Aufgrund eines Krankheitsfalles zeigen wir anstelle von Ode to joy eine Trilogie von Rabih Mroué.
Rabih Mroué, a key figure in a new generation of artistic voices in Lebanon, has created a complex oeuvre spanning different disciplines and formats between theatre, performance and visual arts. He addresses the immediate reality of issues that have been swept under the rug in the current political climate of Lebanon, relating to the enduring consequences of the Lebanese Civil War and recent political events. Both fiction and in-depth analysis are among the tools Mroué uses to explore the responsibilities of the artist in communicating with an audience in specific political and cultural contexts.
Rabih Mroué will perform three of his highly acclaimed "non-academic lectures": On Three Posters, Inhabitants of Images(short versions) and Pixelated Revolution (original version). Trilogy highlights the critical intensity with which Mroué inquires into the processes of constructing and distributing visual documents in contemporary Lebanon and the Middle East. His semi-documentary theatre explores the politics of representation by projecting found materials – photographs and videos – on the cinema screen and sketching possible counter-narratives. Staged as live investigations not only into official representation but also his own form of representation, Mroué’s lectures question the ability of objects, images, words and sounds to bear witness to the complex layered realities of Lebanon society, let alone global politics and war. Recognizing that our actions are affected and conditioned by the way we interpret, order and depict knowledge, he puts forward instruments of critique for engaging with images and histories: what happens when we become involved, implicated in the process, when we inhabit images and narratives, becoming part of situations, reading and writing them at the same time?
On Three Posters (2004)
On Three Posters is based on found footage of video testimony recorded by members of the Lebanese Communist Party prior to embarking on their suicide missions. Shortly before his death in 1985, Jamal Salti, a suicide bomber fighting the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon (1982 - 2000), rehearsed his video testimony in three takes that show only minor differences. This is the point of departure for thoughts on the tension between fundamental human traits and the heroic representation of martyrdom. Mroué’s analysis focuses on a moment of hesitation in one of the unused takes and reveals how the reception of this work has shifted in a post-9/11 geopolitical landscape since its original performance as Three Posters with Elias Khoury in the year 2000.
PRODUKTION: Ashkal Alwan / Beirut.
ÜBERSETZUNG: Mona Abuo Rayyan.
Inhabitants of Images (2008)
Inhabitants of Images analyzes instances of manipulating images for political ends in Lebanon. Among the analyzed images are street posters of Hezbollah martyrs, seen all over the city of Beirut Mroué deconstructs the visual motives, symbols, composition and design of the posters to reflect on their symbolic significance and their attempt to shape the political, militant and religious mindset of the local community.
KOPRODUKTION:Tanzquartier-Wien, Bidoun magazine, and Ashkal Alwan / Beirut.
ÜBERSETZUNG: Ziad Nawfal.
Pixelated Revolution (2010)
Pixelated Revolution addresses the viral impact of mobile phones and social media on information and mobilization in the recent devastating Syrian revolts. Mroué has re-edited, re-framed and re-contextualized a selection of found video materials of clashes and confrontations, shot and posted on the internet by insurgents, in order to highlight not only the deteriorating situation in the region, but also the unsettling, unprecedented enmeshment of political activism, filmic strategies, the fragility of the human body and popular technology in the reality of war.
KOPRODUKTION: Berlin Documentary Forum – HKW/ Berlin, dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel and The 2010 Spalding gray Award (Performing Space 122 in New York, The Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburg, On the Boards in Seattle and the Walker art Center in Minneapolis).
ÜBERSETZUNG: Ziad Nawfal
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Rabih Mroué dankt: Lina Saneh, Elias Khoury, Tony Chakar, Jalal Toufic, Sarmad Louis, Hito Steyerl, Elia Suleiman, Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas, Walid Raad, Bilal Khbeiz, Yousef Tohme, Paul Khodr, Christine Tohme, Manal Khader, Ziad Nawfal, Bernard Khoury, Stefan Tarnowski, Feyrouz Serhal, Raseel Hadjian and Jowe Harfouche.
Weiteren Dank an Berlin Documentary Forum (BDF) – HKW, Berlin, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut Art Center.
Rabih Mroué, geboren 1967 in Beirut, ist Schauspieler, Regisseur, Autor und libanesischen Gegenwartskünstler. Er ist außerdem Herausgeber der libanesischen Zeitschriften Kalamon und The Drama Review, sowie Mitbegründer und Vorstandsmitglied der Beirut Art Center Association (BAC). Rabih Mroué arbeitet an der Schnittstelle von Performance und Bildender Kunst. In seinen Performances beschäftigt er sich mit der politischen Situation im Libanon, verbindet oft alltägliche, reale Materialien mit fiktiver Erzählung, die er als Autor selbst erarbeitet und für seine Performances schreibt. Eine regelmäßige Zusammenarbeit verbindet ihn mit Lina Majdalanie. Seine Perfomances, u.a. The Inhabitants of Images (2008), Photo-Romance (2009), 33 Rounds and a few seconds (2012) sowie zuletzt Riding on a cloud (2014) sind an Theatern und Festivals vertreten. Seine Arbeit The Pixelated Revolution(2012) war bei der Documenta 13 zu sehen. 2016 eröffnete er die Wiesbaden Biennale mit seinem Stück So little time.