I have lived in Beirut for the past six years. In that relatively short time, I have witnessed the mass protests of the 2019 October Revolution, the impact of COVID-19, Lebanon’s inexorable slide into economic crisis, the Beirut Port blast of 2020 and, most recently, terrorism and war precipitated by Israel’s war on Gaza. Yet, despite the many challenges the country faces, acts of creative resistance against inaction, transgression and violence are deeply embedded in the local artistic landscape.
This urge to respond to the unsettling is a key element in the practice of artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. ‘Remembering the Light’ sees this professional and private partnership return to Beirut for their first solo show since 2012. Comprising a selection of some of their most recognized works of the last ten years and encompassing installation, film, photography and sculpture, the show tackles notions of transmission, resistance, poetics and memory. The artists expose the fragility of historical ‘facts’, depicting them instead as subjective outcomes of complex, collective experiences, frequently influenced by bias, misunderstanding or lack of evidence. Throughout their work they encourage observers to engage with these obscured aspects and to draw new conclusions about our collective history.
The exhibition takes its title from the artists’ 2016 video installation Remembering the Light. The work is split between two screens, one showing five actor-divers, each dressed in distinct colours, descending into the depths of an ocean; another, mirroring this first, depicts a rainbow-hued scarf sinking through the water. Despite this gradual drift into darkness, aspects of light and colour persist – even as the divers’ appearance becomes dimmed and distorted, we still recognize the patterns of their clothing. Slowly, the sea floor reveals a hidden landscape of city ruins: relics of old conflicts, distant and obscured but still present. The work evokes the perilous journeys of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea, pushed by circumstance and rupture, moving towards an uncertain future that nevertheless holds promise.
Displayed near the entrance, the film Palimpsests (2017) follows the process of extracting core samples – cylindrical cross-sections of earth and stone – from construction sites in Beirut, Athens and Paris. Using drone footage as well as microscopic imagery, the video interlaces intense close-ups and fast cuts with long sequences, establishing a dizzying effect and illuminating details the human eye alone cannot perceive. The film explores these raw records of geological and archaeological history, inviting the viewer to reflect on what secrets may lie hidden – literally and metaphorically – beneath their own feet.
Further in, But My Head Is Still Singing (2022) features suspended screens whose cracked glass encases the words and sound waves of poets, both ancient and contemporary. Their grainy, digitalized verses centre around the myth of Orpheus, who, devastated after the death of his wife, Eurydice, was dismembered by maenads as punishment for no longer honouring his patron, the god Dionysus. Stanzas by writers from Ovid to Etel Adnan echo across the gallery space, forming a collective melody that rises from rubble and ruin: just as Orpheus’s severed head continued to sing even after his death, art may provide comfort and continuity in the face of violence.
With ‘Remembering the Light’, Hadjithomas and Joreige aptly demonstrate the probing insight of their research-based approach and the playfulness of their practice, despite its often-serious subject matter. Tragic realities are intertwined with the essential humanity of artistic expression and personal testimonies, allowing for a message of hope. This collection of past works remains extremely current, not only because the questions of agency, perspective and provenance they pose remain unanswered, but because the curiosity and empathy they inspire feel vital to any contemporary reckoning with resilience.
From the Frieze website.
