lot of performance art during my and hides the depth of the stage life. For example: In one of my art and with it the camera at the back. pieces I built a box and hung it The actors move towards the two around my neck so that it dangled tables, carrying a large book, a small over my breasts… a box like a little chronometer and some papers. They peep show booth, open in the back play “heads or tails” and the result and closed in the front with a black determines that Lina will take the curtain… I hung it around my neck book, Rabih the chronometer. Lina and walked out into the street, and I faces the audience still carrying the stood and called out to people and book, whilst Rabih sits sideways on told them that whoever wanted to a chair behind the table. Lina starts could put their hand through the the game: She closes her eyes, opens curtain and touch my tits without the book haphazardly and reads: seeing them… and they could fondle and play with them as much Lina: Vallie Export, page 57. as they liked… almost everyone Rabih: Page 57 means you have took part. 57 seconds. In one of my art projects I went (Lina puts the book on the to a movie theatre that only showed table and goes to stand behind the sex films… I was wearing jeans that screen. Her image appears, life-size, were completely open from this side… I cut out the middle bit here But the performance I really and threw it away… and I wasn’t want to talk about was… wearing panties underneath… my Rabih: Time out! hair was a big mess. I was carrying (Lina picks out another page at a machine gun and my cunt was random) on display for all to see… I walked Lina: Gina Pane, page 27. gracefully, delicately, passing in front Rabih: You have 27 seconds. Top! of every member of the audience, Lina/Gina Pane: I presented my one by one, and I stopped in front most important art works between of each person and looked into their ’68 and ’75… eyes. And then I sat, facing them, my I pinched myself. I punched legs spread wide, the machine gun myself. I made myself bleed. I got cradled in my arms. a ladder and put sharp nails and In one of my art projects I began razors on each rung. I took my pulling at the skin beneath my nails… shoes off and climbed the ladder forcing paper and cardboard under- barefoot. I slashed myself. neath and shoving them in as deep Once I ate raw meat. I bought as I could until the nail pulled away half a kilo of spoiled raw meat. It from its bed and the blood started stank. I started to eat it… I ate and flowing… ate and kept eating until I vomited In one of my artworks… everything I ate and then I ate anew Rabih: Time out! (he stops the until I vomited again, a second time, chronometer) a third time, a fourth…. (Lina comes out from behind Rabih: Time out! the screen and returns to her place (Lina picks out another page at behind the table. She repeats the random) same motions, opens the book at Lina: Kim Jones, page 102. random and reads.) Rabih: Page 102? (he gives it Lina: Gunter Brus, page 22. some thought.). Page 102 means you Rabih: Page 22, means you have have one minute and two seconds. 22 seconds this time. Lina/Kim Jones: I got an empty jar (Lina goes and stands behind the of mayonnaise and shat in it. Then screen again.) I invited everyone to come see my Rabih: Top! latest art work. The exhibition was Lina/Gunter Brus: In ’69 I went held in a gallery. to Munich with my friend Muhl, who People came in… I came in. I was screening his films in a theatre took off all my clothes. I opened the there… we got up together on the jar and started to smear the shit all stage… we took off our clothes in over my body. My own shit. Slowly, front of everyone and I lay down on daintily, tenderly, I approached the the ground and let him urinate in crowd and began to hug them… my mouth… he pissed…. embrace them … clasp them to my We repeated the performance bosom and squeeze. in a nightclub in Germany, but in I had lit some green twigs and another city… all hell broke loose… leaves… something like incense. they closed the club and the cops After a while, the smoke became chased after us. very thick. It filled the air and people

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 143 © Houssam Mchaiemch started to flee… whether from me war in Lebanon first began, I planted or the shit or the smoke, I don’t a red rose. I planted it in my arm… know. At the end, I remained alone here. I kept stabbing, stabbing and in the gallery. I was about to choke stabbing until I punctured the flesh… and die from the smoke, had I not the wound bled, swelled, got infect- fled in the nick of time… ed and I had to go to the hospital (Silence) to treat it. Rabih: Time isn’t up yet. Rabih: Time out! Lina/Kim Jones: I got a razor (Again, Lina opens the book at and a blank canvas… and as usual random and falls upon a picture I invited everyone to come see my from a famous play.) latest art work. I held the show in Lina: Picture. a gallery. (Lina moves towards the camera People arrived… I came in… I at the back of the stage and holds took off all my clothes. I picked up up the picture which appears on the razor and started cutting myself. the screen. Rabih goes and stands in I followed the path of the veins on front of the screen, with the picture my body. Twenty-seven wounds. behind him.) I started bleeding. Very calmly, Rabih: I walked towards the canvas and I got a Kalashnikov with five clips pressed my body against it, as hard and fifty bullets. as I could. Then I stepped back. My A Scorpion machine gun with blood was printed on the canvas. It two clips and 16 bullets reserve. was a self-portrait. This piece could A 9mm revolver with 35 bullets. have had another name, ‘In Memory A hand grenade. of Ashoura’, but this was unthinkable A military utility belt. at the time. I took them all and went to my Rabih: Time out! workplace in Beirut. I arrived there (Lina picks out another page at at around 9am And I proceeded random, falling on a picture from a with my plan. famous play.) There were a number of people I Lina: Picture wanted to kill: Sonia, Samer, Issa, Carl. (Lina moves towards the camera The others were incidental casualties, at the back of the stage and holds Abd el Razzaq, Paula and others… up the picture which appears on the By the end, I’d killed eight people screen. Rabih stands up. He hesitates, and injured four. then moves towards the front of I am not a criminal. I have noth- the screen. Before reaching it, Lina ing to hide. I planned and executed closes the book. Rabih is disturbed. everything on my own initiative. No He returns to his chair before Lina one had an inkling about any of it. returns to her place behind the I was in a financial bind and table.) wanted revenge, even though I feel (Lina picks out another page at faint at the sight of blood. And I random.) normally always avoid fights… all my Lina: Peter Stembra, page 18. colleagues at work can attest to that, Rabih: You have 18 seconds. Top! even the ones I killed. Lina/Peter Stembra: When the During the war, I joined the Amal

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 145 © Houssam Mchaiemch

© Houssam Mchaiemch Movement. I was a regular member, on me, some threw water on me, so I only received basic weapons stuck me with the pins… Until one training. I took target practice only guy picked up the gun, put a bullet once. I took part in the ‘Battle of the in it, cocked the barrel and put it to Camps’ but I didn’t fire a weapon my head. then. People got really scared. I got Twelve years after the Lebanese scared. But I didn’t move and war ended, I can say that I managed didn’t show it. Someone lunged at to transform my workplace of 25 the guy and pushed the gun away years into a battleground. from me…. They got into a fight, My name is Hassan Ma’moun punching and yelling. People got (Both Rabih and Lina return to involved in the fight and it turned their places. Standing behind the into a big brawl. At that point I got table, Lina closes her eyes and picks really scared that the bullet might hit a page of the book at random. She someone from the audience…it’s reads:) a huge responsibility. I stopped the Lina: Marina Abramovic, page 104. performance. Not too long after Rabih: You have a minute and that, the massacre in Damour took four seconds. Top! place. Lina/Marina Abramovic: When Rabih: Time out! the ‘Battle of the Hotels’ began in (Lina returns to her place behind downtown Beirut, I laid out a table the table, closes her eyes and picks a and placed 72 items on it, like scis- page from the book. She reads.) sors, a saw, a razor, a fork, knives, Lina: John Duncan, page 33. glass bottles, a tube of lipstick, a Rabih: You have 33 seconds. Top! whip, pins, bread, an axe, a bottle Lina /John Duncan: I went to of perfume, paint, matches, candles, Mexico. I bought a woman’s corpse. nails, a comb, a newspaper, a mirror, I had sex with the body and filmed needles, honey, grapes, tape, a real the entire act on video. Right after gun and a real bullet. that I traveled to California, checked And I put up a big sign which myself into a hospital and got a read: vasectomy. On this table are 72 items you I needed to make sure that may use on my body as you see fit. I could indeed no longer have I stood before the audience and children and the last chance of waited. that happening was with this dead These items were displayed for woman, the corpse. I took pictures six hours and the audience was of the surgical procedure to prove allowed to use them in any way they that I was now sterile. A sterile wanted. human being. After the first three hours, my I worked on the pictures and the clothes were all torn. Some people video I shot in Mexico and turned ripped my clothes off… cut them to them into a performance which I bits, some stripped me, some tried entitled ‘Blind Date’. supposedly to “dress me”, some Rabih: Time out! pinched me with the pliers, some (Lina returns to her place behind combed my hair, some put lipstick the table, closes her eyes and picks a

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 147 © Houssam Mchaiemch page from the book. She reads.) neck on the left side and came out Lina: Chris Burden, page 37. from the right. She died. Rabih: You have 37 minutes. Top! - Sonia: Several bullets… one of Lina/Chris Burden: In ’73 I cov- them in the head, leading to the ered the floor with 14 metres of fracture and pulverisation of the broken glass. I lay down and started skull and leakage of brain matter. I rolling on it, my hands behind my used exploding bullets. She died. back. I called the piece Through the - Carl was also shot with several Night Softly. Fourteen meteres of bullets: In the head, in the neck, the glass, my body rolling over them upper chest and various other parts slowly, as if my body were wait- of his body. I also used exploding ing for something to happen to bullets. He died. it… poised in a state of caution - I shot Buthayna with two bullets: and readiness for the possibility of One got her in the neck, the other something big happening… or on in the chest… both bullets shot the verge of happening… or about right through her body and hit the to happen, but not happening. Like wall. She died. for instance, a sliver of glass entering - Issa: Four bullets in the head, my eye and blinding me, or like the the neck, stomach and thigh. This attack carried out by the Popular resulted in a crushed skull and leak- Front for the Liberation of Palestine ing brain matter. He died. (PFLP) in Munich the year before. - Gladys: I fired one bullet through Or like what happened this year, her right shoulder, it came out the the year of the performance, when other side; another through her right Lebanese fighter jets circled the leg, it came out through her hip. She skies above Beirut and bombed the died. Palestinian camps. - Samir: In his chest and head and Rabih: Time out! all other parts of his body. He died. (Lina opens on a picture from a - Abed el Razzaq: In the hip. The famous play again.) bullet entered his left hip, travelled Lina: Picture. in the direction of his stomach and (Lina moves towards the camera came out of his thigh, on the right at the back of the stage and holds side. He did not die. up the picture which appears on - I shot Amira in the waist which the screen. Rabih goes and stands in resulted in internal lacerations and front of the screen, with the picture bleeding. I also shot her in the left behind him.) thigh: Her hip shattered, the bullet Rabih: ripped through to her stomach and - I shot Marc with nine bullets in large intestine. She did not die. his chest and hips and back… they - Nuha burned her hand because entered him from behind, came out she touched the Kalashnikov when it the front, hit the wall… he died. was hot. She definitely did not die. - Mariam: I fired a bullet in her - I shot at Paula’s waist. The bul- head and another one in her neck. let just grazed her and burned her The first got her in her left eyebrow, pants. She did not die. drilled into her skull and stayed I was quiet, saying nothing. there. The second bullet pierced her Calm… shooting without saying any-

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 149 thing to anyone. artery along her arm). I bled. Then My name is Hassan Ma’moun I started playing with a tennis ball. (Rabih returns to his place Suddenly I approached the audience behind the table) with the same razor in my hand. I (Lina resumes her post behind put it to my face, here. I heard gasps the table, closes her eyes and picks a from the audience, as if it’s all right page from the book. She reads.) to cut your hand but not your face. Lina: Franko B, page 5. Anyway, the performance demanded Rabih: You have 5 seconds. Top! that I cut my face. And so I did. Lina/Franko B: I was born in I was wagering on my body 1960… when the Arab Syrian holding up. I put glass in my mouth Rade‘(Deterrence) Forces entered and sucked on it like it was candy, Beirut… began to grind it with my teeth. I Rabih: Time out! spit it into a glass of milk. Glass in (Lina returns to her place behind milk. And I lapped it up in front of the table, closes her eyes and picks a the audience. Then I got a bouquet page from the book. She reads.) of flowers and stuck it here, on Lina: Marina Abramovic, page 21. my cunt. Of course, it was never Rabih: You have 21 seconds. Top! my intention to predict the fall of Lina/Marina Abramovic: During the Socialist Bloc, I wished rather the war, I stood in front of the audi- to confirm and underscore pain… ence and started brushing my hair pain as a message in its own right, and saying: unfettered by symbols… all of this Art must be beautiful. Art must happened before the war you see… be beautiful. I kept brushing my hair Rabih: Time out! and saying: Art must be beautiful. Art (Lina returns to her place behind must be beautiful. It must, it must. I the table, closes her eyes and picks a repeated this as I brushed my hair. page from the book. She reads.) Brushed and brushed until my scalp Lina: Hermann Nitsch (she closes was scraped, until my hair began to the book). fall out, until my face was scratched Rabih: Which page? and bleeding. Lina: I didn’t pay attention! I for- Rabih: Time out! get. What do we do in this case? (Lina returns to her place behind Rabih: Forget Hermann Nitsch. the table, closes her eyes and picks a Pick another page. But pay attention page from the book. She reads.) to its number. Lina: Gina Pane, page 45. (Lina picks a new page and falls Rabih: You have 45 seconds. Top! on a picture from a famous play.) Lina/Gina Pane: I started working Lina: Picture. on my most important art works (Lina moves towards the camera at the beginning of the 1970s, that at the back of the stage and holds is, before the civil war began in up the picture which appears on Lebanon… at the time there were a the screen. Rabih goes and stands in lot of people wagering on the sup- front of the screen, with the picture port of the Soviet Union. behind him.) I got a razor and cut myself with Rabih: it here, here and here (indicates the At first I was anxious. When I

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 151 fired the first bullet I heard this howl recall whether or not I used the of guilt from within me because I machine gun or the revolver or how knew I’d got her. many bullets I fired. I didn’t have a The first bullet hit Gladys, I hit plan when I set my gun to shoot her by accident. She was coming single bullets. It seems I shot at sev- out of Issa’s office. I can’t remember eral of the bodies after they were how many bullets I shot her with. dead but I’m not aware if I did this But when I hit her I felt this wave of on purpose or not. shock because she didn’t have any- As for why I fired nine bullets thing to do with it. into Marc, I have no answer. Frankly I After that I don’t know what am shocked, surprised at myself. happened. I went on without being I was anxious but it didn’t show. aware of anything. I started shooting erratically When it was all over I stood above people’s heads, at people’s amongst them… some dead, some feet, just randomly… injured, some hiding… I lit a ciga- I was in a moment of uncon- rette and walked slowly down the sciousness, a moment of rage, out of stairs and then I turned myself in to control… the security forces. What I did was a dream, nothing I felt that what had happened more… was a dream, not reality. Until this My name is Hassan Ma’moun. day I can’t believe I did all that. I (Rabih returns to his post behind don’t know what happened. the table.) I see Marc hiding behind a desk… (Behind the table, Lina closes I aim and shoot him nine times her eyes and picks a page from the and then I move towards the office book. She reads.) of the manager, Sonia. Suddenly Lina: Philippe Sterlac, page 59. Mariam crosses my path and I shoot Rabih: You have 59 seconds. her twice. Then I turn towards Sonia, Lina/Philippe Sterlac: I was in we’re standing face to face, she’s Tokyo in 1978, when the battle next to the wall and without saying was raging between West and East a word to one another I put the gun Beirut. More precisely, it was on in her mouth and fire… March 12, before the beginning of I was searching for Raymond the Camp David negotiations under when I saw Carl hiding in the Carter’s patronage. My body was archive room. I shot him several dangling in the air, swinging between times, then doubled back towards earth and sky. I had hung myself by Bilal’s office. I wanted Raymond. The 17 meat hooks. Seventeen hooks door is locked from the inside. I shot caught in my skin, attached to cables at the lock; the door did not give… that hung from the ceiling… and Some of my colleagues who I, swinging… there definitely was were on the same floor start run- pain (he pinches his skin and pulls it ning away. Hana threw herself on away from his body). Something like the ground and begged me not to this. The hook enters from here, is kill her. Amira… I forget how she attached to a cable. And I wait. I wait crossed my path and where. for as long as I can stand it, while I used the Kalashnikov and I don’t everybody looks at me. The skin no longer separates the material world a shame that all that remains of a from the spiritual world. The issue work is its image from the outside. is no longer the border that divides A damned shame that people only the body from the soul. What is remember the scandals in art and certain, in my opinion, is that there forget the critique we were trying is no such border. What I’m trying to impart, forget art history and art to say about our skin is that it is from a feminist perspective. no different from the demarcation Rabih: Time out! lines within a city. The demarcation (Lina returns to her post behind line does not define a “here” and the table, picks a new page and falls a “there”. On the contrary, it exists on a picture from a famous play.) between “here” and “here”. Between Lina: Picture. the interior and the interior. There (Lina moves towards the camera is no exterior. And this is what’s at the back of the stage and holds important (he is still pulling his skin up the picture which appears on between his fingers). the screen. Rabih goes and stands in The performance did not last front of the screen, with the picture long. I couldn’t stand it for long. behind him.) Rabih: Time out! Rabih: (Lina returns to her place behind I took out an 18 million the table, closes her eyes and picks a Lebanese Pounds (L.P.) advance on page from the book. She reads.) my salary, in installments. I used to Lina: Joseph Beuys, page 10. donate to the clubs and charitable Rabih: You have 10 seconds. Top! organisations in my village, host Lina/Joseph Beuys: After the feasts at my house, organise athletic October war and Arab defeat, I tournaments, help poor families. No stood up and announced: one was overlooked. I like America and America likes I borrowed 4 million L.P. from me. the treasurer and took a five-day Rabih: Time out! vacation to Egypt with my wife. I (Lina returns to her place behind bought gifts for my entire family and the table, closes her eyes and picks a for the villagers, as well as for some page from the book. She reads.) of my colleagues at work, like Paula Lina: Mike Butler, page 29. and Carl. Rabih: You have 29 seconds. Top! I borrowed $8,000 from a rela- Lina/Mike Butler: You can’t talk tive on condition that I would pay about any of my artwork without him back at the end of the next knowing the background behind month. I was unable to return a each piece: The political and social cent, but I gave him an IOU for the context, the philosophical ideas of amount with the understanding that my time… and all the factors, psy- I would eventually pay him back. chological and financial that pursued I bought furniture for the whole me throughout the creation of my house on an installment plan but oeuvre. You also have to read the I couldn’t make the payments. texts I published. You even have to Everything was repossessed … read the books that inspired me, I bought a Daewoo from the car or at least look through them. It’s dealership on an installment plan,

