The work weaves together elements of film, magic and the changing landscape of southern Lebanon, investigating the motivations and implications of the disappearance of a famous magician and ventriloquist named Chico, whom the artist helped as a child. The pair would visit villages, performing illusion numbers for the region’s children. Concurrently we see the emergence of monumental geometric sculptures of vertical and futuristic shapes, as if heralding a future time. Situated at city outskirts or entrances, close to valleys and mountains and in public squares, they pierce the rural and urban fabric. From this composition, the work relates the magical universe of childhood to the ideological and religious systems conceived by political parties and by the national state.
