Associação Cultural Videobrasil

The Art of Reconstruction: Interview to Helio Hara

Hélio Hara: What are your current projects? Could you briefly describe them? 

Akram Zaatari: Now I've just finished the installation of a new exhibition in Portikus in Frankfurt. It is called “Unfolding”, and it is about personal documents of invasions. It has two video pieces. The first is a 1-minute video loop on a series of images I took when I was 16 years old from my parents' balcony in Saida of an Israeli air raid that took place on the first day of the Israeli invasion of south Lebanon in June 6th 1982. The second piece is a single channel version of the work I presented in the Nam June Award exhibition entitled “In This House”, about my attempt to find a letter that was written by Ali Hashisho, a former member of the Lebanese resistance in 1991, and which he buried inside a bomb shell in the garden of the house he and his comrades occupied in Ain el Mir, a village east of Saida. I worked with him to find the house, and went to the owners telling them about it and trying to convince them to dig in their garden. So it is also a work on the archaeology of invasions. I have also just finished the first chapter of my work on Hashem el Madani's photo archive, which opened in the Photographers' Gallery in London in October. This is a work on his studio practices. I have been working on his archive through the Arab Image Foundation since 1999. His work is also in the video that Alex Gabassi did for Videobrasil, because I took him to Madania's studio in Saida. Next, I want to have a little break and work on writing a feature film. 

HO: Some of the subjects your work focuses on (sexuality, change of behaviour, standards) do seem to have to do with a society that changes at a fast pace. Do you think the environment in Lebanon and in other developing countries is indeed more stimulating for artists than in more settled countries? 

AZ: By working on sexuality, social norms, I wanted to talk about the challenges that are faced post-war without talking directly about reconstruction and without talking directly about the war. I do believe that it is an artist's responsibility to bring knowledge about his/her close socio-political environment. In a way it is to write history with a personal voice, to be a witness to certain situations. In developing countries, art might be one of the few means of writing such histories, from that point of view it is stimulating because you feel that the territory around you is in a way (virgin), whereas in countries where access to information, data, history, and alternative histories, is institutionalised, in such a context the artist's challenges have a lesser impact. The reconstruction of Lebanon is certainly a main point of interest for Lebanese artists, although many of them clearly state they wouldn't want to be identified only with that subject. 

HO: Do you think this is a transitional state (like a post-war transition)? What will come next? 

AZ: The reconstruction of Beirut is an issue for most Lebanese artists, although I wouldn't say it is an issue in our work. Reconstruction is not over yet, so we are witnessing a transitional stage - it is true. No one knows what is coming next. I believe the political situation in the region is not clear yet. And I really believe that a coherent evaluation of reconstruction is yet to come. As an artist, I believe that my work is concerned with the many challenges that a post-war society faces, reconstruction among them. Beirut is a city of diversity where new, expensive developments are side by side with old neighbourhoods and traditions. However, it is still very divided (from the airport to the Christian/Muslim neighbourhoods). 

HO: What is the impact of this clear religious division on art and artists? 

AK: Beirut is a very diverse city, luckily, and this is what I enjoy about it. Rich, poor, different religious beliefs, or no religious beliefs - the challenge is how to make all of them cohabit the same space as opposed to segregating them in different parts of the city. Unfortunately this is the case in most of Lebanon now. As happy as I am that the war is over, I fear that war might take place anytime as long as different religious/political groups do not share the same public space. Artists in general, including me, have not focused on the sectarian aspect of Lebanon. It is not something that we avoid, but maybe we haven't found the proper way to deal with it. 

HO: You have been to Brazil more than once. Do you agree with the notion that most developing countries have a lot in common, with many challenges still to come, a certain freedom to take risks? 

AK: Developing countries share belonging to an economic system. Very often we forget that what shapes identities is largely the prevailing economic factors. So from that perspective, we can be similar if we are consumers, if we belong to a certain class, if we survive a war, if we share imprisonment. Of course this can be liberating if people undergoing similar conditions unite, even if they are geographically far from one another, but this remains - I am afraid - a utopian idea that we try to make happen when we travel, when we make connections between, let's say, Brazil and Lebanon. What we are doing here is providing an axis for people to meet on; hopefully things will come from their meeting.

Associação Cultural Videobrasil