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 153 $238 a month. I couldn’t finish pay- the typical purpose of self-beautifica- ing for it. It was repossessed. tion. Not at all. They were more like I started to get around by taxi, “constructive” surgeries. For instance, with a chauffeur from the village, I got this procedure done in order Jamal. He would drop me off and to have the same forehead as Da pick me up, each trip at a cost of Vinci’s Mona Lisa, another one so I about 20,000 L.P. could have Europa’s lips as Boucher I borrowed 6 million L.P. from my drew them, a third one to obtain colleague Samer so I could get my Venus’ chin from Boticelli’s painting Daewoo back. But I used the money and so forth… for some social services in the vil- Dürer talked about construct- lage. It was gone. ing the ideal human body which Samer, and Sonia – my boss, would be a model for painters. He helped me to cash in my severance would bring the most seductive pay from Social Security so I could eyes he had ever seen on a woman, pay back all my debts, especially join them with the most beautiful those of the advance pay at work breasts from another, join them and the money I owed Samer. The to the most attractive legs from a severance pay came out to about 26 third, the slenderest fingers from a million L.P. I used the money to buy fourth, the ideal height from a fifth, a Mercedes SLK. a part from a sixth, one from a sev- Samer and Sonia found out, they enth until he had put together the reclaimed the car, they forced me to supreme human body – a body that give it back to its former owner and glorifies the human being. But which they took the money back from him. human being exactly? Who is glorify- They called my brother-in-law and ing whom? Someone should have told him everything; they exposed told Dürer that his work doesn’t and humiliated me in front of my really work. family. In ’93, after the Lebanese war As a result, I have debts total- had been over for two years and in ing more than 45 million L.P. And the midst of the reconstruction of my monthly salary is no more than the Beirut city center, or rather, its 800,000 L.P. construction following Dürer’s para- And my name is Hassan digm, I held a live broadcast of one Ma’moun. of my cosmetic surgeries, broadcast- (Rabih returns to his place ing from New York to over 15 sites behind the table.) across the world. People could ask (Lina returns to her place behind me questions before and during the the table, closes her eyes and picks a operation, and I would of course page from the book. She reads.) answer. I always liked to be awake Lina: Orlan, page 106. during my operations so I could Rabih: You have one minute and see and talk. This is why I asked for 6 seconds. Top! local anesthesia, so I could still direct Lina/Orlan: Cosmetic surgery the performance. It was just like hurts, shocks, messes everything a play: That is, I had a set designer, up. It can also kill you. I had a lot of wardrobe, lighting and accompany- surgery done on my face. Not for ing texts, music and poetry. We had simultaneous translation in English two people who had fought? as well as closed caption translation Did they forget that I would help for the deaf-mute. People could see all the area teachers to get their how my face was being cut and retirement funds at the end of their stitched up again. They could see tenure? the attachment of two horns to my Did they forget that I borrowed forehead. money in order to help poor fami- They could see how my body lies pay their children’s tuitions? was being transformed, how I was Did they forget that I would sculpting myself, inside and out. Pay buy them gifts on all the holidays, close attention: These operations Christian and Muslim alike? are against God and His Party and Did they forget that I was self- not at all against cosmetic surgery. less in my services to all the people Against nature, sure. They are a of my village as well as to my col- salute to morphine and a celebra- leagues at work? tion of the defeat of pain. A defeat Why would they refuse me an akin to the one suffered by Israel in advance payment? South Lebanon. And myself. Why would they stop my salary? (Rabih moves during Lina’s per- Why are they insisting on dis- formance and stands in front of the gracing me in front of the whole screen. He suddenly interrupts her). world? Rabih: When they took away my My motives were financial, no Mercedes, I felt I had lost my dignity, more, no less: High cost of living, lost everyone’s trust: My parents, no money, debts… what was I sup- my family, my colleagues, my fellow posed to do? villagers. Did they forget that I am Mr. I felt that they had destroyed me Hassan Ma’moun, brother-in-law of and that I had nothing left to lose. the mayor? They killed me financially, so I Did they forget that I am the decided to kill them in return. head of the Amal Movement divi- My name is Hassan Ma’moun sion in the village? (Rabih turns towards the screen Did they forget that I am the and shots are heard. Lina falls on the one who used to organise all the ground. Silence. Rabih very slowly village festivals, under the theme of turns towards the audience.) “Lebanon, a Nation for All Citizens”? Rabih continues: Did they forget that I am the My motives were sectarian, no one who founded the village football more, no less. Financial matters are team, that I bought them shorts and unimportant and inconsequential. cleats and tracksuits and everything Everyone at work knows the story: else they needed? Samar, Issa, Amira and Nuha and Did they forget that I erected a Amal, Ibrahim, Thuraya, Samer and billboard in my name saluting the Gladys, everyone. Lebanese army and the Syrian army There are some things a person on their national days? just can’t accept. Did they forget that I would Two months ago, a fight broke always be the one to reconciliate out between Raymond and these

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 155 two other guys I didn’t know that on the white screen which will were following up on their papers. remain until the end of the perfor- People from work got involved, tried mance.) to break them up. So then Raymond (Lina returns to her place behind stands up and announces in front of the table, closes her eyes and picks a everyone, loudly and clearly: I want page from the book. She reads.) to crush Islam and all Muslims. Lina: Rudolf Schwarzkogler, page At work we became divided into 55. three groups: Those who were with Rabih: You have 55 seconds. Top! Raymond and who supported his Lina/Rudolf Schwarzkogler: view, those who opposed and were I threw myself out of a window outraged and a third, neutral group. and died. I was of this neutral group. And any- In fact, I’m not quite sure if I way I was one of the people who threw myself out or if I fell by acci- broke up the fight. dent. I don’t remember anymore. Then my Muslim colleagues start- But I definitely didn’t die when I cas- ed reproaching me for not standing trated myself. That was just a rumour. up to Raymond. And they started I remember I had this project asking me what should be done in I intended to carry out where I such a situation. They accused me of wanted to peel the skin off my body being a coward and I responded by piece by piece, in little pieces using a telling them that we shouldn’t aggra- razor, taking pictures of the process. vate such sensitive issues. But then Maybe I began working on this proj- every time they would see me they ect and when I couldn’t stand the would repeat their urges and their pain anymore, I committed suicide. accusations until the issue became Actually I’m not sure if I killed myself. huge in my mind, until I became the Maybe I fell by accident. I don’t scapegoat for their rage. know. But I definitely didn’t cut my This is why I decided to kill dick off the way everyone says I did. Raymond and the whole group It’s true I had an art work planned that was siding with him. Sonia, our around the issue and in some of Christian boss; Carl and Issa, who my other pieces I’d cut myself with were spurring Raymond on, also razors and glass, shrouded myself Christians; Samer, a Christian who in gauze. But I definitely didn’t die was implicitly on his side. because I cut my dick off. The images in my head bled In any case, it’s unimportant into each other, images of war and whether I killed myself or fell by images of peace. accident. In the end, they found me I had to defend my sect, defend in 1969, having fallen out of my win- its dignity. dow and died. That was at the height I had to take my vengeance upon of the student and popular move- those who would insult Islam and ments in Beirut, the rise of the leftist Muslims. tide, the Palestinian struggle and of (Rabih returns to his seat behind course the national democratic plan the table. Lina rises slowly from that was supposed to provide an behind the screen, leaving the image alternative to political sectarianism. of her fall - her corpse - imprinted And my friends have, until now, not made the connection between what which is as lost inside you as I I was doing and the failure of the am, here, national movement at the beginning in the dark, fucking you and of the civil war and the consequent thinking – fuck, death of the Lebanese left and the the wallpaper behind you had a demise of its dream for change. They name, were associating my death with the what was it? You called it what? War of the Mountains and the April What? 17 accord. This is why they wrote Rabih: Time out! to all the newspapers, to dispel the (Lina goes back to pick a new rumours that surfaced after my page. Rabih stops her.) death, even though at the time, I Rabih: You know? I have nothing wasn’t opposed to any of them. The against poetry, but I prefer that we rumors say that I pulled my dick out talk about performances in this per- onto a chopping board and started formance. to cut it into little pieces with a Lina: You didn’t like the poem? sharp knife. That I bled profusely and Rabih: Yes I did, I did, I liked it died. very much, but I prefer that we talk Rabih: Time out! about artworks. Work. Action. So (Lina returns to her place behind you can go back to Bob Flanagan the table, closes her eyes and picks a and his performances. page from the book. She reads.) Lina: I have no problem with that. Lina: Bob Flanagan, page 43. (Lina goes behind the screen and Rabih: You have 43 seconds. Top! continues as Bob Flanagan): Lina/Bob Flanagan: I wrote many poems, but I’m not I wrote this poem after the draft- going to read them to you. ing of the Taif Accord: Once I threaded a needle, then I’ve been a shit and I hate fucking threaded the needle through my you now upper lip and then my lower one. because I love fucking you too Then I tied the thread into a knot. much; Three stitches: Here, here and here. I what good’s the head of my cock took a picture of myself. inside you Another time I pierced my when my other head, the one balls and the head of my dick and with the brains, stuck rings in them. To these rings I keeps thinking how fucked up attached a thick chain from which I everything is, dangled weights of over 5 kilograms. how fucked I am to be fucking I let the chains go, my arms up in you and thinking the air, and I stood and took a pic- these things which take me away ture of myself. from you Once I shaved off all my pubes. when all I want is to be close I pulled the skin of my balls and to you wrapped it around my dick… like a but fuck you for letting me fuck little roast I stitched it up, with three you now wide stitches. Then I dissected the when all that connects us is this skin on top so that my dickhead was fucking cock exposed with two loose flaps of skin

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 157 on either side. I got this piece of chological problems. And the cause wood and nailed my dick to it, one behind the crime I committed. I nail on either side so it was affixed place full responsibility on Israel for to the wood. I took a picture of my terrible crime. myself. Once I stood… (Rabih returns to his place Rabih: Time out! behind the table. Lina rises slowly (Lina returns behind the table. from behind the screen, leaving Before she opens the book, Rabih the image of her fall – her corpse interrupts her.) – imprinted on the white screen Rabih: Next time let’s stick to the which will remain until the end of poems. the performance.) Lina: Picture. (Lina leaves the (Lina returns to her place behind book aside and goes to reappear the table, closes her eyes and picks a behind the screen. She sits on the page from the book. She reads.) floor and takes the position of the Lina: Chris Burden, page 30. fall again. She freezes.) Rabih: You have 30 seconds. Top! Rabih (from in front of the Lina/Chris Burden: It was a very screen): simple performance, hinging on My motives were psychological, a single moment. A moment that no more, no less. I carried out a went down in history. November mass killing in broad daylight. 29, 1971, a year and a bit after Black I used to go see Dr. Tony, a September. At a gallery in California, psychiatrist, Dr. Jaber, a psychiatrist at a quarter to eight, a small audi- and Dr. Kamil, a psychiatrist. They all ence assembled. I entered with two prescribed anxiety pills. I used to friends, one carrying a camera, the go through periods of taking these other carrying a gun. The three of us pills. Two months ago, I went to stood there, the audience watched. Dr. Tourabi, a psychiatrist, to have I screamed out: “Shoot!” And one him examine me. He said there friend filmed as the other shot me was nothing wrong with me, even in the hand. It was severed, blown though I told him I was anxious away. Blood spraying everywhere. all the time, depressed, terrified of A gorgeous moment. This is the heights and of dark enclosed spaces. moment I’m talking about. The sec- My thoughts were unfocused and ond the bullet entered my hand, the sometimes I would hear strange image entered history. voices. The pills I took regularly were Rabih: Time out! Sepram and Prozac. I never lost con- (Lina returns to her post behind trol of myself despite having blood the table, picks a new page and falls pressure problems and diabetes. I on a picture from a famous play.) don’t sleep well and when I do, I Lina: Picture. often have horrifying nightmares that (Lina leaves the book aside and wake me up and leave me shaking. goes to reappear behind the screen. He told me that 60% of the She sits on the floor and takes Lebanese suffer from the same the position of the fall again. She symptoms. All because of the war. I freezes.) am from the South and it’s Israel’s Rabih (from in front of the fault, it’s the cause of all my psy- screen): After the paratrooper mission to kill my Christian colleagues at carried out by the Israeli comman- work. Israel is to blame and it should dos on the town of Ansaria, my be punished for this, not I. I gave mental state went into decline. so much of myself to this nation. That time they fell straight into I defended it, fought Israel for it. a Hizbullah ambush and a violent Struggled. We offered our martyrs. battled raged between them, with We liberated the land. Israeli tanks participating in the (Rabih returns to his place carnage. behind the table. Lina rises slowly All the Israeli commandos were from behind the screen, leaving killed. Their bodies were blown to the image of her fall – her corpse bits, and the Hizbullah fighters went – imprinted on the white screen around the area’s towns and villages, which will remain until the end of displaying their parts for all to see. the performance.) All the newspapers took pictures (Lina returns to her place behind of Hizbullah fighters holding up the table, closes her eyes and picks a dismembered heads by the hair for page from the book. She reads.) the camera. It was a great victory Lina: Paul McCarthy, page 20. for the nation. And the whole battle Rabih: You have 20 seconds. Top! took place behind my house. Lina/Paul McCarthy: There’s a Right before that was the Qana big difference between ketchup massacre. And before and after and blood. This is why I decided the Israelis shelled our towns and to reproduce Yves Klein’s leap, the villages. And the collaborators and famous leap he took into the void. bombardments, the clashes between Whether he jumped from the first Amal and Hizbullah… what could or second floor is unimportant. We we do? How much can a person saw the picture of him airborne, his take? arms spread wide against the sky. In The commando operation in actual fact, we have no idea what Ansaria was burned into my mind. happened to him. Did he fall? Fly? I went into shock. I started to cry We don’t know and he won’t say. I every time I saw the mutilated body climbed up to the second floor and parts on display. People thought I I took a leap “into the void” and fell was moved by joy, but I was having on my head. I injured myself, every- a nervous breakdown. I became one saw this. I’m telling you, there’s terrified of armed men. Terrified of a big difference between ketchup Hizbullah. Terrified of the sound of and blood. Edgar Aho says, “there’s a bullets and aircraft, sonic booms. big difference between onions and My nerves were shot to hell, I was tears”. After the Lebanese war was degenerating, all because of Israel. over, he went up to the 14th floor What were they thinking, embarking and took a “leap into the void”. It on such a poorly planned operation? was the leap of a lifetime. If there were no Israel… there (Lina is done playing her role. would never have been the Battle Rabih goes and stands in front of of the Camps and I would have the screen. He gazes at Lina’s image, never had to carry arms against the the one where she is standing. They Palestinians. And never have had contemplate the image, then he

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 159 aligns his body along the image of 10 to 10, I turned myself in to the her body.) police. Rabih: The information I am Wednesday afternoon was my about to give you is inexact and first interrogation by the general therefore would not qualify as offi- security forces. I confessed to every- cial testimony. thing. (Rabih falls silent and the follow- Thursday, they took the first offi- ing text appears on the screen:) cial testimony of my confession. The idea began to brew in my Monday morning was my first mind on Friday. meeting with the lawyer. On the same day, I brought my Wednesday, they determined the wife back from the hospital to our first court hearing. home in the village. I took her in my September 20 is our first day in brother’s car. On Saturday, I spent court, and during this hearing I con- the whole morning at home. In the fess that my motives were financial, afternoon, I went to the football the result of intense economic pres- field with my wife to watch the sure and massive debts. game. On Sunday, I spent the whole September 23, the first official morning at home. In the afternoon I inquiry. The death sentence is called went to the field as usual, alone this for. time, without my wife. October 1, the death sentence On Monday, there was a party in is officially called for and the case is my honour, organised by the village turned over to the Supreme Court. sports club. It was postponed for October 17, the second hear- technical reasons. ing. I confess that my motives were Monday and Tuesday, I didn’t not financial but sectarian, the result leave the house. I was putting of an insult on Muslims and Islam together my plan. My wife asked uttered by a Christian colleague. why I didn’t go to work in Beirut October 21, the third hearing, an and I told her I was tired. evening session beginning at 4 pm Tuesday evening, I called Jamal to and lasting until 10. ask him to drive me to Beirut the During this hearing, I confess that next morning. my motives were not sectarian and Wednesday morning, I packed that my defense was in my chronic all the weapons into two bags and psychological problems. rode the taxi to work. January 10, the witnesses are During this whole period, I was brought forth and all my defenses living on cigarettes and coffee alone, collapse, psychological, sectarian and not talking to anyone. financial. On Wednesday, at 9:30 in the January 16, the final hearing at morning, I started executing my plan. the Supreme Court, I declare that After a quarter of an hour, I had the reasons for my crime were the killed eight and wounded four. Two Israeli incursions onto Lebanese soil. of them were unknown to me, the At the end of the hearing, the judge rest had been my colleagues for pronounces his final verdict: Death. over 20 years. January 17, the President and On Wednesday at approximately the Prime Minister sign the death sentence and in order to prevent sectarian conflict, they decide to put me to death with two others, a Christian and a Druze. All in the name of sectarian equilibrium. Dawn, January 18, my death sentence is carried out by hanging. During this whole time, they never once ask me to re-enact my crime, as they usually do with all the other accused. My name is Hassan Ma’moun.

(Lina and Rabih move at the same time. They leave the images of their bodies layered on top of each other imprinted on the white screen, next to the three previous images. They move towards the screen and roll it up towards the ceiling of the stage, where it was at the beginning of the play. The reflection of the four images is seen on the floor of the stage. They exit.)

Rabih Mroué was born in Beirut in 1967. He started producing his own plays in 1990. He has acted in, directed and written several plays, performances and videos that have been presented in Beirut, in other Arab cities and throughout Europe and in Japan. His recent works include How Nancy Wished that it Was All an April Fool’s Joke (2007) co-written with Fadi Toufiq; Help Me Stop Smoking (2006); Who’s Afraid of Representation? (2004); Looking for a Missing Employee (2003); Biokhraphia (2002) in collaboration with Lina Saneh; and Three Posters (2002) with Elias Khoury. His video works include Birrouh Biddam (2003) and Face A/Face B (2001). Mroué lives in Beirut.

Lina Saneh was born in Beirut in 1966. She studied theater at the Lebanese University in Beirut and the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. She has written, directed and acted in numerous plays. She directed the performances Appendice (2007), Biokhraphia in collaboration with Rabih Mroué (2002), Extrait d’État Civil (2000), Ovrira (1997) and Les Chaises (1996). She made her first video I Had a Dream, Mom… in 2006. She is currently assistant professor at the Institut d’Études Scéniques et Audiovisuelles (IESAV) at the Université Saint-Joseph (USJ) in Beirut.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 161 Give me a Body Then

A performance by Ali Cherri

dead. These photos were pretty I used to search for pictures of random; I used to keep anything naked people, stealing glances at I could find. A lot of them came any nude photos I could find. There from my family album; some I was no Internet at the time, and I found lying here and there; others, did not have any access to pornog- my friends used to send to me. raphy, so I would try to find these (1) This photo, for instance, was photos anywhere possible, includ- given to me by a friend when he ing biology books. More than once, heard I was not feeling very well. I I found pictures of naked, often am not sure who these people are, dead, people in newspapers. I did but I kept the photograph anyhow. not care what the photos were (2) This photo is one in a series trying to say; I was just looking at of three. I was told not to look for what they showed. I would collect the other two. these pictures and look at them (3-4) These two pictures were every now and then. When I grew given to me as a present for a up, I continued collecting pictures Left: (1) birthday I spent in bed. I don’t Right: (2) of people, but not all of them were remember who sent them to me. (5) I kept this one because And I don’t particularly like this it makes me sleepy; I think that’s present. because it used to hang on a bedroom wall; I forget where. (6)This is a picture of the house I was raised in. My parents moved to this house in 1976, the year I was born, when the location of their old apartment became dangerous at the beginning of the war. If you were to go from here, you would get to my bedroom. (3) – (4)

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(8) (6)

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Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 163 (7) This picture is stolen. It was laser printout. It is of a very hand- not me who stole it, but I ended some young man. He is wearing a up with it. black shirt and seems to have the (8) I stole this one. I took it German measles. On the reverse from a journalist who used to is an inscription which reads, ‘David write for the obituaries page. It was Hockney 1996’. I do not know who one of the rare pictures he had of the subject is. his wife, Hoda. (11) This one arrived to me (9) This is Marcel Proust, dead. wrapped in heavy drafting paper I found this photo at a bookstore; with the cross-section drawings of and I bought it before I actually an architectural study for a monu- knew who the person in this pho- ment of some kind, as though it tograph was. When I went back were being prepared for blueprint- home, I read on the back that Man ing. The beginning of a dome is Ray had taken this photo. evident, as well as part of a statue There is something strange of a large, big-bellied man; his head about this photograph, something is not in this section. very “real”. It’s almost as if pho- (12) ‘Landscape’. This photo was tography is most faithful and real taken in the summer of 1982 (dur- only when the subject in the photograph is DEAD. So I bought this photo and hung it in my bedroom above my bed. My friends warned me against hanging a dead person’s photograph above my head. I did not listen to them and just kept it there. Some time later, something strange happened to me. I started remembering things that had never Left: (10) Right Up: (11) happened to me. Right Down: (12) (10) This image is actually a ing the Israeli invasion of Beirut). should fade away. But he could not That same summer, the Dutch GVB give me a logical explanation for (Municipality Transport Company) that extra person who sprang out planned a project to renew the of the metro that Saturday. I told metro system in Amsterdam. For him: “You can explain someone that, they placed cameras on the falling out of the picture, but you entrance of every metro station can never explain someone falling in order to see how many people into it”. used the subway every day. The That night, I cried my eyes out. survey started on Monday, June 5, (13) I still have here a photo 1982 and ended on Sunday, June that was taken after a nightmare 11. On Monday and according to I had years ago. In fact, I find it the video monitors at the entrance strange that people say when they of all metro stations, 11,290 people dream it is as if they were watch- walked into the metro; 11,286 ing a film. In my dreams, everything came out. There were 4 people is still; one image after the other. missing who never made it out of Nothing moves in my dreams. I the metro. On Tuesday, the number hear sounds, I smell odours, but of people who entered the metro what I see is still. Anyhow, in that was equal to the number who photo, a man stands with a dog left which was also the case on next to him. While the man is Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. looking straight ahead, the dog is On Saturday, June 10, 1982, 15,383 gazing at something outside the people went into the metro; 15,384 came out. There was one extra person who came out of the subway. These statistics were never made public. When I told my friend about this story, he explained that given the jostling and elbowing of 11,000 people packed inside the metro, it was normal that 4 people (13)

