The Lebanese artist, who has had a retrospective show during the 14th Festival, discusses his collaboration with Associação Cultural Videobrasil, and his piece The End of Time. He recounts the experience of working with actors and a predetermined script, which he calls a “choreography for three dancers.” He discusses problems with nudity and the representation of sex in his region, the Middle East, but also globally. He defines passion – the key subject of his video – as baring oneself to the other. He also reveals two major influences on his piece: François Truffaut’s film La Femme d`à Côté, a portrayal of how the individual collapses when unable to express what his/her body is feeling; and Breathing In/Breathing Out, a performance by Marina Abramovic that explores the intensity of the desire to see oneself bonded with the other. Departing from a purely individual sphere, Zaatari regards desire as the foundation to the archive, the collection, and the museum, for deep down, the urge to conserve, even commonplace objects, is the drive to try and preserve love, fleeting by definition, and life, doomed to fade away.
- More about Akram Zaatari in Collection
- Further info on The End of Time in Collection