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Sunday, May 2, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
The Amsterdam Show! Join me!
From tomorrow, the 10th, until the 27th March I will exhibit at the KijkRuimte a video installation about the Green Monster in Beirut. On the 12th at 20h00, you are very welcome to see the screening of the film's first draft and participate on a debate after. Lebanese food and drinks will be available, making possible to actually BE in Beirut!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Photos from Hamra
Monday the 17th October 2009 at Hamra Street, around 17h00. The Green Monster walks out on one of the most popular streets of Beirut on a crowded late-summer Monday.
The press was there, here some photos.
The press was there, here some photos.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Prelude
Percival learned he should not ask questions. A true knight wouldn’t have to ask them, as the answers would come to him naturally. Patience and the taming of curiosity where highly regarded virtues.
Percival doesn’t know he has a gift that allows him to access the Holy Grail. Only him can see it. But can he understand it? He enters the castle of the Fisher King. He sees the King is wounded and that the all country is suffering with him. Percival is hurt inside, he feels compassion for the sufferers and he’s aching to ask “why?” - but he learned a knight asks no questions. So he fails to do the only thing that would heal the King and the all country (not to mention, allowing him to get the Holy Grail…)
Can you see a Green Monster walking on the streets? Are you curious about it? How far will you go to ignore it? Are you so much into avoiding the fellow passer by that you even missed a large furry green thing walking beside you? Is it possible to check the Percivalism of a society by watching how it reacts to the Green Monster’s soft provocation?
Percival doesn’t know he has a gift that allows him to access the Holy Grail. Only him can see it. But can he understand it? He enters the castle of the Fisher King. He sees the King is wounded and that the all country is suffering with him. Percival is hurt inside, he feels compassion for the sufferers and he’s aching to ask “why?” - but he learned a knight asks no questions. So he fails to do the only thing that would heal the King and the all country (not to mention, allowing him to get the Holy Grail…)
Can you see a Green Monster walking on the streets? Are you curious about it? How far will you go to ignore it? Are you so much into avoiding the fellow passer by that you even missed a large furry green thing walking beside you? Is it possible to check the Percivalism of a society by watching how it reacts to the Green Monster’s soft provocation?
Me & the Monsters
The idea for this project came to me when sitting at a table in Beirut with four Lebanese friends: one was Sunni, another Maronite, a third Shi’a and the fourth Greek Orthodox. It struck me that, though we all were friends and collaborative artists, they all belonged to different religious groups. The implications of this fact go very far, as I learned. In my “laic western mind” I could hardly believe that, for instance, in case of conflict, all of them would take refuge in completely different areas of the city/country. They would probably not communicate with each other until “normality” would come back. Still, there we were, laughing around the same table. Faced with this paradox, these questions came to my mind:
- How "really" real are these differences?
- And where do I belong? Which group would take me in?
If for a western woman (a tourist) these would be relatively easy questions to answer, what about a Green Monster? What about a total “alien"?
A few months later I asked my friends what did they think of this idea.
I refreshed their memories on that evening in Beirut, and how special it was for me.
Rima replied that in fact they themselves are a sort of Green Monster too in their communities.
They cross borders, they drink with the "enemy", they don't mind the gap... and then suddenly I had this vision of me sitting at a table with them, my FOUR GREEN MONSTERS!
I grabbed a green paper (where are colored pencils when you need one?) and sketched this:
But somehow this wasn't it yet...
I decided to ask somebody more capable to depict my imagination.
And so, brilliantly, Lucy Pepper did:
- How "really" real are these differences?
- And where do I belong? Which group would take me in?
If for a western woman (a tourist) these would be relatively easy questions to answer, what about a Green Monster? What about a total “alien"?
A few months later I asked my friends what did they think of this idea.
I refreshed their memories on that evening in Beirut, and how special it was for me.
Rima replied that in fact they themselves are a sort of Green Monster too in their communities.
They cross borders, they drink with the "enemy", they don't mind the gap... and then suddenly I had this vision of me sitting at a table with them, my FOUR GREEN MONSTERS!
I grabbed a green paper (where are colored pencils when you need one?) and sketched this:
But somehow this wasn't it yet...
I decided to ask somebody more capable to depict my imagination.
And so, brilliantly, Lucy Pepper did:
Four Green Monsters and a girl at a table in Beirut.
:)
:)
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