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Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 165 frame. In fact the man in the draw- where, among things I possessed ing is my departed uncle and Don and things I did not possess. My Quixote at the same time. And house was filled with worthless the dog is his pit-bull and the old papers, useless junk. The smell was horse Rosinante. Everyone in my unbearable. That morning I woke dream comes doubled, including up to a stench filling the house. I me. When I am in my dreams, I’m searched to see where the smell always “me” and David Hockney. was coming from until I found a (14) On the morning of my photograph lying on my desk, cov- acquisition of this picture, I was ered with flies. I didn’t remember awoken by a distressing dream. I eating any pictures the night before. have never had any compulsion for I got scared. dream interpretation. I’ve always I remembered a story. I told believed what my mum used to you that I remember things that say: “A mystery should remain a never happened to me, but I prom- mystery.” ise that this story I will tell you is Actually, many of my dreams exactly how it happened. Or how I come back again and again. But remember it happened. Anyhow, it here is the one I had that morning. all goes back to the same thing. In my dream, I get up, but my leg A photographer took a pic- stays in bed. It’s a terrible and funny ture of a dead dog on the beach. feeling at the same time. So I go The corpse was a week old and and get a newspaper and wrap my covered with flies. He returned leg in it and take it to the doctor. home, took the film roll out of his The doctor just holds the leg and camera and sent it to a reputable looks at it and everything is fine laboratory. The film was developed, again. At first, the dream used to printed and returned by post. The make me feel very ill, but later on, photographer opened the small when it kept coming back, I just parcel in his study. Dissatisfied with thought, “I don’t need to be afraid the picture of the dead dog, he since in the end everything can be started chewing on it and then repaired”. swallowed it. On the back of the picture there That evening the photographer was a sentence done in fine callig- died of an infection. His body, raphy, but so crossed through and covered with flies, was found by rewritten that the original text had the police a week later and photo- been obscured beyond recogni- graphed. tion. Yet, at the end, I think that I The police detective in charge managed to make out through the of the case was puzzled by the scribbles, “Fish die belly-upward and man’s act. He stared for a long time rise to the surface; it is their way at the dead photographer’s picture. of falling”. Moments later, he started chewing Before having possession of on it and then swallowed it. this photograph, everything I used That same night, the detective to collect was haphazard, without died of an infection. A picture of his reason. After I stole this photo, I corpse, covered with flies, appeared started looking for photos every- a few days later in a local newspaper. phoned his wife, Hoda, to relate A big-bellied professor at the the story he was working on. His art school cut out the picture from last words, before he put down the the newspaper and kept it in his receiver, were, “A picture is worth red notebook under the section, a thousand words.” “Violent Deaths”. He thought it As an anthropologist, his wife might come in handy for his human never took him seriously. That day, anatomy drawing class. the journalist was found dead. The At the morgue, the doctor who police report stated that the jour- dissected the detective’s corpse nalist had choked after swallowing extracted the remains of a picture 19 pages of the following morning’s bathed in stomach fluid. The picture paper. The newspaper’s chief editor was decomposed but still revealed refrained from publishing his pic- the shadow of a dead body, cov- ture next to his obituary. ered with flies. Hoda felt that all photographs The doctor, who always identi- had a repulsive vinegary smell fied with the corpses he dissected, and she never put up any in her felt an urge to taste a small piece house. So she decided to commis- of the picture in his hand. The next sion a young portraitist to make a morning he was found lying still at painting of her departed husband. the morgue table, next to a male She gave the painter a brown corpse who, it was suspected, had leather suitcase containing several shot himself while sitting at his newspaper articles her husband breakfast table. had written under the initials D.H. The journalist who was in The suitcase also contained some charge of the dead doctor’s story undated, hand-written letters, some

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Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 167 receipts from a local restaurant that had ever been taken, the pic- and a map of a remote town in tures that had been developed and France. The portraitist thought the even the ones that had never been. map could be of great use, but So I started going out on the found the rest of the suitcase’s streets, taking pictures randomly, contents only marginally informa- until I realised that my pictures tive. Nevertheless, he accepted to were empty. There was no one in produce the portrait them. I wanted to throw away all The portrait hangs now on the film rolls, but my friend told the wall of Hoda’s apartment, fac- me that I worried too much about ing a fine reproduction of David what people said. Honestly I did Hockney’s ‘The Big Splash’. I didn’t like taking pictures. I didn’t even own a camera. But when people started using digital photography, everyone was cease- lessly bemoaning the imminent death of print photography. That is when I went and bought my first manual camera. I thought I should be there when photography died. After all, that is why people still go to the theatre today, to watch it breathe its last breath. Anyhow, I bought a camera and wanted to take the LAST PHOTOGRAPH; a picture that would contain all the other photos

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(18) – (19)

Left: (16) (20) (24) (25)

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(23) (27)

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 169 (28) your cousin Souad and me taken at the lake. Soaud sends you her regards and asks you for your photo. Your aunt, Zahraa’ El Hayek.” But there is only one person on the lake. Where could my aunt have disappeared? Why did she leave behind this photo? I started looking for photographs with a trace of my aunt. So I found this one (17) … this one (18) … and finally, I came across this one. (19) I’ve heard of people stepping out of pictures. In fact, in Stalin’s not get what he meant, but I kept USSR, people started falling out all the negatives. of pictures. They were ingenuously When my friend saw the photo masked out of photographs when of Proust hanging in my bedroom, they were considered traitors to he sent me this image. [15] He the party. (from 20 to 28) told me it was a self-portrait But my aunt is not Russian of Bayard, dead. Bayard made a and had never been to the Soviet portrait of himself as a “Drowned Union. Man”. It dates back to 1840. In I started to have doubts about this photograph, Bayard presents all the pictures I had, no longer himself as a victim of an act of sure who had been originally there, suicide, provoked by the failure of who had come in and who had the French authorities to recognise walked out. (29 – 30 – 31) his discovery of the photographic I decided to go back to the process. Bayard wrote on the back picture of my house and search to of his self-portrait: “Ladies and see if there was anyone hiding in gentlemen, you’d better pass along it. (6) for fear of offending your sense of If we look closely, there is a line smell, for as you can observe, the that runs from the letter on the face and hands are beginning to desk, to the wooden plank of the decay. “ table and all the way down along (15-9) So in that photo, there is the table-leg to the floor. With a dead person. some effort, we see the tiles on While in that one, there isn’t the floor and continuing with that any dead person. line, go up the wall, enter a painting But how can I be sure? by Hockney, round the shoulder I want to show you this picture, of a woman who is lying on a sofa because in this picture, I am sure and finally escape from the room there is a dead person. through the window to go down (16) On the back it says: the street along the cable of a “To my dear Itaf, This is a photo of lamp post. Here it becomes much (29) (30)

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more difficult to follow the line the stitches on the pants of a man through the traffic, but if we look sitting on a table facing a monitor, carefully, we see it going around up his arm, then all the way along the wheels of a bus heading the creases on the palm of his right downtown. Here it travels down hand which is just about to pick up the nylon socks of an artificially a gun. And the next, I saw my pic- blonde woman, then through an ture in the newspaper, lying naked apartment window on the ground and dead. floor, along the mouldy curtains to

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 171

Ali Cherri was born in Beirut in 1976. He studied graphic design at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and performing arts at DasArts in Amsterdam. His work includes the videos Slippage (2007), Untitled (2006) and Un Cercle Autour du Soleil (2005) and the performances Give Me a Body Then (2006) and As Dead as Ever (2005).

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 173 Berlin: The Symphony of a Big City – Live Electronics

A performance by Mahmoud Refat

© Islam el Azzazi In the summer of 2004, Mahmoud of a Great City, directed by Walter Refat embarked on an ongoing film Ruttmann. research project concerning experi- mental documentaries dealing with urban subjects and works from the 1920s through the 1940s. The first result of this research was a live sound treatment together with a screening of the Produced with support from the Goethe 1927 German film Berlin, Symphony Institute, Cairo. Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 175

Mahmoud Refat is a musician /sound artist and the founder of 100COPIES MUSIC/CAIRO. He was born in 1974 and lives and works in Cairo. His work has been released on CD, performed live and exhibited in several venues. Refat began his music career in the early 1990s, playing in local jazz/experi- mental rock bands in different venues in Cairo. In 2000, he began composing soundtracks for dance and theatre. Refat has also worked on music for videos and films. During the past few yeaars, he has been collaborating with different musicians and sound artists. www.100copies.com

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 177 I Feel a Great Desire To Meet The Masses Once Again

A project by Walid Raad PART I

For quite some time now, I have been trying to remember when, on what day, I left Beirut.

I can say that I have left Lebanon many times.

My family lived in Freetown, Sierra Leone for a year in 1968.

I lived with my maternal grandparents in Amman, Jordan in the 1970s. We also traveled to Eastern and Western Europe by car in 1976, and then again in 1978.

But recently, actually 18 months ago, I was asked to remember the day I traveled for the first time to the United States, the day I left – as I seem to refer to it today.

I remember leaving by boat.

I remember the shelling on that grey day as my father and sister quickly said goodbye.

I remember taking photographs from the cargo boat that was transporting others and me to Cyprus.

Others were also photographing their departure.

I remember arriving in Larnaca (or was it Limassol?) and producing this image – pleased with what my newly acquired special effect filter was producing at the time.

I also remember wandering around in Paris the next day, trying to find the American consulate there. I needed to get a visa to enter the United States.

I vaguely remember my first night in New York – in a cheap motel room – after I’d missed my connecting flight to Boston, my final destination, where my brother was waiting for me.

I recently found the date in question.

In my passport from that time, page 9:

September 18, 1983.

23 years ago.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 179

I was 16 years old. This was a year and a half after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the deterioration of the security situation once again.

But this time, the local militia, the Lebanese Forces, was forcing young men to serve, to fight.

The Lebanese Forces controlled East Beirut, where I lived. They supported the Israeli invasion, an invasion that I watched and photographed from a parking lot in front of my mother’s house.

The Israeli Army was shelling West Beirut – West Beirut is only a few hundred meters from where I was livi I should grab one of the guns and start shooting.

I am not sure I would be capable of this, even today.

In 1982, I was 15; and I clearly did not know what I was doing.

I only knew that I liked photography; that I liked taking pictures of apples and flowers, basketball games and my friends.

PART II

I was not allowed to fly from Rochester (the 3rd largest city in New York State) to New York City, on a Sunday, last December.

Earlier that day, I had dropped off my family at the airport, proceeded to return the rental car we had rented for the weekend, and headed to Jet Blue’s counter where I checked in.

After the usual questions – I am sure everyone gets them: “Do you have any firearms to declare?” and “Did you pack your own bags?” I was allowed to join Lynn, my wife, and Petra, our daughter, at the gate.

Minutes later, a police officer whose name I later discovered was Officer Rick, approached me. He seemed to know what I looked like; and he certainly knew my name.

Officer Rick asked me to accompany him.

They had found suspicious items in my luggage and wanted to ask me some questions.

My initial muted reaction, as well as my wife’s, confirmed to us that we had been expecting this for a while now – for the past four years I suppose.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 181

Officer Rick accompanied me to the Sheriff’s office, against blue, red, white, and dark backgrounds; in located on the ground floor of the airport. different shirts, different hair styles.

As we walked there, the deputy asked me ques- Can I explain these, asked the agent? tions about what I did, where I came from. Self-portraits, I said. I produced them in 1985, I refused to answer his questions, informing him within a year of arriving to the United States. I am that I would only speak to his supervisor. “I do not an artist, a photographer, I explained. I have been wish to repeat myself several times. I do not wish making pictures since I was 12 years old. to have you misquote what I say.” I told the baby- faced 20-year-old. Agent Ponticello seemed confused.

Once inside the underground office, I was intro- “But why would you take pictures of yourself like duced to Sergeant Matt, who was going through this?” the luggage I had checked in earlier at the Jet Blue counter. Now, I was confused. What can I say! Then I blurted, “I was trying to fit in. During my I was asked to sit down, to face the sergeant, and first year in the US, I found high school graduation to wait. yearbook portraits fascinating. I never graduated from high school in Beirut. I thought I should make I sat; I faced the sergeant; and I waited. my own (American-style) portraits to celebrate my missed graduation year and my new American Nothing happened. No questions. home.”

Within a minute or so, a beefy man in his thirties, Agent Ponticello liked the part about “trying to fit with a shaved head, dressed in civilian clothes, a tan in”, and “new American home.” Carhartt jacket, entered the room. He extended his hand confidently and identified himself as Pat OK, he said. “What about these?” Ponticello, of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the FBI. Do you have a habit of taking your clothes off in public? In public spaces? Do you know that this is a He showed me his badge. bit strange? That it raises suspicion? What’s a grown man like you doing running around naked? Posing I looked at it, carefully, as if I knew what a real FBI naked like that? badge is supposed to look like. And then he asked, though I was not sure if I heard He sat down, pulled his chair up behind a small him right, are you gay? table on which several items from my suitcase had been placed by Sergeant McGrath. Did I just hear him ask me if I was gay? Did he really just say this? He asked about my name, nationality, profession, and marital status. And before I can gather my thoughts, he asks: “Why are you so interested in public buildings? And Then he looked at the items in front of him: bridges?”

First, there were the portrait photographs – 6 of He thinks this is surveillance, I thought to myself. them of me – in costume, clearly younger, with hair, Who would have thought that the building on the

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 183 left in this photograph was of a federal building? Or, The agent examined the receipts, pulling a few out that the building on the right houses many police and asked the deputy to photocopy some of them. agencies? I just thought they would make good I am sure to get tax-audited this year, I thought to backdrops for my little artistic exercise. myself.

I tried to explain this but Agent Ponticello seemed And then Agent Ponticello asked, “Why do you eager to move on. He seemed to know something have these with you?” that I did not; he had that look on his face, and that tone in his voice. He was convinced that I was lying Now, I knew I was in trouble. I also realized that I and that he had the evidence to prove it. He knew would be in the company of these men for longer that he was about to catch me with my hand in than I thought – and that I would miss my plane the cookie-jar, as Americans like to say. – and that my family at the gate were getting worried. And then he pulls out of my bag these photographs: “How long will I be here?” I asked.

Again, self-portraits, yes, naked again, but this time “If I am going to miss my plane, can someone go to with dead animals, some even quite bloodied. the gate and let my wife know that I am fine, and that I will probably not fly to NYC on the same Road-kill. Fish. And then, there was the one with plane?” the frog, and the one with the pigeon and the text written backwards that said, “To escape the danger They accommodated this request immediately of destruction. The destruction of the machine may – which confirmed to me that I was not going any- occur in two ways: The first being the rupture of where anytime soon. the machine.” It was Lynn, my wife, who wrote down the name Agent Ponticello read the text twice, each time a of the men interrogating me, on a sheet of paper bit louder, each time a bit more menacing. in my daughter’s notepad.

At that moment, I became aware that things were Lynn was worried and insisted on seeing me, but about to spiral out of control and that they could to no avail. She was allowed to call me on the turn out very badly for me. phone; and we agreed that they should travel and that I would join them when I was done. This was The agent looked at me for what seemed like an probably careless on our part. eternity. Then he pulled out the phone cards from Greece and Lebanon. And the bank statements, the Back to the items that got me really nervous, the receipts and the airline tickets. Why was I carrying airline safety brochures, 3 of them. “I collect them. receipts, hundreds of them, bank statements, airline I find them graphically interesting,” I told agent tickets in my luggage? Ponticello.

I had forgotten about these as well. I had forgot- I did not think that the agent would find my hon- ten that they were in my suitcase. It was a holiday est answer suitable. But to my surprise, he did, or weekend. I brought all the receipts and statements maybe he did not ask more questions because with me to work on my taxes – before the end of his phone rang. He answered. I heard him say: the year. I never pay my taxes on time. I thought I “Interesting stuff, very interesting…” followed by, would try it for once, to get it done. “Don’t know”. Then he left the room.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 185

When he came back, he launched a barrage of At this point, I decided to ask Agent Ponticello: questions about this photograph and a videotape What is the nature of this exchange we are having that were in my backpack. here? What do you call it?

- Who are these people? “I call it a conversation,” replied the agent. - Are any of them members of Hizbullah? - Are you a member of Hizbullah? “You don’t call it an interrogation, a detention?” - Do you know anyone who is a member of Hizbullah? “No, it is a conversation, nothing else.” He replied. - Who is this person? - And this one? “Can I refuse to converse with you?” I asked. - Why do you have their pictures? - And this videotape? “You can, but you will raise more red flags. If you - Is this a fire, an explosion? have nothing to hide, then you should not be afraid - Do you know who did this? to converse with me.” He said. Then, he pulled this - Do you know what happened? out of my receipts: The card of another FBI agent, - Is Hizbullah involved? the card of Vincent Browning, Special Agent, FBI, New York. And then he played the videotape. Yes, I had been visited by the Bureau before, last The videotape in question showed a car-bomb year, in May, in connection to what I was told was explosion, on 21 January 1986, in East Beirut. a case involving watches and the internet. Agent Browning had given me his card. I inadvertently The explosion killed 30 and injured 130, all civilians. threw it among my receipts. And here it was again.

Who did this? At this point, I thought I’d give it a try. I thought I should try to explain what I do. After all, if I were I didn’t know; but I did know that it was not in his shoes, if I had landed on a Lebanese man Hizbullah. carrying everything I had on me, I would be equally suspicious. I understood where he was coming The bombing had most likely been ordered by one from. of the (at the time) US-backed right wing Christian militias, the same one that had tried to recruit me, And so, I explained myself. that forced me to flee, to America in 1983. They all listened patiently. They seemed to under- At this point, I was thinking to myself: stand that I work on the history of Lebanon. They seemed to understand that I think about the Will this man be able to understand that I work on effects of bombings on contemporary urban life in the history of Lebanon and on the history of car Beirut and elsewhere. What they could not under- bombs? And on what happens to cities when they stand was: What’s an artist doing working on this succumb to the constant threat of assaults? stuff?

Should I tell him all this? It took me a few minutes to formulate the – otherwise indefensible and pathetic – statement. I said I was also thinking of all the heart-wrenching (and I still cringe every time I have to repeat this): stories of arbitrary detention, and subsequent Like many artists, I seek beauty in violence. deportation.

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I could not tell whether I should laugh or cry as I a multimedia artist collective exploring the politi- uttered this statement. cal and social implications of science, particularly biotechnology, on and for people who are not I did not know whether they would laugh. scientists.

They did not. One spring morning, on May 11, 2004, Steve woke up to the horrible discovery that his wife of 20 They did not cry either – but the expression of years, Hope, had died overnight from heart failure. empathy and kindness on agent Ponticello’s face led me to believe that he was now satisfied. He called 9-1-1.

