Image in the Aftermath Part III: Screening of Selected Videos

In conjunction with the exhibition ‘Image in the Aftermath’, Beirut Art Center is screening works by artists participating the in the exhibition. This evening, Beirut Art Center is proud to present films by Walid Raad, Jalal Toufic, and Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. The screening of Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige’s video will be held in the presence of the artists, who will be happy to engage in a question and answer session and discussion with the audience.

Jalal Toufic
Lebanese Performance Art; Circle: Ecstatic; Class: Marginalized; Excerpt 3
2005 | 5′
On 3 January 1889, on coming across a horse being whipped by a coachman at the Piazza Carlo Alberto, in Turin, Nietzsche reportedly threw his arms around the horse’s neck to defend it, and collapsed. Had this philosopher who signed the following day several of his letters with “The Crucified,” and who was discerning enough not to view himself as the owner of “his” body come across Twelver Shi‘ite participants in the yearly ten-day commemorative event ‘Âshûrâ’, would he have intervened likewise between them and “their” bodies as they whipped and slapped the latter, exclaiming all the while, in the words with which Saint Francis addressed and referred to “his” body: “Brother donkey”?

The Atlas Group / Walid Raad
I Only Wish That I Could Weep
1996-2003 | Video, mute | 7’36”
This ‘document’ is attributed to a Lebanese Army intelligence officer, Operator #17, who was assigned to monitor the Corniche, a seaside boardwalk in Beirut. From 1996 onwards, and for some unknown reasons, the officer decided to videotape the sunset instead of his assigned targets. The videotape was donated by Operator #17 to The Atlas Group in 1998.The Atlas Group is a project established in Beirut in 1999 to research and document the contemporary history of Lebanon. The Group locates, preserves, studies and produces audio, visual, literary and other documents that shed light on this history. The documents are stored in The Atlas Group Archive which is located in Beirut and New York. The archive is organized into three file categories: Type A (attributed to an identified individual), Type FD (found documents), and Type AGP (attributed to The Atlas Group).

Walid Raad
Hostage: The Bachar Tapes (English Version)
2000/2002 | Single channel video and sound | 16’20”
In Hostage: The Bachar Tapes (English version), the ‘Western Hostage Crisis’ is examined through the testimony of Souheil Bachar. Mr. Bachar was held hostage in Lebanon between 1983 and 1993. What is remarkable about Souheil’s captivity is that he was the only Arab to have been detained with the Western hostages kidnapped in Beirut in the 1980s. In fact, Souheil was held for 3 months in 1985 in the same cell as five American men: Terry Anderson, Thomas Sutherland, Benjamin Weir, Marting Jenco, and David Jacobsen.
In 1999, Bachar collaborated with The Atlas Group (a non-profit cultural research foundation based in Lebanon) to produce 53 videotapes about his captivity. Tapes #17 and #31 are the only two tapes Bachar makes available outside of Lebanon. In the tapes, Bachar addresses the cultural, textual, and sexual aspects of his detention with the Americans.

Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige
The Lost Film
2003 | Video | 42′ | Arabic with English/French subtitles
A copy of our first feature film disappeared in Yemen, on the day of the tenth anniversary of the reunification of the North and the South. A year later we are there, following the track of the lost film. An inquiry that takes us from Sana’a to Aden, a personal quest that centers on the image and on our status as filmmakers in this part of the world.

Special Formula:A discussion with the artists will follow the screening of this film.

Special Feature:Because of limited seating, it is advised to book in advance.
Reserved seats will be held until 15 minutes before the event begins.

Entrance: 3 000 LL