{"id":76330,"date":"2025-08-17T12:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T12:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/76330\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T12:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T12:29:10","slug":"from-street-to-gallery-fathima-mohiuddin-reimagines-space-in-isharas-no-trespassing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/76330\/","title":{"rendered":"From street to gallery: Fathima Mohiuddin reimagines space in Ishara\u2019s \u2018No Trespassing\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige on their latest exhibition \u2018Remembering the Light\u2019\u00a0\n <\/p>\n


\n\tDUBAI: \u201cWe\u2019ve been working a lot on questioning the writing of history in Lebanon \u2014 and elsewhere; the construction of imaginaries and stories kept secret,\u201d says Lebanese artist and filmmaker Joana Hadjithomas.<\/p>\n


\n\tIn \u201cRemembering the Light,\u201d their solo exhibition which runs at Beirut\u2019s Sursock Museum until September 4, Hadjithomas and her husband and creative partner Khalil Joreige present a collection of works that gather their wide-ranging influences and interests. Not just hidden histories \u2014 such as those revealed in the video installation \u201cRemember the Light,\u201d from which the show takes its title and in which divers head into the depths of the sea of Lebanon\u2019s coast, drifting down past tanks, ships, and artifacts from ancient civilizations \u2014 but the power and necessity of art in troubled times, the cyclical nature of time, regeneration from chaos, and much more. It is also, as the title suggests, a show filled with hope, even though the bulk of the works on display were created at a time when hope was in short supply in Lebanon.<\/p>\n


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\n\t\tJoana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. (Supplied) <\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cBut My Head Is Still Singing,\u201d the sixth work in their series \u201cI Stared At Beauty So Much\u201d \u2014\u00a0one of three main bodies of work around which the exhibition is based \u2014 is a prime example. It\u2019s an installation in which looped videos are projected onto two screens made from layers of broken and salvaged glass. Glass from the duo\u2019s studio and apartment, both of which were devastated by the explosion in the Port of Beirut in 2020.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe wanted to transform the glass into something,\u201d says Hadjithomas. \u201cAfter the blast, it was very difficult to produce art\u2026 There was this question. \u2018What for? How can art help with all this?\u2019 And we thought about the figure of Orpheus (from Greek mythology), saddened by the loss of (his lover) Eurydice. He was dismembered by the maenads, but his head still kept singing. So, we brought together some friends, and we recited some verses from several poets (poetry and poets, she says later, can \u201ccounter chaos\u201d) that refer to Orpheus. Even though our voices were exhausted, we were still singing, in a way. So you hear the voices and you can see some of the words on the screen.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tCollaboration such as this is key to the duo\u2019s work (\u201cWe like to see through the eyes of others,\u201d Hadjithomas says). Take the divers in \u201cRemember the Light,\u201d for example. That video, Joreige explains, is \u201cabout the feeling we have sometimes that our world is shrinking \u2014 losing some variation of color and the possibility of light, and we have to find it. The more you go down in water, the more the water will filter the light and you\u2019ll lose the colors. But if you put a light here, all the color will reappear, and when you remove the light, the plankton remember the light and refract its luminescence.\u201d It is, Hadjithomas adds, \u201ca (reminder) to remember the light, even in times of despair.\u201d<\/p>\n


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\n\t\tMessage with(out) a code, 2022 Close-up, tapestries, different kind of yarn. (Supplied) <\/p>\n


\n\tCollaboration is also central to their ongoing \u201cUncomformities\u201d project, another of the show\u2019s major bodies of work, and one which won the duo France\u2019s most significant contemporary art prize in 2017. The works in the project \u2014\u00a0including \u201cPalimpsests,\u201d \u201cTime Capsules,\u201d \u201cMessage With(out) A Code,\u201d and \u201cBlow Up\u201d \u2014 are based around their fascination with what lies hidden beneath our feet, particularly in three cities: Athens, Paris, and Beirut. The project was inspired by core samples taken by geologists and archeologists \u2014 which show the layers of stratification in the earth and can be \u201cread\u201d by experts.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe fact that these things were taking us into really deep time was very interesting,\u201d says Hadjithomas. \u201cArcheologists talk about the way things are always changing and evolving. And at the moment like the one we are living, understanding that after disasters there\u2019s always a regeneration is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMost of the time, when you imagine sedimentation (in the earth), you think of a stratification that is linear,\u201d Joreige says. \u201cBut what we discovered with archeology is that when you dig, what is old moves up, and what is new moves down \u2026 you are recycling, redoing, regenerating. You are using the traces of civilizations to build new ones.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThat\u2019s apparent in \u201cTime Capsules,\u201d an installation that includes three large tubes of core samples taken from the area around the Sursock Museum, and which include traces of the tsunami that occurred following the Beirut Earthquake of 551 CE, killing tens of thousands.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe undergrounds of cities help us understand the way histories are always cycles of construction and destruction and regeneration,\u201d says Hadjithomas. \u201cAnd this movement of deep time and history can help us when we are in situations (like today).\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cUnconformities\u201d also includes \u201cMessage With(out) A Code,\u201d a collection of tapestries based on large photographs the pair had collected of archeological traces from digs, woven in such a way that they appear three-dimensional, even though they are not.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe were fascinated by these samples,\u201d says Hadjithomas. \u201cWe started taking pictures of them, but without really knowing what they were.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe weren\u2019t really able to understand what we were seeing. Like, you think you\u2019re looking at stone, but actually you\u2019re looking at teeth. You always need the eyes of others,\u201d Joreige says, once again highlighting the benefits of their collaborative process, in this case working with archeologists.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhile it\u2019s clear that the duo\u2019s work would not be what it is without the input of others, perhaps the most significant factor in all of it is their own natural curiosity. When they come across an object that most of us would discard, their instinct is to ask instead: \u201cWhy is this here and what can we learn from it?\u201d They might keep that object for years before they figure out how to turn it into art, but inevitably they do. And with \u201cRemembering the Light,\u201d they hope once again to spark that same curiosity in others.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe are trying to reveal a certain complexity,\u201d says Joreige. \u201cSometimes you can\u2019t explain because there\u2019s nothing to explain. There\u2019s no easy answer. But (for visitors), we hope that an encounter will occur. We want to share this moment of experiencing something uncommon.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe take people with us on a journey to experience and to share knowledge, share emotions and research. For me, it\u2019s not about understanding everything, but to have, like, an impression,\u201d Hadjithomas adds. \u201cYou just have to feel something, then understand more if you want. There\u2019s a lot of layers. And you can dig as much as you want.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige on their latest exhibition \u2018Remembering the Light\u2019\u00a0 DUBAI: \u201cWe\u2019ve been working a lot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-76330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}