I may not be a perverse, dead-animal lovin’, gay Paramedics arriving at his home noticed some exhibitionist terrorist in his mind, but I had now technical scientific equipment. The paramedics got become an equally abstract individual, the other suspicious and immediately called the police, the side of the caricature of the would-be-terrorist; I Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the FBI. The agents had become a traumatized, helpless victim, dumb came, cordoned off the entire block, and later about the world and its reality, seeking redemption impounded Steve’s computers, manuscripts, equip- and pathos through art; a caricature equally trou- ment, his cat, and even his wife’s body. bling to me. This is how the events were reported in the US He kept nodding his head, as he told me that he popular press. occasionally draws and paints himself, to relieve the stress of the job. The “goodness knows what else” in this case is that even after the Commissioner of Public Health for I nodded and said that I look forward to seeing his New York State declared that all bacterial samples paintings and drawings some day. found in Steve’s home were harmless, the FBI decided to keep much of the equipment found in Then, I was allowed to go. the house, equipment that was supposed to go to an exhibition in Massachusetts entitled, I realize that I painted a somewhat simple picture ‘The Interventionists’. of Agent Ponticello, Officer Rick, and Sergeant Rick. The Atlas Group was also participating in this For this, I apologize to you, to them, and to my text. exhibition. I am certain that we all deserve much better. During the one week that the FBI were looking A week later, in New York City, Steve Kurtz visited through Steve’s house, more money was being the art school where I teach, The Cooper Union. spent on this one case than on any other terrorism-related case in the United States. So, Steve lives in Buffalo – also in Northwestern New after trying and failing to charge Steve with pos- York State, about 100 miles from Rochester, session of biological weapons, the United States where my conversation with the FBI took place. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New Steve works as a professor and as an artist. I am York charged him with two counts of mail fraud, quite sure that you are familiar with his case, a and two counts of wire fraud, which can carry a story that, as far as I am concerned, cannot be jail sentence of up to 20 years. What this meant repeated enough. was that, since the US government could not get a Grand Jury to issue terrorism charges against Steve, Steve is a member of the Critical Art Ensemble, they decided to turn a minor bureaucratic

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 189 infraction into a federal crime. Afraid, like most Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians This is how they did it. in America at the time, they said no. Months later, and under tremendous pressure from the FBI, In his home, and for his art project, Steve had three one of them, confessed to having in fact been to biological agents, three harmless biological agents. Afghanistan. The six men were immediately arrest- The agents are found in most high school biol- ed, charged and under the threat of being declared ogy labs and were bought from a company called, enemy combatants, and sent to Guantanamo. They ATCC (The American Type Culture Corporation). pled guilty, and received sentences ranging from Only licensed institutions such as universities, six and a half to ten years in jail, not for knowing, schools or pharmaceutical companies can buy from planning, or intending to commit acts of terror but ATCC; and so to obtain his samples for his art for lying. project, Steve called his friend Robert Ferrell, who is the former head of the Department of Genetics They are in jail for lying out of fear. at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health. Kurtz asked Ferrell to buy the agents for The travesty of the law in this case is found else- him and to send them to Buffalo by mail. where, in any of the prosecution of the numerous cells that were dismantled in the US: Whether we This kind of transfer of samples between colleagues are talking about the Alexandria 11, the Detroit 4, is something that scientists do all the time; it has the Portland 7 or the Seattle 8. never been charged as a federal crime, especially when the injured parties – in this case, the ATCC The Kurtz case got even stranger last spring when and the University of Pittsburgh – do not want to it was revealed that the basis on which the FBI press charges. requested – and was granted – a search warrant from a federal judge to enter and search Steve’s The lead government attorneys in the case are: house on that awful day in May 2004, was the Michael Battle, the US Attorney for the western invitation to the Massachusetts exhibition I talked district of New York, and William Hochul Jr., the about and showed earlier, which included on its assistant US attorney for the western district cover, this photograph, from Notebook Volume 38 of New York. The two men were, by 2004, law of The Atlas group project titled, Already Been in a enforcement celebrities of sorts, for having disman- Lake of Fire. tled an “al-Qaeda sleeper cell,” – the famous case of the Lackawanna Six. The photograph represents a car; and next to the cutout photograph of the car is some Arabic writ- This is the case of six low-income, first and second ing about a car bomb. The judge was never told by generation Yemeni Americans who were recruited the FBI about the context of the photograph or in the spring of 2001 to an al-Qaeda camp in about what was written in Arabic. Partly because of Afghanistan. the photo, the judge issued a warrant calling for the seizure of anything with Arabic writing in Steve’s They went, some of them even met with Bin Laden. house. Even if a Koran had been found, it would Within a few days in Afghanistan, they figure out have been seized as evidence, as prosecutors told a that this is not at all what they want to be involved judge recently. in, and they find ways to leave the camp and return to the United States. A Pandora’s box has been opened in the war on terror. Not only in the US, but also in such “human- One month after September 11, 2001, in October rights” friendly countries such as Sweden. 2001, they are interrogated by an FBI agent, who asks them, whether they had been to Afghanistan. Take, for example, the case of Ahmed Agiza, an

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Egyptian national who was living with his family in Gulfstream 5, with the tail number N379P. Sweden since obtaining asylum there in This is where things got strange and clear for me at September 2000. the same time, and I hope that you can be patient with me as I continue to present this material to On December 18, 2001, three months after you. September 11, and based on information from foreign intelligence services (you can guess who that This jet, as it turns out, is owned by Premier might be), the Swedish secret police arrested Agiza Executive Transport – PET for short, which became along with another suspect, Muhammad Al Zery. In a corporation in the state of Delaware in the US an extraordinary meeting on that day, the Swedish in 1994. government issued deportation orders to Egypt for both men. The men were swiftly transferred to In 1996, PET was incorporated in Massachusetts by Bromma airport in Stockholm, where American a law firm named Hill and Plakias. agents and Swedish police wait for them. The Americans immediately take over. I will read the The names of the officers, owners and managers, testimony of Paul Forell, a Swedish police inspector of the company are listed as: Bryan Dyess, Steven who witnessed the whole event. This is what he Kent, Timothy Sperling, Audrey Taylor, and Phillip recently stated on Swedish television: Quincannon.

In 1998, PET, orders a Gulfstream 5. About a year The Egyptian men were dressed in their own later, the plane is delivered with the tail number clothes. They had handcuffs and leg-irons on. N581GA. A month later, the plane is registered The Americans took the arrested men. The with a different tail number N379P; and it begins to Swedish police stayed behind. There were three fly in June 2000. to four Americans to each of the arrested. And, as far as I remember, the Americans Between September 2001 and March 2005, the were dressed normally. That is… jeans… and plane will make around 600 flights. Of the 600 shirts, and then they had hoods on. In fact, the flights, 10 are to Uzbekistan, 30 to Jordan, 19 to Americans had hoods on when they came Afghanistan, 17 to Morocco in. Leg-irons and handcuffs are still on when 16 to Iraq, and 51 to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. the clothes of the Egyptians were cut apart with scissors. Once naked, suppositories of an On November 16, 2004, the Los Angeles Times unknown kind were inserted in their asses, a published a story about PET and N379P. Within tranquilizer, and sleeping pills of some kind. Then, two weeks, the plane is sold to a company in the men have diapers put on them, dark over- Portland Oregon, Bayard Foreign Marketing. And alls, blindfolds, and a hood over their head. This the plane has its tail number changed to N44982. was all done in a matter of a minute or two. The Americans acted swiftly and silently. They Wait a few seconds. had clearly done this before. Close scrutiny of the names listed as officers for The men were then driven to the plane, where PET reveals that they are not only officers of PET, they are suspended in a harness for the duration but also of another company, Devon Holding and of the flight to Egypt. They landed in Cairo at 3 AM Leasing, which also happens to own 5 planes. and were immediately taken to the Egyptian security services where the interrogation and torture The officer identified as Philip Quincannon is also start, that very same night. The plane that trans- the owner of another company called Stevens ported Al-Zery and Agiza to Egypt is a small jet, a Express Leasing, which owns four planes; and he

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 193 is the owner of another company called Crowell team that had not won the World Series (the Aviation Technologies, which owns one plane. US baseball championship) since 1918. Two years ago, the Red Sox made it to the championship Remarkably enough, Premier Executive Transport game, and were playing the St. Louis cardinals, in and Crowell Aviation Technologies have the same St Louis, Missouri. During the championship series, street address in Needham, Massachusetts, 339 the coach of the Red Sox, Terry Francona, needed Washington Street, in a building that also houses to go from Missouri to Pennsylvania to attend his the law firm, Hill and Plakias – the law firm that ini- son’s college graduation. One of the owners of tially incorporated PET in Massachusetts. the Red Sox, Philip H. Morse, turns out to own a plane, a Gulfstream 5 with the tail number N85VM. A bit of investigative research reveals a web of 7 He sends the plane to transport Francona from ghost companies owning 26 planes. And that all of Missouri to Pennsylvania. The very next day, the the planes are operated by 2 larger, real corpora- same plane transported Maher Arar, a Canadian tions: Aero Aviation and Pegasus Technologies. citizen, born in Syria, from JFK to Jordan, on his way to Syria where he will spend 10 months in a hell- What is equally remarkable is that all the officers hole, detained, and tortured. listed for Premier Executive Transport: Bryan Dyess, Steven Kent, Timothy Sperling, Audrey Taylor and Arar’s story may also be familiar to you. But it is Philip Quincannon, have no residential addresses, also a story worth repeating, again, and again. no credit history, no loan history, no employment history, none of the information that usually comes On September 26, 2002, Arar was returning from up with a brief search on most consumers in the a family vacation in Tunisia. He was going home United States. to Canada, where he lives. His flight took him from Tunisia to Zurich, and from Zurich to New What they do have in common is a postal box York’s John F. Kennedy airport, from where he was address in Arlington, Virginia, 6 km from the going to catch another flight to Montreal. At JFK, Pentagon. he was stopped by the immigration services and handed over to the FBI, who proceeded to detain In fact, the same postal box, is registered to 325 and interrogate him for ten days, before being names, most of whom also have no residential rendered, shipped to be tortured in Syria. He was address, no credit history, no loan history, no transported by a Gulfstream 5 with the tail number employment history, none of the information that N85VM, which took him from New York, to Italy, usually comes up with a brief search on most con- to Jordan. From Amman, he was driven to Syria, sumers in the United States. whereupon arrival he was handed to the Syrian security services, who proceed to beat him, torture Even the company that bought the plane last year, him, and detain him for 10 months. Bayard Foreign Marketing, lists as its sole owner, a man named Leonard T. Bayard who, as it turns out, This is how Arar described his ordeal. is also linked to that same postal box in Virginia,6 km from the Pentagon. On October 5, 2003, 10 months and 10 days after his arrest, thanks to the valiant effort of his wife, Some of this was published last June in The New Monia Mazigh, Arar was released and returned to York Times. In the article, the Times published pho- Canada. tographs of some of the planes in question. One plane was of particular interest to some people in His story is also the story of Lebanese born Boston, because the plane had on its tail the logo German citizen, Khaled El Masri, whose case is well of The Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox is a baseball known in Germany, and that of Mamdouh Habib,

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 195 in Australia. another, most-likely sincere but ultimately flawed, All cases of mistaken identity. self-congratulatory, empty and partisan grand-standing: The by-now familiar liberal and not-so-liberal All cases of zealous prosecutors, a scared popula- bashing of the Bush Administration and its policies tion, and vicious policies of domination through fear, in the war on terror. killing, torture, and rendition. As I was reminded recently by my friend Tom: I began working on this project about two and a half years ago. “Is there anything more de rigueur?” in fact, Tom went so far as to say: “Is there anything more By the time I had presented this material for the fashionable anymore than to make public the con- first time, in June 2005, the stories about the pris- tradictions at the heart of the US administration’s ons and the planes were beginning to appear in war on terror? the western and Arab popular press. To assume that these things (state torture and kid- I suppose that anyone who has read a newspaper, napping) go on only because not enough people or listened to a news report in the past year has know about them is itself a problem,” I was told. already heard all about the not-so-secret secret prisons, and about the not-so-secret secret planes. “What if these policies are effective NOT because they have not been examined enough? Better yet, I suppose that anyone who has read a newspaper, or listened to a news report in the past What if these policies are effective NOT because year is not the least bit surprised by the not-so- no one has bothered to show that they are short- secret secret prisons and the not-so-secret, secret sighted and ill conceived? planes. What if those who kidnap and torture today At various times in the past 2 years, depend on public exposure and visibility as part and parcel of what they do? I was hoping that the work of gathering this material, of putting these stories together would be In other words, what if these things can go on more difficult. “This is too easy,” I kept thinking to today because they are too clearly visible, broad- myself. “2 billion dollars spent on intelligence, so cast live, entirely predictable, In fact, they have been that an artist with an internet connection and announced outright in advance?” some free time can uncover all this? This can’t be.” Moreover, Tom mockingly asked me: “Did you actu- Eventually, skepticism gave way to paranoia. ally believe that public officials can still be shamed and embarrassed into action by this unveiling of I was convinced that the information I was gather- practices that are taking place in plain sight, and not ing was being fed to me. I was not finding anything. out of sight? It was finding me. I was certain that I was being allowed access to information, to data that orga- Do you actually believe that one more story, one nized itself into a seemingly clear PowerPoint more picture, one more piece of investigative jour- presentation, a neat story, a story that could and nalism disguised as a lecture, a performance, or art would be digested with equal amounts of ambiva- (or whatever you want to call it), will bring you and lence, pleasure and boredom by a sympathetic others around? Will force you and others to stop audience. Or, more likely, as I have been discovering, shrugging your shoulders? by an audience that is just about fed-up with yet

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Can you, for a second, consider that this faith I remember taking photographs from the American you have in the informative power of images and navy boat that was transporting others and me to words doesn’t just fail to stop state sponsored tor- Cyprus. ture, but may actually prevent it from stopping?” I remember arriving in Limassol (or was it I should tell you that I was caught off guard by all Larnaca?) and producing this image – pleased with of this! the effects produced by my newly acquired digital camera. I must have had faith in something to have spent two years tracing the companies owned by Philip I vaguely remember my first night in Baltimore, in Quicannon, and trying to figure out how many of the United States, where the flight chartered by the 325 names registered to that postal box in the American State department landed, and where Arlington, VA, have residential addresses? I was handed a business card urging others and me to inform American officials about suspicious indi- But faith in what, I no longer knew. viduals we had encountered in Lebanon.

Noticing my confused and panicked state, Tom I recently found the date in question. finally added: In my passport from that time, page 12. “Didn’t you stand in 1982 in a parking lot in front of your mother’s house in East Beirut and watch, September 10, 2006. photograph, and cheer the Israeli destruction of West Beirut? Almost 9 months ago.

Didn’t you stand in front of your Palestinian moth- This was 21 days after the end of yet another er’s house, and wish for the kind of destruction Israeli invasion of Lebanon. being inflicted on the PLO and the Palestinian and Lebanese population of An invasion that, once again, I watched and photo- not-your-part of Beirut?” graphed.

I knew that Tom was smart, but I didn’t know that I watched the Israeli Army as it killed and tried to he could be mean as well. destroy North, East, and South Lebanon, to the tune of 4000 rockets and bombs per day, target- Feeling aggressed and even more panicked, I hastily ing all national airways and sea ports,150 bridges, replied: 30,000 houses. 600 kilometers of roads, electrical power plants, factories, warehouses, dams, televi- “Yes, I did. But I won’t do it again.” sion and radio stations, hospitals, ambulances, civil defense centers, schools, mosques, churches, and Little did I know. for a while now, I have been try- 80 km of sea coast. ing to remember, on what day I left Lebanon for the last time, this past summer. Please don’t drag me into a discussion about who started this, this time. I remember leaving by boat again. I have been wondering lately about whether I I remember the shelling on that beautiful, early should drag you into a discussion about who summer evening as my father and sister quickly said started this, this time. goodbye.

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I have been wondering lately about whether I should drag you into a discussion about whether Hizbullah and Lebanon deserved all of this, this time.

I have decided against it, because I was afraid that I might cause you to laugh.

And that, like my friend, Jalal, I was afraid that if you started laughing, that you might not be able to stop.

I was afraid that you might die from laughter.

As I almost did when I was interrogated by the FBI.

As I almost did when I talked to Steve Kurtz and Maher Arrar. As I mentioned earlier, this presentation is just Part I of a project that can and will probably go on.

At this point, I just need a break; I need to catch my breath.

I should also mention, that after all this, I am no longer sure what direction this project can take.

As I also said earlier, I will be here on stage for the next 15-20 minutes should any of you want to meet or talk face to face.

I would like to thank you for your patience,

And I wish you a good night.

Thank you.

Walid Raad is a media artist and assistant professor of art at Cooper Union in New York. Raad’s work includes video, photography and literary essays. He has exhibited at documenta 11, the Venice Biennale, the Whitney Biennial and numerous other festivals throughout Europe, the Middle East and North America. Raad is also a founding member of The Atlas Group, Beirut/New York (www.theatlasgroup.org) and a member of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut (www.fai.org.lb).

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ARTIST TALKS

Hyphenated Identities and the National Security Panic, Naeem Mohaiemen/Visible Collective Enamlima Sekarang (65 now)/Taking it Personally/Not Talking to a Brick Wall, Nadiah Bamadhaj Hyphenated Identities and the National Security Panic

Naeem Mohaiemen/Visible Collective

1 www.foitimes.com 2 Hayashi, Brian Masaru, The Visible Collective is a group The desire to identify “traitors” Democratizing the Enemy: of artists and activists who came inside American borders has a long The Japanese American together in 2004 to look at the lineage. In the past century, we saw Internment, Princeton University Press, 2004. ways in which the migration the jailing of German-American cit- impulse clashes with definitions izens (“potential saboteurs”) during 3 The Second Red Scare which 1 took place during the presi- of national identity, patriotism WWI and of Japanese-Americans dency of Joseph McCarthy and “loyalty”. Since 2001, there during WWII2, the detention of in the period of 1947-1957, has been an intensification of ten- immigrants in an anarchist bomb refers to increased fears of espionage by communists sions between immigrants and the scare in 1919, the execution of sus- that spurred aggressive inves- North American national project. pected Soviet spies Julius and Ethel tigations including branding One of the areas our research Rosenberg, Joseph McCarthy’s (red-baiting), blacklisting, jailing 3 and deportation of people touches upon is the post-9/11 ‘Red Scare’ , the infiltration of the suspected of following commu- racial profiling and detention of Deacons for Defense and Justice4 nist or other left-wing ideology. immigrants, a large portion of and the Black Panthers5 and the For more reading see: Fried, Richard, Nightmare in Red: The whom are Arabs and South Asians. rise of the border vigilantes, the McCarthy Era in Perspective, Immigrants are ubiquitous in Minutemen6. W.E.B. Dubois’s ques- Oxford University Press, 1991. the daily lives of modern cities. In tion to African Americans, “How 4 The Deacons for Defense a city like New York, they are the does it feel to be a problem?” has and Justice were an armed ones who drive our taxis, sell us now been redirected and made African American civil rights organisation in the southern newspapers and coffee, clean our freshly relevant for a new popula- U.S.. The group was formed in restaurant tables and work in kitch- tion. November 1964 to protect ens. In Beirut, they work in cleaning, civil rights workers against the My Manolo Blahnik Fetish violence of the Ku Klux Klan. childcare and as guards and construction workers. As performers There is a pattern to the cases 5 The Black Panther Party was an African-American organisa- of these roles, they are intimately that ultimately receive national tion founded to promote present in our physical space yet attention in the “war on terror”. civil rights and self-defense. It absent from our consciousness The horror-glamour allure of was active within the United States in the late 1960s into – we don’t know where they came detention practices in Abu Ghraib the 1970s. For more reading from or any of their stories. Only and Guantanamo as well as see: Peniel, Joseph ed., Black when they are detained do they the extra-judicial procedures of Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era, become hyper-visible as “sleeper “Extraordinary Rendition” have until Routledge, 2006. cells.” now stolen the spotlight. However, the majority of detention cases activists in our group pushed us that we were concerned with towards more text-based work, were far more banal: A taxi driver including work based on specific gets stopped for running a red laws (Prudent Juries, Or How To Read light and a routine check7 of his The Law: Wall print). We felt we immigration papers reveals that he had to focus on “hard facts,” so is “out of status”. The state is within that audiences would not dismiss its rights to deport such a person our work as “propaganda.” and the case may be accelerated Good Citizens Make if that person comes from one Obedient Prisoners of the “suspect” countries. These cases do not fit within any grand, The Collective closely studied the over-arching discourse. We were internment of Japanese-Americans drawn to exploring them precisely during World War II as a possible because they were invisible even template to understand current within the countercultural narrative dynamics. A close look at four legal of resistance. cases (Hirabayashi vs. United States Hyper-visible advertising that (1943), Yasui vs. United States bludgeons its way into public urban (1943), Korematsu vs. United States 6 The Minuteman Project is “an (1944) and Ex parte Endo (1944)) activist organisation started in spaces has been an influence on April 2005 by a group of pri- my own work. I was looking at the reveals that they presented a direct vate U.S. individuals to monitor giant banners for GAP’s “Casual, challenge to the US government’s the U.S.-Mexico border’s flow right to detain citizens during of illegal immigrants, although Fresh American Style” campaign it has expanded to include featuring Sex and the City’s Sarah World War II. These were the only the U.S.-Canada border as Jessica Parker clad in Manolo four individuals to challenge their well. The name comes from 8 detention in court – hundreds the minutemen who fought in Blahnik shoes . The sheer size the American Revolution. The of those billboards moved the of thousands of other Japanese- group’s founder and principal Collective to think about represen- Americans tried to be “good director is Jim Gilchrist who citizens” by going to the internment lives 50 miles north of the U.S.- tations of immigrant populations, Mexico border in California”. such as licenses for newspaper camps without protest. Although (www.wikipedia.org/_Inc.). See: and fruit vendors, or hack licenses these cases reached the Supreme Gilchrist, Jim, Corsi, Jerome R. Court and the government even- and Tancredo, Tom, Minutemen: in the cloudy, scratched glass The Battle to Secure America’s partitions of taxicabs – all blurry tually apologised for the mass Borders, World Ahead micro-images that one stumbles internments and paid reparations Publishing, 2006. upon. Our response was to insert to former detainees, the legal prec- 7 Local police are now allowed the presence of people who had edent was not overturned. Today, to run immigration checks, another post-9/11 innovation. been targets of security sweeps 60 years after that case, the law into that larger-than-life GAP still allows the government to carry 8 www.shoeblogs.com Americana format. The forms we used were at first images (Casual Fresh American Style: Wall prints), then text (Nahnu Wahad, But Really Nahnu Wahad, But Really Are We One? Visible Collective/ Are We One?: Lightbox) and finally Naeem Mohaiemen, image-text composites (When an Anandaroop Roy Interpreter Could Not Be Found: Wall Inkjet Print, 8’x2’, 2005 (Source: Post 9/11 Detainee print series). names from Migration Policy The presence of lawyers and Institute).

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 205 out mass detentions if it decides “protect” national borders. Much of that prevailing conditions qualify this new rhetoric revolves around as a “time of war” or “national the concept of “legality” and even emergency,” and if an identifiable the standard liberal response population is deemed a national stops short of advocating rights security threat. for undocumented immigrants. It is extremely vital to tease Whenever we present this project, out these and other historic paral- we invariably get one audience lels. The Muslim imaginary often member saying, “These people may contains a victim narrative that not be terrorists, but they have hyperventilates to the point of broken the law by being here ille- imagining that profiling, isolation gally.” Once the word “illegal” is out, and ghettoisation are only happen- dialogue comes to a halt. 9 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/ magazine/3077964.stm ing to “us”. As artists committed to The conversation over national undermining groupthink, we feel it identity – hyphenated or otherwise 10 In 1990, Tebbitt said that the true test for the “Britishness” is essential to bring out the linkages – is very charged in North America of British Asians was whether between the present crisis and and Europe. Questions of “loyalty”, they cheered for India/Pakistan the conditions that other minority “belonging” and “core values” are or England at cricket matches. He also said, “If they wish to communities experienced through- evident in instruments such as cover their faces and isolate out American history. the proposed “Britishness” test.9 themselves from the rest of British politician Norman Tebbitt’s the community and so thor- I Failed the Cricket Test 10 oughly reject our culture then I “cricket test” has returned in new cannot imagine why they want There have been far-reaching guises. But there is also an active to be here at all. Perhaps they transformations in laws affecting resistance to these ideas, such as should just push off back to their own countries.” (Private immigrants, but equally dangerous one BBC viewer’s response to Eye, October 2006). After the are the changes in perceptions and the “Britishness” test in the form July 2005 London bombings, attitudes such as the tactical shift in of satirical questions: “What side Tebbitt’s views became popular and he was seen as vindicated. the tools used by border vigilantes should the port be passed on? like the Minutemen. Xenophobes Which breed of dog does the 11 BBC reader’s comments on new items described in web- can now re-brand themselves Queen favour? If you bump into site cited infootnote #9. “super-patriots” who merely want to someone and it’s not your fault, do

Nahnu Wahad, But Really Are We One? Visible Collective/Naeem Mohaiemen, Anandaroop Roy Lightbox with rice, 8’x2’x1’, 2005 (Source: Post 9/11 Detainee names from Migration Policy Institute) you still say sorry?”11 Such takes predators” and the “full moon” can sometimes be more effective effect were all used to reference as methods of counter-attack than the presumed culprits. Journalist self-righteous anger. Pete Hamill informed New York 12 62% of Arab Americans are Christian and another 13% that the rapists “were coming report no affiliation. Invisible Man downtown from a world of crack, 13 In 1989, five black teenagers I recently began exploring the curi- welfare, guns, knives, indifference were arrested in connection ous absence of Black Muslims from and ignorance. They were coming with the brutal rape of an the ongoing debate on security. from a land with no fathers.”15 In investment banker who was jogging in Central Park. The African-Americans make up 40% of contrast with that media hysteria, case became the centre of a the US Muslim population and are today there is restraint and a lack frenzy, as the media invented the fastest growing group among of hyper-racialisation in the cover- the term “wilding” to describe the imagined practice of black prison converts. By contrast, Arabs age of any terrorism case involving teenagers running wild in the constitute only 12%12 and South Black Muslims. city. In 2002, all five teenagers Asians 24%. These ratios are an During the Washington DC were acquitted and released 16 after Matthew Reyes confessed inverted pyramid of national fears sniper incident , National Review to being the real rapist. about the “nature” of “American online editor Jonah Goldberg made 14 Brimelow, Peter, “Alien Nation: Muslims.” The discrepancy between the following confident predictions Common Sense About statistics and the media hype is about al Qaeda cells: “This is part America’s Immigration Disaster,” especially puzzling if you look at of the fall offensive along with the Harper Perennial, 1996. the history of rabidly racialised and attacks in Kuwait and off the coast 15 Hamill, Pete, “A Savage essentialist attitudes towards crime. of Yemen. Obviously, we won’t Disease”, New York Post, April 23, 1989. Following the notorious 1989 know for sure. But what I find most Central Park gang-rape incident13, persuasive is the possibility that this 16 During three weeks in October 2002, ten people the imagined black male practice of is a two-man team. That just strikes were killed and three injured “wilding” was introduced to the lexi- me as way too professional.”17 by snipers who were shooting con. There was also incredibly racist One of the snipers, John Allen people in various locations throughout the Baltimore- rhetoric around that case. Terms Muhammad, was indeed Muslim Washington Metropolitan Area. like “savage wolf packs”, “beasts in but inconveniently he was an 17 www.nationalreview.com, the park” (Peter Brimelow, who African-American and a Gulf War National Review online, also attacked immigrants14), “super veteran. Similar dynamics were vis- October 12, 2002.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 207 ible with the Portland cell18, all of which involved African-Americans but did not lead to any media hyperventilation along racial lines. The current terror discourse sees names, accents and assimila- tion as indicators of whether the “wogs”19 are here to roll an honest burrito or blow up the World Trade Center. African-Americans complicate this picture for several reasons. Firstly, you cannot easily define Black Muslims as “new arriv- als” or “outsiders”, so the notion of increasing security by tightening borders and increasing deporta- tions falls through. Black Panther Party member Eldrige Cleaver’s 18 Sometimes referred to as “The Portland Seven”, Patrice “severe new restrictions” evoke Lumumba Ford, Jeffrey Leon today’s “no fly”20 lists: “1) I was not Battle, October Martinique to go outside a seven mile area; Lewis, Muhammad Ibrahim Bilal, Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal, Habis specifically, I was not to cross the Abdulla al Saoub and Maher Bay Bridge. 2) I was to keep my “Mike” Hawash were arrested name out of the news for the next in Portland in 2002 and named in a 15-count indictment that six months; specifically, my face was included charges of conspiracy not to appear on any TV screen. to levy war against the United 3) I was not to make any more States and conspiracy to provide material support and speeches and 4) I was not to write resources to al Qaeda. anything critical of the California 19 “Wog” is a slang word with Department of Corrections or any several meanings, some com- California politician. In short, I was monly derogatory, some not. to play dead, or I would be sent It is generally used as a label 21 for the natives of India, North back to prison.” These are historic Africa, the Mediterranean and parallels that complicate the neat the Middle East. picture and repel media and terror 20 The “No Fly” List is a list creat- analysts. ed and maintained by the U.S. government of people who Immigrant Representation are not permitted to board a commercial aircraft for travel and its Discontents in the U.S.. It buttresses the With image production, there is Secondary Security Screening Selection that tags would-be often a desire to locate the lived passengers for extra inspection. experience of the author within 21 Eldridge Cleaver: Post-Prison the work. Some audiences wanted Writings and Speeches. A to see the Visible Collective as Ramparts Book, Random “representative” of the most vulner- House, NY, 1969/ www. mindfully.org/Reform/Cleaver- able group – namely, immigrants 33-Years-Old19apr68.htm and/or Muslims. On an objective level, this definition does not apply to all members of the Collective. Even if it did, our level of risk is mediated by our class privilege, citizenship and access whereas communal vulnerability comes more precisely from variations in citizenship and class positions. Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria said on The Daily Show that he is “100% legal.” It is indeed possible for the high profile Zakarias to feel safe even in times of soft war. Tunku Varadarajan of the Wall Street Journal wrote that he was willing to pay the price of additional security checks. Ultimately, he is prominent enough to feel assured that nothing bad will happen to him. Similarly, when New Left Review editor Tariq Ali was stopped in Frankfurt airport, he was immediately able to contact a city mayor who was a good friend of his. However, working class immigrants with “Muslim” sur- names do not share these feelings of reassurance because they lack access and security. That is the key difference between them and the elites within immigrant and minority communities.

Art & Action or Art vs. Action The dynamics of working in an informal “collective” brought out many tensions that exist between the objectives of visual arts and those of direct activism. For those members who are fulltime political activists, there is always the question of whether creating a print for a gallery show actually furthers When An Interpreter Could Not “the cause.” During interactions Be Found, Visible Collective/ with art spaces, we sometimes Naeem Mohaiemen, Anandaroop Roy find a gap between interests, con- Series of 45 slides in window versations and the final stage of projection, 2005-2006

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 209 concrete action. When there has been a constraint on resources, some Collective members made a tactical decision to work on other projects that they felt were more result-oriented such as rallies, peti- tions, essays, etc. Meanwhile, there is an open-ended debate engendered by the form and content of our recent work. For instance, our interest in the conditions of immigrants in Europe and the Middle East has sometimes been interpreted as shifting the focus away from the American situation. But ultimately, we are not constructed as a “pressure group” although as individuals some of us may be involved in such activity. Perhaps we could think of this form of artwork as triggering the “butterfly wing” effect22: A project may provoke an unexpected conversation somewhere in the unpredictable future. I am always hoping to have a spontaneous, unmapped, unintended and long- term effect on art-activism.

November 20, 2005

22 The idea comes from chaos theory, that small variations in the initial condition of a dynamic system may produce large variations in the long- term behaviour of the system. Meteorologist Philip Merilees presented it as a conundrum in 1972: “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?”. Naeem Mohaiemen, artist, activist and founder of Visible Collective, works between Dhaka and New York. The Visible Collective is a collective of Muslim and other artist-activists who work to challenge and undermine distorted and limited images that are held up by media outlets and governments. With Visible Collective, he worked on Disappeared in America (www. disappearedinamerica.org), a project that he initiated after September 11, 2003 that looked at hyphenated identities, national security panic in the United States and Islamophobia. Collective members included Aimara Lin, Donna Golden, Josh Nimoy, Anandaroop Roy, Vivek Bald, Kristofer Dan- Bergman, among others. www.shobak.org

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 211 Enamlima Sekarang (65 now) Taking it Personally Not Talking to a Brick Wall

Nadiah Bamadhaj

I have structured this presenta- brother Kamal was the person in tion to discuss three works that I my life who was truly interested in produced in three countries in the Southeast Asian human rights and last few years: Enamlima Sekarang, alternative histories. He was the Taking it Personally and Not Talking first to inform me about the massa- to a Brick Wall. In the process of cre of the three million Indonesian defining what is “home”, I found cadres of the Communist Party in it impossible to claim that I come 1965. At the time, I did not really from one place or have one believe him; moreover, I tended to nationality. Instead, I have chosen to brush off his efforts to school me present my work as emerging from about regional history as activist the times and places that have condescension. shaped me, politically and intellectu- My relationship with Indonesia ally. These times and places involve began when Kamal was killed by countries – Indonesia, Malaysia and the Indonesian military while cam- Singapore – as well as issues of paigning for independence in East history. By history, I not only mean Timor in 1991. I began this rela- my view of certain past events, but tionship by trying to understand my response to the ways in which the origins of the regime that had these events were constructed taken my brother’s life. The mas- and regurgitated as propaganda; sacre of the Indonesian Communist and particularly, my thoughts about Party members in 1965 was what sort of history our present Suharto’s political introduction. The would make in the future. carnage was the aftermath of an alleged communist coup attempt Enamlima Sekarang (65 now) (2003) which resulted in the deaths of six During the thirty years of the top military leaders. Suharto, who Mahathir and Suharto eras, it was was next in command, claimed virtually impossible to know any- to have upstaged the coup and thing about the events in Indonesia, went on to become Indonesia’s Malaysia and Singapore due to president for the next 32 years. the restrictions on media. My In his six-month transition from a lieutenant colonel to president, he video works that tried to articu- orchestrated the complete annihila- late my perceptions of how the tion of a legal political party with Indonesians I spoke with felt about ten million members and affiliates. the events, at the time of their Thus, contemporary Southeast occurrence in 1965 and at the Asian politics and the formation of time of my interviews in 2003. the Association of South East Asian The first thing that struck me Nations with its non-intervention- when I arrived in Indonesia was ist policies began with the Suharto how the official version of 1965 regime and with one of the most remained perfectly intact. This violent events in our region’s his- version of events documents the tory. brutality of the communist coup When I went to live in Central that killed the six generals and how Java on a fellowship in 2002, armed Suharto aborted the coup and with my personal agenda, I was saved the day. This version survives full of preconceived conceptions in school textbooks, movies, street about how people felt about this signs, monuments, military rituals, event in their history. I assumed celebrated anniversaries and com- that since Suharto had been forced munist-bashing during the month to resign a few years before, his of Ramadan. The massacre, torture construction of the events in 1965 and detention of millions of com- would automatically be opened for munist party members and affiliates re-examination. I began questioning still did not warrant official mention. people I met about the massacres I spoke to ex-detainees who in 1965. kept using the same phrase to At the end of my first year describe the official version of there, I produced an installation of events – diputarbalikkan, or putar

Suharto at the launching of his book on the alleged G30S Movement of the Indonesian Communist Party (ICP) on April 20, 1966.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 213 balik which means “in the official or “Revolutionary Heroes”. The version, the events were reversed”. Suharto government produced a In the official discourse, the three-hour feature film about how aborted coup was called the communist leaders had plotted “Gerakan 30 September” or “G30S” the coup, kidnapped the gener- movement. Those who were not als from their wives and children killed that year were imprisoned and then tortured and murdered under the broad accusation of them in a frenzy. This film was com- collaboration in the G30S coup. pulsory viewing in schools during During Suharto’s presidency and Suharto’s presidency. Most of the even today in certain parts of young people I interviewed about Indonesia, ex-detainees are ostra- 1965 expressed opinions that cised in various ways. For example, were based entirely on this film. they are still issued identity papers Moreover, although they had not marked ex-tapol or ex-political yet been born in 1965, these young detainee. The discrimination does people were much more afraid of not stop there; it includes the ex- mentioning communists than those detainee’s family whose members who had actually experienced the are subjected to similar treatment, events. making 1965 part of a family’s In almost every person I spoke identity. An ex-detainee I spoke to to about 1965, there was a palpa- identified herself as coming from a ble fear. I was constantly questioned keluarga enamlima or a “65 family”. by other artists as to why I was On the other hand, the six gen- asking these questions, in some erals who were killed in the coup cases even scolded for doing so. were renamed Pahlawan Revolusi, Even those who were interested in

Top left: Video Still, ‘Putar Balik’ (Reverse), 2’ 37’’, 2003.

Top right: ‘Stepping on’ the Alleged G30S Movement of the ICP, Jawa Tengah, 1966

Bottom left: Video Still, Potret (Portrait), 1’ 04’’, 2003

Bottom right: The six widows of the revolutionary heroes who died in the alleged G30S ICP movement . taking another look at that period were still present, four decades of history maintained a united front after the event. against me as an outsider, par- At the other end of the spec- ticularly in public. However, many trum was a resignation to the people eventually opened up to events. “Inilah takdir kami” or “this is me – but only after several months our fate”. Most interviewees spoke – when no one else was listening. these words not only when talking It was then that I realised that about their experiences, but also it was imperative to talk to people when they talked about how the in private, particularly to the older lives of their families were altered generation of women. Sometimes I from that point on. This submis- was the first person they had ever sion to fate was very pronounced confided in about their experiences in Java. in prison. During these interviews, I I slowly began to realise why realised that feelings of humiliation, people were so fearful of an event anger, vengeance and even denial that had happened so many years

Left: Video Still, ‘Anak Muda’ (Youth), 1’ 54’’, 2003.

Right President Sukarno briefing journalists at the Palace of Independence in 1966.

Left: Video Still, ‘Beku’ (Frozen), 3’ 24”, 2003

Right Still from the funeral of the Revolutionary Heroes on October 5, 1965.

Left: Video Still, Rape, 1’46”, 2003.

Right: Capture of suspects involved in the alleged G30S ICP Movement in Central Jakarta on November 1, 1965.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 215 ago. I had had a clear assumption, massacres were carried out mainly based on my own experience that by the youth wing of Nahdlathul the massacres were conducted Ulama or the NU, the largest by the military. However, I learnt Islamic organisation in Indonesia. that the murders of such large Towards the end of my fellowship, numbers of people in such a short an NU youth wing leader gave me amount of time necessitated com- an anguished interview about the munity participation – militias of need for his movement to confront young men, trained and provoked its history including the way it was by military personnel. Those who co-opted by the military. He said had killed and those who had died that pelurusan sejarah, or the “iron- lived in the same neighbourhoods. ing out of history”, is imperative This meant the environment of fear in a country where the military is was created by and based upon still very much involved in politics, not only the fear of repetition, but because, as he said, “Pada suatu also on the fear of retribution. A hari nanti NU bisa di PKI-kan” which friend of mine who was the son roughly means that it is possible of a person who had participated that the NU, as a Muslim organi- in the killings, described himself as sation, may one day be “made a korban or victim, rather than a communist”. tersangka, suspect. At the workshop for this video At the time, the primary series, some artists saw the work incentive used by the military to as revenge for my brother’s death. provoke young men to participate The fellowship officials said my in the killings was to represent focus was biased. The activists were communists as atheists. In Java, the divided; my mother said it was

Left: Video Still, ‘Takdir’ (Fate) 2’ 54”, 2003.

Right: Youths ready to assist in the overthrow of the alleged G30S ICP Movement at Mount Merapi in Central Java.

Left: Video Still, ‘Korban/Tersangka’ (Victim/Suspect), 1’ 13”, 2003.

Right: General A.H. Nasution and leader of the religious faction, ‘Nahdlatul Ulama’, Dr. Idham Chalid. black; my father burst into tears. part of my strategy was to situate The show was rejected by five art these buildings in the past. institutions in Kuala Lumpur. Yet, The Royal Selangor Club, or the in spite of the fact that I did not RSC, was built in 1894 and was the agree with this, I had come a little centre of social activity for about closer to understanding how some 700 British administrators and rub- people can enforce their own ber and palm tree planters in Kuala forgetfulness and uphold a certain Lumpur. In those days, the club version of history, for the sake of was British only, with the excep- maintaining a sense of peace. tion of a few Malay sultans. The British forged relationships with the Taking it Personally (2005) sultans and other noblemen and The transition from creating work governed various parts of Malaya on Indonesian history to looking at through these advisory roles. In architecture in Kuala Lumpur was some states this worked well while quite fluid for me. I see state-spon- in others there was a considerable sored architecture as forms on the amount of resistance, depending landscape that will document us in on the royalty involved. Today, the the future. RSC is still a members-only club, If a building’s design, style or with one of the last men-only bars placement attempts to push a in the city. What used to be the certain political or social-cultural cricket field, in front of the club, agenda, it becomes a form of pro- was renamed Dataran Merdeka, the paganda. Upon construction, it “Field of Independence”, after inde- becomes a government’s version pendence in 1957. I was thinking of history. I selected my favorite about the time when the RSC and buildings in Kuala Lumpur, built a part of Kuala Lumpur so familiar within four of the country’s more to me now, were off-limits to their recent political phases. My selection own inhabitants. was based on a combination of my Angkasapuri was built in the interpretation of the constructed early 1960s and is known as one meanings of their forms and my of the monuments to the nation own personal memories of those building of the post-independence sites. In the process of challenging period. Many of the state-spon- the kinds of history architecture sored buildings of the 1960s was going to write in the future, were an attempt to introduce a

Left: Video Still, ‘Maaf Pak, Boleh Tanya…’, (Excuse me sir, may I ask…), 3’ 44”, 2003.

Right: The Royal Selangor Club (RSC) or Nahdlatul Ulama.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 217 modernist look to Kuala Lumpur’s and the religion of the ethnic Malay landscape. What is unusual about community. This building’s design, this particular building is that it is as urban legend would have it, devoid of any specific religious or is based on the keris – a dagger cultural references. It was designed used traditionally in ceremonies, as an experiment of monumental- wars and executions. Today, the ity in the tropics. It was and still is, keris is the main cultural symbol the government’s radio and televi- of the Malays, referring to their sion broadcasting (or propaganda) political dominance in the country. headquarters. I remember seeing Currently, Malaysia’s government this big building from the school policies divide the country bus as it picked up students from a between Malays, Malaysian Chinese, village at the foot of the hill under- Malaysian Indian and “Other”. Most neath Angkasapuri. It was one of of those policies were formed after the last remaining villages in the city, a period of political unrest and complete with wooden houses on riots between the Chinese and stilts, where the urban poor resided. Malay communities in 1969. During In my mind, the contrast between the Mahathir years, a standard gov- the village at the foot of the hill ernment response to questioning and the bulky form at the top the state’s ethnically-divisive policies remains vivid, reflecting an image of was, “you should be thankful things what we were supposed to be. aren’t like 1969”. The Maybank building was The Palace of Justice houses one of the first skyscrapers built the civil and sharia’a courts. It is in Kuala Lumpur during the mid- one of many similar buildings that 1980s. It marked the beginning of make up the new government Mahathirism or “rapid develop- complex of Putrajaya, built in the ment” and the nationalisation of late 1990s. Many secular buildings

Left: symbols associated with the culture in Kuala Lumpur have begun to use Digital Still, Royal Selangor Club, ‘You’re in My House’, 2005.

Right: Angkasapuri was built in the early 1960s and is known as one of the “nation-building” buildings of the post-independence period.

Left: Digital Print, Angkasapuri (Government Telecommunications Building) in a village, 2005.

Right: The Maybank building was one of the first skyscrapers built in Kuala Lumpur in the mid-1980s. domes and details commonly used Not Talking to a Brick Wall (2005) in mosques but at an awe-inspir- During the documentary-making ing scale. Architectural references process, my father, who was one cite these buildings as Moorish or of many grandchildren born in Moghul and even Arabesque, but that house, spoke about it with there is little doubt that in the local tremendous pride. But he also context these buildings are intend- remembered being afraid of his ed to represent Islam as Malaysia’s grandfather; and that he and the national religion. In Malaysia, Islamic other children used to sneak past references have been used in most him without making a sound. When government-sponsored building I finally visited the house last year, projects over the last 20 years I realised my father had failed to although Islam is only embraced by mention that we no longer owned approximately 50% of the popula- it. This and my father’s memory tion. Other communities are not of fearing Habeb Omar, made represented in these constructions, me upset. The lack of affection yet appear – or claim – to be indif- between fathers and their chil- ferent to them. dren is one of the few things the My final piece of work com- Bamadhajs have managed to pass bines architecture and the notions down from one generation to the of family history. At the end of next. 2004, my sister had just finished I went through the material making a short documentary on from my sister’s documentary and the history of our family whose found some photographs of the members are mostly based in house then jotted down the idea Singapore. She discovered that of one generation of Bamadhajs each family member not only had stepping back to have a word with a different version of Bamadhaj his- an earlier generation. This video is tory, but that some versions were so conflicting that they cancelled each other out. One of the central figures in the documentary was our great grandfather, Omar Bamadhaj. He was a second generation Bamadhaj from Hadramaut who settled in Singapore. Many stories about Omar revolved around a house he had built in Singapore at the end of the 1800s. Digital Still, ‘Palace of Justice in Indifference’, 2005.

Left: ‘The Palace of Justice that Houses the Civil and Shariaa Courts’.

Right: Digital Still, ‘Maybank in 1969’, 2005.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 219 based on the premise that, despite the iconographic quality of old family photographs, they are still just moments. We can neither access our history in them nor find explanations for how we have turned out.

November 24, 2005

Video Stills, Not Talking to a Brick Wall, 5’ 34”, 2005. Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 221

Nadiah Bamadhaj was born in Petaling Jaya, West Malaysia in 1968. Trained as a sculptor, she now produces drawing, video and digital images. She has worked in non-governmental organisations on HIV/AIDS prevention, human rights advocacy and lectured on art at the Center for Advanced Design, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is author of Aksi Write (1997), a work of non- fiction on Indonesia and East Timor, co-written with her late brother. In 2002, she was awarded the Nippon Foundation’s Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship, electing to spend her year-long fellowship period in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where she produced an art-based research project on the social aftermath of Indonesia’s 1965 coup attempt. Her recent artwork looks at architecture as historical and nationalist documents, the topic of research for her PhD which she started in 2006.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 223

EXHIBITIONS

Hôtels des Transmissions, Jusqu’à un Certain Point..., Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil A Window to the World, Tony Chakar Hashem el-Madani Studio Practices, An exhibition curated by Lisa Lefeuvre and Akram Zaatari/The Arab Image Foundation The Metro, Rana el Nemr Distracted Bullets, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige Shirana Shahbazi, Shirana Shahbazi Spring Story, Yang Zhenzhong Hôtels des Transmissions, Jusqu’à un Certain Point...

Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil

was born in France in 1968. He has participated in group exhibitions throughout Europe. His solo exhibitions include The Day Before: Star System which was shown at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2006), the Fondation Caixa in Barcelona (2005) and the Swiss Institute in New York (2004).

This video installation takes viewers on a tour of Europe looking for the spots from which to transmit information in the eventuality of war or a terrorist attack. Hôtels des Transmissions, Jusqu’à un Certain Point (Broadcast Hotels/Up to a Certain Point) can be seen as a guide for those news cor- respondents who set up base on the rooftop terraces of large hotels. The action is set in a dozen European capitals which have all become theatres of operations for terror attacks. Pointing a finger at the mechanisms of news, the artist cultivates a certain sense of ambiguity compounded with his own alarmist vision.

Hôtels des transmissions, jusqu’à un certain point…, 2004 (Athens) Courtesy In SITU Fabienne Leclerc, Paris, France. Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 227

Top: Hôtels des transmissions, jusqu’à un certain point…, 2004 (Brussels) Courtesy In SITU Fabienne Leclerc, Paris, France.

Bottom: Hôtels des transmissions, jusqu’à un certain point…, 2004 (Geneva) Courtesy In SITU Fabienne Leclerc, Paris, France. Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 229 A Window to the World Tony Chakar is an architect born in Beirut in 1968. His work spans image-making, installation, performance and publications and includes A Window to the World (2005); My Neck is Thinner than a Hair with the Atlas Group, Walid Raad and Bilal Khbeiz (2004); The Eyeless Map (2003); Four Cotton Underwear for Tony (2000); and A Retroactive Monument for a Chimerical City (1999).His work has been featured in several events including the Sharjah Bienniale, the Venice Bienniale, the Sao Paolo Bienniale, the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo, the Witte de With in Rotterdam, Modern Art Oxford and the Tapies Foundation in Barcelona. Chakar currently teaches History of Art and History of Architecture at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) in Beirut.

© Aukje Dekker “A window to the world” is how Leon Battista Alberti described the first perspective drawings. Why a window? Who is the onlooker? What kind of world is he/she watching? Early Renaissance architects and painters (re)invented the way we look at the world around us. More than merely a simple drawing technique, the structured perspective is a conception of the world. It is also a structure of exclusion which allows the “ratio- nalisation of the visual phenomena” to occur (Panofsky). The installation A Window to the World takes the form of an actual architectural project as it would be designed by an architect with plans, facades, sections and models, only to turn these forms against themselves, forcing them to reveal what is being so ‘naturally’ excluded: Human experience. Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 231

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 233 Hashem el-Madani Studio Practices

An exhibition curated by Lisa Lefeuvre and Akram Zaatari/The Arab Image Foundation

The Madani Project studies the entire archive of studio Shehrazade to understand the complex relationships that bind a studio photographer to his working space, his equipment and tools as well as to the economy and aesthetics. The project also explores a photographer’s ties to his clients, society and the city in general. Initiated by Akram Zaatari and the Arab Image Foundation, the project combines Zaatari’s interest in living situations as objects of study that testify to modern traditions and complex social relationships with the Arab Image Foundation’s commitment to preserving, indexing and studying photographic collections in the Arab world. The Madani Project takes shape in a series of thematic exhibitions, publications and videos centered on the photographer Hashem el Madani (1928 – ) and his work. Throughout this project, the archive of studio Shehrazade is gradually being identified, described and preserved at the Arab Image Foundation. ‘Hashem el Madani Studio Practices’ studies the conventions that shape the making of portraiture studio photographs and focuses on the studio space as a space for play in a socially conservative society such as Sidon’s in the 1950s and 1960s. Pro-Palestinian resistants. Studio Shehrazade, early 1970s, Saida (Lebanon). Madani’s commentary: “These men were Syrian. In the early 1970’s many Syrians joined resistance and other patriotic parties in Lebanon. They used to come unarmed to the studio.”

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 235 Man from the Reesh family. Studio Sherazade, late 1960s, Saida (Lebanon). Madani’s commentary: “Men in general used to like showing their muscles.”

A yound lady from the Bashasha family (left) and a friend. Studio Shehrazade, late 1958, Saida (Lebanon). Madani’s commentary: “Films inspired people a lot. They came to perform kissing in front of the camera. In a conservative society such as Saida’s, people were willing to play the kiss between two people of the same sex, but very rarely between a man and a woman. I remember only one couple who came to the studio and kissed in front of the camera, and they were not married. The rest of them were people of the same sex. One of them plays the woman, while the other plays the man.” Hashem el-Madani was born in 1928 in Sidon, Lebanon. His father was from Madina, Saudi Arabia and was sent to Sidon as a representative of the Islamic awqaf. In 1947, Hashem el-Madani went to Palestine looking for a job, eventually finding work as an assistant to a Jewish immigrant photographer named Katz in Haifa. When the events of 1948 began, he returned to Sidon where he bought his first 35mm camera which cost him 200 Lebanese pounds; and began to work as an itinerant photographer. Meanwhile, he transformed a space in his parents’ house into a studio. By 1953, el-Madani had raised enough money to buy new equipment and to rent a studio of his own in the same building as Cinema Shehrazade in Riad El Solh street. He named it Studio Shehrazade.

Akram Zaatari was born in 1966 and is a co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation (Beirut). Zaatari is a video artist who bases his work on collecting, studying and archiving the photographic history of the Middle East; in particular, studying the work of Lebanese photographer Hashem el-Madani (1928-) as a register of social relationships and photographic practices. His ongoing research has been the basis for a series of exhibitions and publications such as Hashem El Madani: Studio Practices (with Lisa Lefeuvre) and Mapping Sitting (in collaboration with Walid Raad). Zaatari has been exploring issues pertinent to the Lebanese postwar condition, particularly the mediation of territorial conflicts and wars through television, the logic of religious and national resistance and the production and circulation of images in the context of the geographically divided Middle East particularly in This Day (2003) In This House (2005) and All is Well on the Border (1997).

The Arab Image Foundation (AIF) is a not-for-profit organisation established in Beirut in 1997 to locate, collect, preserve, interpret and present the photographic heritage of the Middle East and North Africa from the early 19th century to the present. To date, the research and acquisition of photographs has covered Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq as well as Arab diasporic communities in Mexico and Senegal. The collections acquired from these countries include 150,000 photographs covering the time period between 1860 to the present. Through its diverse set of activities - exhibitions, publications and videos - the Arab Image Foundation aims to encourage critical approaches towards reading and interpreting photographs.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 237 The Metro

Rana el Nemr

was born in Hanover, Germany in 1974. She studied at the American University in Cairo and the New York Institute of Photography. She has participated in several exhibitions in Egypt, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, the U.S. and other countries. Her work includes The Metro and Women by Women: 8 Women Photographers from the Arab World. In 2005, El Nemr received the Grand Prize of the Bamako Photographic Biennale and in 2003, she won the Bronze Award at the Canon Digital Creators Contest in Japan in addition to the Silver Award at the Nile Salon Photographic Exhibition in Egypt.

In early 2003, I began working on a intolerance – illnesses that are photography project to record the both caused by and transmitted to rapid changes taking place among Egyptian and Arab societies as well a representative section of Cairo’s as the rest of the world. Unaware middle-class metro riders. In a that they are being photographed, space where strangers with many the passengers are captured common attributes meet, middle- commenting about the urban class Egyptians gather in a world of underground, the train, the station their own. and its vibrant ceramic designs. This documentary work is an These individuals become figures attempt to record how these defined by form, line and colour in individuals are framed by and are the midst of a congested moder- vulnerable to cycles of depres- nity in which they no longer have a sion, indifference and religious sense of place. Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 239

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 241 Distracted Bullets

Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige

were both born in Beirut. Joana and Khalil are filmmakers, artists and university instructors. Together they have created installations and videos, including Don’t Walk, Lasting Images and Distracted Bullets; the photography projects, Bei- rut: Urban Fictions, The Circle of Confusion and 180 Seconds; the project Wonder Beirut which includes The Story of a Pyromaniac Photographer, Postcards of War and Latent Images. They have also directed several films, among them two feature films, Al-Bayt al-Zaher (Around the Pink House) and Yawmun Akhar (A Perfect Day), shorts such as Ramad (Ashes), and more recently Open the

© Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige Distracted Bullets is the first chap- possible to draw a divisive topog- ter in the Symptomatic Videos raphy of the town by observing series. The term “distracted bullet” the quality and orientation of the is a literal translation of the Arabic display, and noticing which quarters term rassassa taycheh, i.e. stray bul- celebrate noisily and which remain let. Distrahere, the Latin etymology silent during the same occasions. of the word “distraction”, means The sound in the installation also pulling in various directions. In addi- determines the position of the tion to notions of distraction, the spectator, that of the person filming, word bears additional connotations as well as the nature and context of disorientation, panic, dispersion of the political event. (or scattering) and diversion. The installation consists of five A brief history of the five events panoramic views of Beirut on the which appear in the video: occasion of events celebrated by September 13, 2003: Feast of the both fireworks and shooting. The Cross, Beit Mery, Metn area. noise of fireworks mingles with the Fireworks go off everywhere. various noises of firearms. Where There is an explosion of fireworks. do all those firearms come from? Church bells ring, prayers rise, In 1994, militiamen turned in their evoking an end-of-the-world atmo- heavy and light weapons, and sphere. No camera is available, so were authorised to keep only one we knock at neighbours’ doors. firearm in exchange for those they One of them lends us his small Hi relinquished. On some occasions, 8. We film throughout the night. these firearms appear, are used and September 3, 2004: Emile then stowed away until the next Lahoud has been re-elected time they are needed. President of the Republic. Beirut When, right before our eyes, is ablaze with the “fires of victory”. Beirut is aflame with the fire of vic- This time, the event was expected tory and filled with the crackle of and the camera is ready. The fire- fireworks and gunshots, it becomes works begin early, at sunset, and Door. They have also directed several documentaries, including Khiam and Al-Film al-Mafqud (The Lost Film). Their publications include Beyrouth: Fictions Urbaines, OK I’m Going to Show You My Work, Latency, A State of Latency and Like an Oasis in the Desert among others. www.hadjithomasjoreige.com

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 243 go on through the night. These Watching Beirut alight on these are a specific type of fireworks, various occasions, we wondered concentrated and organised by the how many people who were city councils (municipalities) rather happy to survive the war had now than by individuals through popular become victims of stray bullets initiatives. during the various festivities for December 31, 2004: New Year’s which the use of firearms is a must: Eve. As we watch, Beirut is alight; weddings, graduations, elections, re- there is a muffled, continuous elections and religious festivities. sound. At midnight, fireworks break We decided to research the out. Various sounds are heard of subject and entrusted it to Adel firearms, many firearms going off Nassar, a poet and writer. Adel visit- everywhere. All over Beirut, in both ed the main Lebanese newspapers, Christian and Muslim areas, every- dug into the archives, and read and one seems to either be shooting or photocopied certain documents. letting off fireworks. From our win- But his findings were scarce, and dows, we see the Christian district mainly involved a few incidents more clearly, but we can hear the which date back to the Israeli entire town. occupation of South Lebanon via June 28, 2005: Nabih Berri is its proxy, the South Lebanon Army re-elected Speaker of Parliament. (SLA). For example, Assafir, in its As if to counterbalance the January 4th edition, announced that negative feelings this election pro- a citizen had been wounded during duces, Beirut is rattled by rounds SLA New Year’s Eve celebrations. of machine guns, fired in celebra- Finally, Adel realised that, although tion, bullets raining in all directions. quite a few people are killed by Three people are killed and seven stray bullets every year, such news wounded that day. We film during is seldom published, either because the night. From where we are, the the regional correspondent does town seems silent - a small part of not always report the case (s/he it is still “celebrating”, though more might find him/herself in a difficult discreetly. We cannot embrace the situation); or because at the time whole town, the perspective is it occurs, the information does not warped. have enough weight to become July 26, 2005: Samir Geagea, “news”. In fact, between 1994, head of the Lebanese Forces, is when the militias were disarmed, released after 11 years in prison. and 2005, when this text was Before our eyes, a part of the written, the newspaper Annahar Christian district of Beirut is rejoic- registered 5,458 “security incidents” ing. The neighbour whose Hi 8 involving weapons and often fatal camera we had borrowed on the accidents. But the same database Feast of the Cross two years ago, only recorded 15 events under the brings out his machine gun to cel- heading “stray bullets”. ebrate. He starts firing round after Nevertheless, Adel managed to round, with short interruptions, and dig out certain incidents, including goes on and on for minutes, then the following one. After the New for many long hours. Year’s Eve celebrations of 2005, all the newspapers mentioned that influence collective history? Were Rafiq Hariri’s plane, stationed on these parallel events considered the airport tarmac, had been hit by too anecdotal for their imprints to stray bullets. Meanwhile, the death appear in the archives of History? of Yusra Khalaf Nasrat - whose Does our location determine our family consider her an “unknown knowledge? How can we keep martyr” after she was killed by a track of the stories that are kept stray bullet in Burj al Barajneh, the secret? Beirut suburb bordering the airport - was never reported anywhere. This led us to wander how and why an event becomes a “document”. Does individual history

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 245 Shirana Shahbazi

Shirana Shahbazi

was born in Tehran in 1974. She moved to Germany in 1985 where she studied photography at the Fachhochschule Dortmund and the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, Zurich. Shahbazi has participated in numerous group shows and has held solo exhibitions in Geneva, Zurich, Tehran, New York, Chicago, Bonn and London. She won the Citigroup Private Bank Photography Prize in 2002. She currently lives in Zurich.

© Shirana Shahbazi The photographs in this exhibition and unfixed. They take divergent are like words translated into dif- photographic genres (such as tour- ferent languages. They are drawn ist snapshots, street photographs from a larger series shot in China, and landscape vistas) along with the U.S., Iran and Lebanon and appropriated images by Iranian are printed in different sizes and arranged in different groupings billboard painters and lay them each time they are shown. As such, all side-by-side as a tense set of these images seem to be restless uneasy parallels. Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 247

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 249 Spring Story

Yang Zhenzhong

was born in China in 1968. He studied fashion design at the Zhejiang Institute of Silk Textiles and oil painting at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts. Since 1992, he has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Asia, Europe, the U.S. and Australia. His solo exhibitions include Foreplay (2006), Yang Zhenzhong (2006), Light as Fuck (2002), I Will Die (2001) and Jiangnan (1998). His work has been featured at the International Venice Biennale, the Tate Modern in London and MoMA in New York.

© Yang Zhenzhong In 1992, when Deng Xiaoping was 88 years old, he began an inspection tour of Wuchang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shanghai. The series of speeches he gave on this tour indicated China’s determination for profound reform and gave a new direction for China’s onward path. Spring Story began to make the rounds throughout the great land of China. This twelve-minute video is part of a project entitled ‘What are They Doing Here?’ by the International Cultural Communications Department of the Siemens Arts Program. It was completed in cooperation with over 1,500 employees of Siemens Shanghai Mobile Communications Ltd. Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 251

TALK AND VIDEO

Who is Michel Seurat?, Ashkal Alwan Par un Jour de Violence Ordinaire, Mon Ami Michel Seurat…, Omar Amiralay An Abductee We Lebanese Share, Abbas Beydoun Still from Par un Jour de Violence Ordinaire, Mon Ami Michel Seurat..., Omar Amiralay, 1996

Who is Michel Seurat?

It was the 22nd of April 1985 no longer the same, from which when gunmen from the Islamic he was barred in the 1980s, lies Jihad Organisation1 intercepted a chasm which tells of a inver- Michel Seurat in a car return- sion from one pole to the other. ing from Beirut Airport and It began early during the war, abducted him. with mobile and transient check- On that day, Seurat was not points suddenly set-up to abduct on his first trip to Beirut nor was or summarily kill anyone carrying he on one of many such trips. the correct identification card Moreover, Michel Seurat was marked with the wrong religious not one among many foreign denomination. This tendency journalists summoned then by a to “cleanse” one’s world from worsened armed conflict. the Other continued during the Simply said, when abducted, war and reached its peak when Michel Seurat was on his way to extremists, those who simultane- his house in Beirut, a city home ously call for, claim and promise for him since the 1970s. On that purity, began to “wash” Beirut day, Seurat was long already a of all foreigners. It was then that Beiruti, that is of a Beirut no lon- Seurat and his fellows were ger determined by original stock turned into strangers, into unac- or lineage as was possible back ceptables. They had to leave lest in the 1960s and 1970s. A Beirut they become fodder for torture. where he and other French, And so compelled, most did British, Americans, Germans, while a few, like Michel Seurat, 1 The Islamic Jihad Organisation is not Palestinians, Iraqis and Syrians remained. to be associated with its namesake could, while grateful to no one, Perhaps Seurat believed that in Palestine. Knowledgeable sources partake with the Lebanese in by being fluent in Arabic and consider that the abductors belong to a well-known party in Lebanon shaping an urbanity unburdened by siding with the “East” against and that the so-called organisation by deadly identities. But much the “West” he could actually is one of many pseudonyms such as has changed since. Between a step out of the circle of danger. the Organisation of Revolutionary Justice used when claiming responsi- city in the 1970s where a French Perhaps he believed the Islamists bility for abductions. national could live, and the city, or was even seduced by them as is apparent in his writings. He where hybrids can live in their believed that what they despise differences, so does Beirut of the is not the “Western” in the 1980s divulge the state of a city “West” but rather its belligerence caught in the throes of war. and imperialism. Being neither A city where individuals were he believed himself safe and sent back to their stock, fixed at bay. And yet what he failed to their lineage and made into to notice is that abductors do combat targets. That was then. not read, at least no more than As for now, a decade and a half when they impatiently scan the after the cessation of hostilities, few words printed on a pass- Beirut remains unsettled and port or an identification card. undecided whether to accom- Hostage, he realised how his modate Seurat’s kind or shun abductors coerced him back into them anew. his “Western-ness”, for them indelibly marked on his passport. Nothing could intercede on his behalf. His scholarly research, translations of Ghassan Kanafani into French and support for Arab causes were all for naught. His spy-phobic abductors saw in his and every social research on Islamic movements the figure of espionage and treason. Seurat in Beirut is a story of the city itself, from before the war and during. For in as much as Beirut of the 1970s which welcomed Seurat and other foreigners, in the legal sense of the term, tells of an open city

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 255 Chronology of the events: 22 May 1985: Jean-Paul Kaufman and Michel Seurat are kidnapped. 22 May 1985: The Islamic Jihad Organisation claims responsibility for the abduction. 5 March 1986: A statement by the Islamic Jihad Organisation announces the “execution of the research specialist and spy” and includes three photographs of the dead body. (It was later known through cellmates that Seurat died in captivity from cancer.) July 2005: Construction workers in the area of Al Raml al Ali-Horsh al Kateel report the finding of a corpse in a box buried just below a metre under. 25 October 2005: Seurat’s wife is informed that the corpse of her husband has been found and identified. February 2006: A public announcement is made and the body is delivered to officials from the French Embassy. 7 March 2006: Michel Seurat’s remains are returned to his family. Michel Seurat, born in Tunis in 1947, was a French researcher and sociologist. He first visited Beirut in 1973 to teach Islamic History at the École Supérieure des Lettres. He joined the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in 1980 as a researcher. He translated many Arabic novels and poems and is known for a number of studies on Lebanon, Syria and Egypt that are still considered to be references. He settled with his wife Marie Mouamar Bachi Seurat in Beirut where they had two daughters, Alexandra and Leticia. His works include: L’État de Barbarie and Les Frères Musulmans 1928-1982, co-authored with Olivier Carré.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 257 Par un Jour de Violence Ordinaire, Mon Ami Michel Seurat…

Omar Amiralay was born in Damzascus in 1944. He studied theatre and cinema in Paris in the late 1960s. Since 1981, he has directed numerous documentary films for French television. In his work, he attempts to find a character-driven cinematic language that straddles the boundary between documentary and fiction. Neither a mechanical representation of reality nor a fantasy lying outside reality, Amiralay’s work proposes a rendition of reality that is controlled by the imagination but never strays far from the real.

On May 22, 1985, Jean-Paul Kaufman and Michel Seurat were kidnapped in Beirut. Kaufman was released three years later and returned to his country, France. Eventually, he resurrected an account of those hellish days. Seurat perished after eight months in captivity. The film pays homage to a man who wanted to penetrate an Orient whose mysteries had stirred his mind from the time of his childhood.

Video, 48 minutes, 1996. French with Arabic subtitles. The screening was followed by a discussion between the director and Abbas Beydoun. Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 259 An Abductee We Lebanese Share

Abbas Beydoun

The following text was presented not. And even if the once institu- by Abbas Beydoun after the tionalised practice of kidnapping screening of Amiralay’s film: Par has now passed, the corpse of un Jour de Violence Ordinaire, Mon Seurat remained for years in Ami Michel Seurat… the custody of an organisation Seeking to safeguard mar- that today no longer carries its tyrdom from the tug and pull first name. They wanted him to of warring parties, Marguerite vanish. They even wanted his Duras considered the German name to disappear. They wanted martyr a shared martyr.1 With to relegate the whole matter to that thought in mind, it now an ontological forgetfulness, the seems important to remember same sort they wished upon and recollect the tragic abduction us all. For this reason, this film and murder of Michel Seurat. For is of value. It acts to salvage the he, the foreigner, was abducted absence of Seurat, as well as the and killed precisely by those he many missing and living, from identified with. He alone can safe- forgetfulness. guard and foreground abduction Upon watching the film, my as a cause to be remembered daughter commented that it is and defended above and beyond not a documentary. True, Omar the antagonistic wrenching of Amiralay intentionally avoided foes. If accordingly one demands a documentary approach even that the truth be told about as the presence of Jean-Paul the missing, Michel Seurat will Kauffmann, Seurat’s cellmate, inevitably come forth as the could have easily afforded 1 See Duras, Marguerite, La Douleur, overarching symbol no matter the film with the authority of Gallimard/Folio, 1993. if the accused are Syrian intel- evidence. Amiralay chose to 2 The Islamic Jihad Organisation is not ligence agencies or one of the occult the speaking head of the to be associated with its namesake many Lebanese militias. surviving cellmate. His voice in Palestine. Knowledgeable sources The name of “Islamic Jihad”2 was allowed to come forth as if consider that the abductors were Lebanese Shiites and are probably is now all but gone. But those from a nothingness perturbed by current members of Hizbullah. who acted under that name are vague shadows and spinning circles, as if shadows of ceiling fans. friends? Are we in front of a Around him, a shoddy metal- Michel that is not separate and lic food plate pushed in from therefore is resistant to denota- under the door by non-hands. tion as information for historical, Kauffmann speaks from within an political and other sorts of unspeakable obscurity; one from instrumental discourses? Is this which Seurat never emerged. It an act of friendship which wills is Amiralay’s noted decision not the sacrifice of a film as evidence to lose this fathomless obscurity of an unbroken bond between to the clarity of a document; not filmmaker and lost friend? Is to deliver it from its temporality this Amiralay’s attempt to pass and dreadful awe to the conclud- through film into a kind of filmic ing and perhaps conclusive end poetry, a kind of video-art? Or of a narrative. Rather, the obscu- is it, considering the rigorous rity is present and suspended scenography of the two beds, above the sequential structure ceiling fan and bars, a version of of a story. No one in the film Beckett’s theatre? Rather than is asked to remember more answering the purport of these than they wish to. Friends speak questions with the definition of him and of themselves. He of a genre or style, let us say is not an object to be spoken instead that Amiralay has taken of. He is not outside their lives. a risk which in fact is not unlike They speak and their faces are what is often encountered in his wrapped in darkness. Only their other works in terms of silence eyes strain towards an unknown and a restrained use of images ahead. Amiralay does not want and narrative. Yet this film carries a document. Nor does he allow the added weight of a moral hegemony for the image. He paradox. In facing the intention wants for faces to float on that of the kidnappers to completely darkness which is the material- disappear and take with them ity of Michel’s cell, the hell of his the whole issue of Seurat whose ordeal and loss which weighs death remains without a corpse heavily, still neither transformed and therefore intangible, Amiralay nor even formed. His absence is chose not to narrate nor docu- present in its rawness, in its pri- ment. For in doing so he would mary metaphor. have been complicit with this We can seriously wonder if oblivion so eagerly sought by the in fact Amiralay wants a film at kidnappers who live, even if dis- all. Does not his distancing of guised, amongst us still. In other narrative and image intimate words, to document Seurat something else? He obviously as someone who is no longer, seeks neither. Let us say that amounts to the symbolic kidnap- he even disables both. Are we ping of someone’s presence and then facing a persistent move of his history. to keep Michel mingled with A kidnapped individual, no his own experience, his cell and matter the social status, is an the lives and memories of his unresolved matter, a wandering

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 261 affair and a question in suspense. coloured her life. When returned He or she cannot be shelved in to his home for an hour by a historical past without moral his captors, she could not bear consequences. That is precisely embrace him. He spent that why Amiralay insists on suspend- short hour rummaging through ing Seurat in his absence. He his desk and talking mostly to his wants that this abducted man abductors. This also is love as a remains in us a dark gaping wound. Such were the words of hole. He wants him to pervade his friends; a wounding honesty. our lives and memory, supine In their words, they surrendered on his cell bed, always in the and renounced their selves as now, an indelible crime. It is only if such was the sacrifice they according to such a reading that had to offer in order to save the film’s bare visual props can Michel from oblivion. Roger be understood as a constant Nabaa offered Michel an undy- presentation of the tools and ing name: innocent, a non-naive markings of the crime; namely its innocent who knows evil and corporeality. confronts it. As for Kauffmann, his I know not how to unravel cell-mate, he remained absent the complicities that crisscross like his friend and with him kept the film. Was Amiralay the direc- occulted the ordeal that cannot tor or was it Michel’s friends, who be communicated. Kauffmann figured in the film? The literary also wants neither narrative nor force which pervades the words conclusion. Those dark days will of everyone cannot be mere remain on that site with Michel. rhetoric. Rather, it comes from The crime will stay grounded. a desire to summon their friend An innocent, for all those and postpone his departure. The who spoke, is also someone who usual tropes of elegy and valedic- seeks to identify himself with a tion were deferred, for these cause unlike him, most often an friends must have felt, along with assumed other. Jean Hannoyer Amiralay, that in fact they were spoke of him as an Arab from also speaking of their own selves. France who became Islamicised To employ flowery language, to in order to identify further with bask in the attention of the occa- Palestinians and Syrian Islamists. sion or to dwell in self-centered To his wife, he stood in the noble emotions would have way of death. For causes such amounted to a consumption of as these produce nothing but Seurat and his friendships. martyrs. She says that his picture Jean Hannoyer spoke of hung on the wall among pictures Seurat as a friend who always of martyrs. She spoke seriously. preceded him, a friendship in For he, Michel the aloof and the which he faithfully lagged: “He troubled, walked his days as if follows the fish and I follow him.” overshadowed by his fate. Led It is friendship as a wound. Mary, forward, like a tragic Greek hero, his wife, spoke of him as that he was fated to become the troubled cloud of a man who inadvertent oblation for which all would be spared and then united. birthplace in Tunis. That sea was With Roger speaking on screen, his womb and that separation we hear the emotionally moving marked him forever. Following that voice of a grieving Husseini chanter. sequence, the film is then punctu- We then see a coffin held high over ated by bars. As if these bars were hands, a woman trying to muffle both what fragments the continuity her scream, the coffin once again, of a life and what binds as well its a fallen woman and another one many chapters together. We also screaming. In the interstices of this see two beds in various guises. sequence, Michel’s picture reoccurs. Only they signify Michel’s struggle One thinks again of Mary’s words with illness and with everything and of that identification between else. These two beds are the fetish Michel and the figure of the martyr. and symbol of the whole experi- Symbolically, the coffin was his; and ence. One must not forget that he was the bewailing mantra of the bars of the window and bed the Husseini chanter mourning him. are similarly latticed. It is precisely Yes, some of the Shiites around there, caught in this cool metallic the coffin are most probably his mesh, that the experience petri- murderers. But that is precisely the fied and silenced. It is also the only point. For al Hussein, the archetypal witness to a suspended death. And Shiite martyr was also killed by yet it is the sea again and again, his own. Michel was, as Mary said, the waters of birth, the cradle of an Arabist killed by Arabs, and an Michel’s passion that rumbles with Islamist killed by Muslims. Michel an unbelievable force, the force of was the innocent offering sacrificed an unstoppable life, an inexorable by fate in order to reconstitute and passion and perhaps an inescapable unite the group. revenge. This sea in which the bed Everyone appears in the film of death sinks remains awake. It as a bust. Only Jean Hannoyer has is the ordeal of pain and struggle his back turned to the sea before which swallows all, every fetish. The descending and disappearing in sea is the cradle which returns to its waters. Hannoyer was narrat- embrace its first boy, to send him ing Michel’s passion for the sea. In off towards the infinite horizon of what he terms as fast psychology, an endless adventure. The sea is Jean proposes that Michel lived his the absence that conquers death. originary trauma upon departing from his coastal city of Binzert, his November 22, 2005

Abbas Beydoun was born in 1945. He is a poet and a journalist. He studied Arabic literature in the Lebanese University and later at the Sorbonne. He has written and published 14 books of poetry with many translated into several languages. Among his latest are: B.B.B, 2007; Shajara Touchbihou Hattaban (A Tree Resembling a Woodcutter), 2006; Jasad Bila Moa‘allim (A Body without Teacher), 2003; Lafzon Fil Bard (Enunciations in the Cold), 2000. He also published his first novel in 2002 entitled Tahleel Dam (Blood Analysis). Aside from poetry, Beydoun is a noted art and literary critic. He is currently chief editor of the weekly cultural page for the Beirut daily Assafir.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 263

VIDEOS & FILMS

Rond-Point Chatila, Maher Abi Samra Pasolini Pa* Palestine, Ayreen Anastas Un Cercle Autour du Soleil, Ali Cherri Jibraltar, Ghassan Halwani Hopefully for the Best, Raed El Helou Welcome to Beirut, Fouad Elkoury Peripheral Stories, Hala Elkoussy The Purple Artificial Forest, Amal Kenawy The Fifth Pound, Ahmed Khaled Devotion, Cynthia Madansky Otolith, The Otolith Group/Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun An Eclipse which Dropped from the Sky, Maani Petgar The Lamentations Series: The Ninth Night and Day, Jalal Toufic Featuring Hind Rostom, Raed Yassin In This House, Akram Zaatari Rond-Point Chatila

Maher Abi Samra was born in Beirut in 1965. He graduated with a degree in Dramatic Arts from the Lebanese University in Beirut and completed another degree in Audiovisual Studies at the Institut National de l’Image et du Son in Paris. He has worked as a photo-journalist for Agence France Presse, Reuters and Lebanese daily newspapers. He has written and directed several documentaries, including Merely a Smell (2007), Mariam (2006), Rond-Point Chatila (2004) and Women of Hizbullah (2000). His short videos include My Friend (2003) and Building on the Waves (1995).

Chatila: The place evokes massacres and the dead; this film chooses to focus on the living. It shows fragments of life taken in a certain area, 150 metres on the main road of the Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon as well as the first floor of Gaza Hospital. There is the waiting, the defence of the cause, the return of the refugees and the revolution. The characters tell us the stories of their life in the camp. The film delves into the day to day lives of these people. In Chatila, time is suspended and these people are living over an abyss. They have Video, 52 minutes, 2004. nothing to look forward to. Arabic with English subtitles. Pasolini Pa* Palestine

Ayreen Anastas

writes in fragments and makes films and videos. Pasolini Pa* Palestine (2005), M* of Bethlehem (2003) and The Library of Useful Knowledge (2002) have been shown internationally in festivals, museums and cinemas but have not yet been broadcast on television. ‘The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary’ was published in Rethinking Marxism, Volume 16, Number 3, July 2004. She has no affection for the proclamation of victory. Troubled by any image of herself, she suffers when she is named.

© Ella Klaschka Pasolini Pa* Palestine is an ** Pier Paolo Pasolini: “My hopes were still attempt to repeat Pasolini’s trip intact then. I really thought that by repeating this trip 40 years later I would be able to Palestine which is depicted in to shed a new light on, and gain a new his 1963 film Seeking Locations in perspective of, this reality. Instead, I found Palestine for The Gospel According myself repeating the same mistakes: The heat in the summer of ‘63 was intolerable. to Matthew. It turns Pasolini’s script I could have arranged this trip in spring, into a roadmap superimposed for example. They tell me that it is much on Palestine’s current landscape, milder here in spring, and I could have got a lot more out of this landscape then. creating contradictions between Another question concerns the path we took. the visual and the audible, the The images of an ancient world, its architec- expected and the real. The video ture and a primitive way of life that might explores questions of repetition, a have been very useful for my film, were still intact in the villages of Hebron. Here we are term which – along with “retrieval” halfway up the Mount of Beatitudes where – Heidegger claims, signifies an crowds gathered to listen to Christ. Here I appropriate attitude toward the am, with camera reflected in the glass of a clear shop window. I obviously came here past and establishes a dialogue to film. with Pasolini**. The term discutere To film what? Not a documentary, not a (to smash to pieces) is the Latin feature picture. I’ve come to shoot some source for the modern words notes for a film about the Christ of a modern Palestine. The choice is not yet final. And the “dialogue” and “discussion”. The meaning of what I mean to be a modern video does not criticise Pasolini, but Palestine in this film is probably wider than rather reveals the possibilities in his the geographies of political borders that were created in the past hundred years or so. thought and works, tracing them I intend Palestine to mean an expression of a back to the “experiences” which time past, present today in the current land- inspired them. scape and on the faces of these Palestinians, in their constant suffering and endless wait for a new Saviour. This idea of the Saviour Pasolini Pa* Palestine was created in con- has been present in contemporary Arab and junction with a residency at the Al-Maamal Palestinian politics – perhaps it would be Foundation in Jerusalem. even more precise to speak here about the Produced by the artist, Al-Maamal Foundation periods of resistance – since before the end and Ashkal Alwan. of the Ottoman Empire.” Video, 51 minutes, 2005. Arabic with English subtitles.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 267 Un Cercle Autour du Soleil

Ali Cherri

was born in Beirut in 1976. He studied graphic design at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and performing arts at DasArts in Amsterdam. His work includes the videos Slippage (2007), Untitled (2006) and Un Cercle Autour du Soleil (2005) and the performances Give Me a Body Then (2006) and As Dead as Ever (2005).

“I was disappointed the day they announced the war had ended. I used to be elated by the idea of living in a city that was eating itself, like excess stomach fluid that digests and gradually eats away at the stomach”.

Ali Cherri, inspired by Yukio Mishima’s ‘Sun and Steel’. Produced by Mellow Productions and DasArts, Amsterdam. Video, 15 minutes, 2005. English. Jibraltar

Ghassan Halwani

was born in Beirut in 1979. He completed a Master’s degree in marketing and advertising and then went to Paris to pursue a degree in photography and a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. He has worked on children’s books as well as in aeolian industries. Jibraltar is his first film.

Jibraltar attempts to represent the birth of an adult person free from inheritance and background. For this man, renunciation is generally a willed act; but in certain phases of his voyage, it is unwilled. A renunciation is at times conscious, at others not, driven by the search for absolute freedom, or a vanishing – a disappearance. In moments of hesitation, inse- curity and anguish, he will turn back to cast a last look in the direction he is abandoning. Jibraltar is an adaptation of the play Zanbak wal Jabal (Zanbak and the Mountain), written by the group al-Sanabel in the late 1970s. Zanbak wal Jabal tells the story of the small rabbit Zanbak who tries to leave his cage in the safe farm where he dwells in order to go to the mountain. Despite his grandfather’s opposition to his project, as he feels that life on the farm where they are fed is peaceful, Zanbak escapes. During his voyage, Zanbak encounters many obstacles, some which weaken his resolve and others that urge him forward. Animation,15 minutes, 2005.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 269 Hopefully for the Best

Raed El Helou

was born in Gaza and currently lives in Ramallah. He has worked as a freelance cameraman with various Arabic and foreign television stations. He produced and co-directed the documentary film Local (2002). He also directed a short film entitled The Tea Boy (1998). His video Hopefully for the Best won the Palestinian Silver Screen prize at the International Ramallah Film Festival in 2004.

© PALMEDIA Produced in 2004, Hopefully for the Best relates a journey early one morning in Ramallah. It consists of images and scenes from daily life where tension lurks beneath the surface of small talk and where people live under the weight of fear and an uncertain future.

Video, 41 minutes, 2004. Arabic with English subtitles. Welcome to Beirut

Fouad Elkoury

was born in 1952 in Paris. He studied architecture in London and then turned to photography. He has published a number of books combining text and photography, including On War and Love (2007), Sombres (2002), Palestine, L’Envers du Miroir (1996), Beirut City Centre (1992) and Civilization, Fake = Real? (ongoing project). His videos include Welcome to Beirut (2005), Moving Out (2004) and Letters to Francine (2002). Elkoury is a founding member of the Arab Image Foundation. www.fouadelkoury.com

Welcome to Beirut is about daily life in Beirut, a driven promenade inside the city with a few open windows to peep through. More ironic than sarcastic, the film reveals the state of mind of a certain part of Lebanese society, a direct consequence of the “Atlas syndrome”: When one opens a European atlas of the world, Lebanon is in the Video, 52 minutes, 2005. middle but also in the crack, central French, Arabic and English yet invisible. with English subtitles.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 271 Peripheral Stories

Hala Elkoussy

was born in 1974. A photographer and video artist, she has taught photography at the American University in Cairo and has organised and co-curated several projects, including PhotoCairo (2003 and 2005) and In a Furnished Flat in Cairo (2004). She is cofounder of the Contemporary Image Collective (CIC), an independent artist-run platform based in Cairo. Her work has been featured at the 9th Istanbul Bienniale (2005) and at the Tate Modern in London (2007).

© Wilfried Koomen Peripheral Stories uses the geo- tracking characters who exist on graphical outskirts of the city as the margins. Through exploring the a stage to investigate less tangible relationship between the centre issues of marginalisation. The video and the periphery, the artificial and takes the viewer on a journey in imposed structures surface, reveal- a Cairene microbus – the physical ing instead a shifting of already embodiment of perpetual move- blurred boundaries. ment between inside and out, the individual and the group. Roads Video, 28 minutes, 2005. provide a fragmented narrative, Arabic with English subtitles. The Purple Artificial Forest

Amal Kenawy was born in Cairo in 1974, and did her studies in fine art and film there. Her work includes video, installation, performance, animation, photography, sculpture and painting. Her solo performance/installations include Non-stop Conversation (2007), The Room (2003-2004) and Frozen Memory (2002). She has made the video animations Booby Trapped Heaven (2006), You Will Be Killed (2006), and The Purple Artificial Forest (2005), as well as the video installation, Mum: Do the Angels Shit? (2007). She has shown her work throughout Egypt, Europe and Canada. Her works have been featured at national and international film festivals and biennales.

© La Moundo News I dreamt of a purple artificial They were sitting at the end of the forest. isthmus. I created a purple artificial theatre. They were sitting across the table Parts of home furniture, human eating me once more. parts. They eat each other. The bed surrounded by electricity My legs grow. pylons. I give birth to light, and the light I was sleeping. eats me. Parts of a human body. And I melt into an isthmus of end- Hand, legs, a face. less darkness. All looking into the mirror. Parts of home furniture, human The only thing I see is a monster parts. devouring my picture. All devour each other in a purple Parts of home furniture. artificial theatre. Dinner table. Animation, 8 minutes, 2005.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 273 The Fifth Pound

Ahmed Khaled

was born in Cairo in 1979. He studied fine arts at the University of Halwan in Egypt. He works in painting, video and media art and since 1996 has participated in various group exhibitions and workshops in visual arts. His videos include Fish Eye (2007) and The Fifth Pound (2005). Khaled lives and works in Cairo. www.ahmedkhaled.com

The Fifth Pound tells the story of a sexual behaviour that exist in the young man and woman whose only community at large. chance for intimacy is to get on the air-conditioned bus each Friday. This film addresses the problem of sexual deprivation among Egyptian youth and grapples with the dou- Video, 14 minutes, 2005. ble standards about sexuality and Arabic with English subtitles. Devotion

Cynthia Madansky

is an artist who lives in New York City. Her recent films include Elle (2007), Devotion (2005), The PSA Project no. 1-15 (2005), Alex and José (2004), Still Life (2004) and Past Perfect (2002).

Cynthia Madansky constructs a conspirator – alienation. As the lyrical film as formal as the eight traveler roams through a labyrinth acts of devotion in Islamic prayer of hotels reiterating a process of that leads us on a journey through obsessive recollection and observa- Istanbul. Like Italo Calvino’s Invisible tion, she realises that, like the lost Cities, Devotion is structured in short Ottoman Empire, this is a futureless passages, moving tentatively through memory. the intimate spaces of this city. In her sparing but symmetri- As aimless wanderers and con- cal compositions, details within summate outsiders, we journey frames appear as notes on a scale. with the narrator observing the Madansky collaborates with avant- garde musician Zeena Parkins to everyday, the ordinary through carefully construct the sights and a rectangle, a finite and universal sounds of dissonance, generat- receptacle: The fragments of a city ing new meaning from the debris. in portrait format. The film is a Poetically provocative, Devotion is formal construction of frames and a meditation on nationalism and lines that constitute the map of an Islam woven through a story of intensely personal journey. Devotion love and loss. returns us to the city as a site of identification and its simultaneous 16mm, 34 minutes, 2004, English.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 275 Otolith

The Otolith Group/Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun

In January 2002, artist and cultural theorist Kodwo Eshun and audiovisual artist Anjalika Sagar founded The Otolith Group as an umbrella organisation for their interdisciplinary collaborations. In 2003 and in collaboration with the London-based video artist Richard Couzins, Otolith was commissioned by Arts Catalyst to direct the digital video Otolith, from which their name derives. The group lives and works in London.

This film essay probes the potency space. Through prolonged space of archival images, exploring the travel, the film tells us otoliths have poeticisation of mediated memory ceased to function, leaving homo and is profoundly influenced by sapiens unable to walk the earth. Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil (1982) Instead, the new mutants research and Black Audio Film Collective images “sifting aging history from films such as Handsworth Songs the tense present in order to (1986). Taking its name from oto- identify the critical points of the liths, the minute particles found 20th century”. The film’s narrator in the inner ear that help us to is Dr. Usha Adebaran Sagar, a fic- balance and to navigate our way tional descendant of Anjalika Sagar, across space, the film aims to living in space in the year 2103. reorient our perceptions of the From this perspective, the narrator world by weaving personal and looks back at several generations public histories together into a of women from the Sagar fam- meditation upon the persistence ily, linking her own experiences of utopian aspirations. “Earth is out with those of Sagar’s grandmother of bounds for us now; it remains during the 1960s when she met a planet accessible only through Russian cosmonaut Valentina media”, the viewer is told at the Tereshkova, the first woman to beginning of Otolith; this suggests orbit the Earth. “For us”, the narra- a post-nuclear future in which tor declares, “there is no memory humankind is confined to outer without image and no image with-

1 This concept is developed by The Otolith Group from a reading of Giorgio Agamben’s notion of potentiality. out memory. Image is the matter of potential future” thereby allowing memory”. Her attempts to under- for a different perspective on the stand multiple dimensions of the present. historical, the terrestrial and the evolutionary bring together existing Video, 23minutes, 2003, English. images of very different qualities Commissioned by The MIR Consortium. and registers: 35mm footage of www.artscatalyst.org mushroom cloud explosions that have indelibly seared the collective consciousness, digital video footage of London’s peace marchers in the run-up to the Iraq war and private memories captured on Standard 8 film from 1970s London and Haridwar. The Group filmed Sagar floating in microgravity at Star City outside Moscow, where cosmo- nauts still train. Sagar’s physical and temporal disorientation is echoed by the contrasting film stocks, subtly tinting the world with different shades as they refract and redefine the past. Bringing together numerous fractured histories with difficult presents represented by India and Pakistan’s embrace of nuclear armament, Otolith projects a “past-

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 277 An Eclipse which Dropped from the Sky Maani Petgar was born in Tehran in 1959. He ran a photography studio before working in the film industry. He moved to Australia in 1985, where he worked in film and television production. He returned to Iran in 1997, where he set up the production house Unexposed Films in 2004. His films include Looking Through (2007), Film Lovers (2002), An Eclipse which Dropped from the Sky (2000), The Needle and the Thread (1999) and Cinema Cinema (1996). His work has been screened at international film festivals in Singapore, Amsterdam, Montreal and Chicago, among other places.

On August 10, 1999, the last the event. At the same time, he © Zouhri Souleiman eclipse of the century took place periodically takes his camera out- and about two billion people in side to shoot the reflections of the the world watched it on television. light on his yard. As he is switching The narrator is no fan of the style between the TV and the yard, he or standard of Iranian television, notices that… but understanding that it is going to broadcast simultaneous reports from five major eclipse locations, he decides, just out of curiosity, to Video, 22 minutes, 2000. sit down voluntarily in front of the English and Persian TV set to watch the coverage of with English subtitles. The Lamentations Series: The Ninth Night and Day Jalal Toufic is a thinker, writer, and artist. He is the author of Reading, Rewriting Poe’s ‘The Oval Portrait’—In Your Dreams (2006), Two or Three Things I’m Dying to Tell You (2005), ‘Âshûrâ’: This Blood Spilled in My Veins (2005), Undying Love, or Love Dies (2002), Forthcoming (2000), Over-Sensitivity (1996), (Vampires): An Uneasy Essay on the Undead in Film (1993), and Distracted (1991). His videos and mixed- media works have been presented in international festivals and biennales. He has taught at the University of California at Berkeley, California Institute of the Arts, USC, DasArts and the Rijksakademie.

It would be felicitous were a arranged the following signal © Gilbert Hage Shiite to make the first great for the apprehension of Jesus: film or video on the lamenta- “The one I kiss is the man; arrest tion of Judas Iscariot during the him.” Given that Jesus had told interval between his delivering his disciples, among whom fig- Jesus to the chief priests and his ured Judas, “If someone strikes hanging himself. Judas had pre- you on one cheek, turn to him the other also” (Luke 6:29), why didn’t the one who was kissed by Judas turn the other cheek for another (perfidious) kiss? Given that Judas did not sin against the Holy Spirit but only against the Son of Man (“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven” (Matthew 12:32), why didn’t the one who was kissed by Judas miraculously move time backward till before the birth of his betrayer (“It would be better for him if he had not been born” (Matthew 26:24) in forgiveness? If the one who was perfidiously kissed by Judas did neither, was this because he was not actually Jesus Christ?

Video, 60 minutes, 2005. Arabic and English, with English subtitles.

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 279 Featuring Hind Rostom

Raed Yassin

Born in Beirut in 1979. He graduated from the theatre department at the Lebanese University’s Fine Arts Institute. Yassin is a video and sound artist, as well as a musician (double bass, tapes and electronics) and member of the collective for improvised music in Lebanon, MILL. His videos includes Tonight (2007), Untitled, Till Now (2006), Featuring Hind Rostom (2005), Antenna Sonata and Beirut (2003). He currently lives and works between Beirut and Amsterdam. self portrait “I cannot but recall that pod of (“…Lebanon, your mama”) by red chili pepper coming toward Philemon Wehbe.” me, held in my dad’s hand as he chided, shouted and threatened me not to fiddle with our new VCR. A memorable machine it was, the first in the building, neglected except for repeated use of two video tapes: One of an Arabic film whose title I forget and a second containing three taped episodes, dubbed in Arabic, of the cartoon series Grandizer. All the while, ven- dor carts roamed the streets of Beirut packed full of videotapes and decked with speakers blasting Produced by Ashkal Alwan. the song “…Immak, Ya Loubnan” Video, 25 minutes, 2005, Arabic. In This House

Akram Zaatari

was born in Saida in 1966. He is co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation (Beirut). Zaatari is a video artist who bases his work on collecting, studying and archiving the photographic history of the Middle East. His ongoing research has been the basis for a series of exhibitions and publications including Hashem el-Madani: Studio Practices with Lisa Lefeuvre (2005) and Mapping Sitting in collaboration with Walid Raad (2002). His video works include In This House (2005), This Day (2003), Her&Him Van Leo (2001), How I Love You (2001), Crazy for You (1997) and All is Well on the Border (1997).

© Randa Shaath Part of my interest in existing the front bordering Israeli-occu- records comes from researching pied South Lebanon, the village personal documents made by was used for six years as a base individuals who have been through for military resistance against the political, territorial and military Israeli army occupying the opposite conflicts. It is also an attempt on hills. This whole region is currently my part to write the individual under high surveillance by different histories of wartime experiences. Lebanese intelligence services, espe- In addition to writing an alternative cially since the Israeli withdrawal history of war(s), I am also intent from South Lebanon in 2000. on studying the geography of fear In 2002, I headed to Ain el Mir and the mechanisms of surveillance, looking for a specific white house particularly in post-war situations. on a crossroad. I knocked on the Ain el Mir is a village 45 km door, met the owners and asked southeast of Beirut. Formerly on for permission to dig in their garden. I explained that I was looking for a letter addressed to them in 1991 by a former member of the Lebanese resistance who had occupied their house for six years while they were displaced from the village. The letter was inside the empty casing of a B-10 mortar buried in a one-metre deep hole in their garden. My request to find this letter was met with suspicion and provoked unexpected reactions that soon unfolded into a fascinating story of political and territorial complexity.

Produced by Akram Zaatari and Ashkal Alwan. Video, Arabic with English subtitles, 30min, 2005.

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PROJECTS

On the Periphery: An Offscreen Composition, Nadim Mishlawi I am Lost in the City/Beirut Metro Map, Hassan Choubassi Nomadic Studio, Reine Mahfouz On the Periphery: An Offscreen Composition

Nadim Mishlawi

received a BA in Fine Arts from the Lebanese American University in 2002 and an MA in Film and Video Studies from Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in 2006. He currently works in Beirut as a sound designer and musician. Mishlawi also teaches Sound Theory for Film at the Institut d’Études Scéniques et Audiovisuelles (IESAV) at the Université Saint-Joseph, Beirut.

‘On the Periphery’ is the second in a series of compositions exploring the relation between sound and territory. Constructed loosely within the boundaries of musique concrète, the work is a multi-layered collage of sounds ranging from found sounds to film excerpts and from television transmissions to political speeches. Intended to be played back in a pitch black theatre- like room, the layers of juxtaposing sounds create a sonic labyrinth through which questions are raised pertaining not only to sound and territory, but also to the individual’s relation to his/her sonic territory. Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 285 I am Lost in the City Beirut Metro Map

Hassan Choubassi

is a visual artist and scenic designer born in Beirut in 1970. He graduated from the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Beirut in 1996 and from DasArts in Amsterdam in 2005. His work has been exhibited in Lebanon, Egypt, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Belgium. He is currently a lecturer and a program coordinator at the Lebanese International University (LIU).www.geocities.com/hchoubassi In his book, Non-Places; Introduction new urban vernacular. to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, The ‘Beirut Metro Map’ attempts Marc Augé defines non-places as to add another virtual layer onto the having no identity, no history and psychological and physical labyrinth no urban relationships. Non-places of the city, focusing on the ever-pres- are transient spaces for traffic, ent demarcation lines that split Beirut communication and consumption; during the long period of the civil but, when the city itself becomes war and their relations to the social a place of passage, when it is in a environment in post-war Beirut. Its transitional waiting phase, on the circulation is irrelevant to the geo- cusp of another era, it becomes a graphical urban structure of the city, ‘non-place’. Beirut is passing through such that all the metro lines stop at such a situation, caught between the old demarcation lines and pas- the end of one phase while wait- sengers have to change to another ing on the steps of another. It is line in order for them to cross to the still going through a reconstruction other side. This echoes currently exist- period, living a utopian dream of ing systems; for example, people using prosperity that is yet to come. Post- service cabs have to get out of one war Beirut is marked by a feeling cab on the old ‘crossing’ lines and take of emptiness, of uncertainties and another in order to continue to the insecurities; it has undergone some other side as drivers on the western abrupt changes. It is becoming a side of Beirut will often not cross to new urban space where the spa- the eastern side and vice versa. In tial intersects with the social and fact, even public buses also stop on where flexibility and mobility have the major crossing points of the old become key qualities; new spatial Green Zone. The demarcation lines orders with a transnational range still exist in Beirutis’ memories and are being superimposed on familiar in the backs of their minds. Since the territorial lines. Thus, the new archi- political and demographical conditions tecture of non-places consists of remain highly unstable, sectarianism is spatial flows, movement and tran- still rife and class distinction is sharper sitional zones, while the inhabitants than ever; there is no reason to of the city fail to cope with the negate them. Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 287

Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 289 Nomadic Studio

Reine Mahfouz was born in Beirut in 1975. She studied photography at The Holy Spirit University in Kaslik, Lebanon. She has been producing work on Beirut and on the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon since 1996. She has exhibited her work in various venues in Lebanon and throughout Europe, including the Crypt of Saint Joseph Church in Beirut, Point Éphémère in Paris, the Kufa Gallery in London and the MAN Museum in Liverpool, among others. Mahfouz lives and works in Beirut.

I set up the first Nomadic Studio other members of the family stood in 2001, on the occasion of my aside and waited their turn. nephew Elias’ christening. I wanted Since then, Nomadic Studio has to take pictures of my entire fam- navigated public spaces and private ily, so I hung up a white cloth as a parties, drawing inspiration from backdrop, positioned the lights and various people, activities and loca- the camera and placed my sister tions. Using Nomadic Studio as a and her family in the centre of the medium, I am attempting to revive studio. I photographed them as some of the practices of professional photography that prevailed at the beginning of the last century, when photographers would wander through towns and cities taking pictures of their inhabitants. I use rolls of film and classical film techniques, so that tangible proof from these photographic moments may remain to document a past era. In this studio, there is no time to think of position or pose because the picture is instantaneous; people hardly have time to enter the booth before the picture is taken of their first reaction. The memory of our present is recorded as it immediately, instantly becomes our past. This practice is my own way of documenting the people passing through my time and place.

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Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices 293

PUBLICATIONS

Home Works II: A Forum on Cultural Practices, Ashkal Alwan Yasser Arafat Looked at Me and Smiled: Diary of a Fighter, Yussef Bazzi Burning in the Past Tense, Suhail Shadoud Sayyidi Milady, Nadine Touma File: Public Time, Fadi Abdallah, Bilal Khbeiz and Walid Sadek