08 May 2010
Preview
Matthew Mosley
Daily Star staff
BEIRUT: Thinkers throughout history have expounded ideas that we would today think of as utopian, notably Plato in “The Republic.” Utopia as a concept, however, was first put forward by English lawyer and statesman Thomas More in his 1516 book “Of the Best State of Republic and of the New Island Utopia.”
Utopia was derived from a blending of Latin terms. The “u” sound comes from Greek for “not,” while “topia” was the conventional ending for a place name. “Utopia” thus indicates a place that does not exist.
In English, “utopia” is a homonym of “eutopia,” which is derived from the Ancient Greek term “eu,” meaning “good.” A eutopia, then, is a land of goodness. In modern usage, these two lands have become conflated – we tend to use the word “utopia” to indicate a perfect, unattainable, world.
The concept of utopia is stretched and pulled in all manner of directions over the next months as Beirut’s Centre Culturel Francais (CCF) commences its season of “Utopie(s)” (Utopia(s)). A selection of exhibitions, screenings, performances and conferences, the cycle is an exploration of the many ways in which humans have hoped for a better world, or just a different one.
Activities kicked off with the unveiling of a series of artworks in the exhibition space of the CCF. To the right of the entrance, a couple of television screens and a wall text form Rabih Mroueh’s installation “I, the Undersigned.”
One screen shows a static shot of Mroue’s face and shoulders in the manner of a passport photo or a mug shot. Occasionally his glance flickers to one side or other, the movement of his face leaving a slight trail of superimposed images.
Mostly, though, Mroue stares straight at the viewer, unsmiling. Another screen positioned just above presents the (French) text of a series of apologies relating to misdemeanors in art and war.
“I apologize for what I have done during the Lebanese war, whether in the name of Lebanon or Arabness or the Cause,” he says. “… I apologize because I fired bullets toward the sky in glee over Brazil’s victory over Germany … I apologize for presenting this apology in a medium that I almost ignore.”
A wall-text alongside the exhibit explains Mroue’s intention. Since the end of Lebanon’s Civil War, he explains, no-one has presented any kind of public apology for their actions, with the exception of Asaad Shaftari.
“Like many Lebanese citizens,” writes Mroue, “I have waited for apologies from many of those responsible but in fact nothing appeared. This is why I decided to make this step and apologize for what I had committed during the Civil War.”
Mroue’s is a modest utopia: He merely wants people to own up to what they have done. Perhaps, though, contemporary political realities make this suggestion as unrealistic as Plato’s ideal society.
A black cubicle alongside houses a somewhat more transcendent video work from Mroue: “Utopia-Dystopia.” Projected onto the floor of the cubicle, the video shows the decimation of a Downtown building as it crumbles, collapses and disappears in a cloud of dust.
The sequence is played and reversed at irregular intervals: The top begins to topple and fall, then clambers back up. Then once more the building begins to fall, collapses completely, then backtracks a little.
At one thrilling point, the dust-cloud is sucked back into the building’s belly as it climbs back up to its original position in one fell swoop.
“Utopia-Dystopia” plays into the general despair over the systematic destruction of Beirut’s architectural heritage. One reading for this video, therefore, is that utopia might be easily achieved but for the dogged tendency of humanity to do the exact opposite.
Another exhibit – Bernard Khoury’s “Evolving Scars” – deals with architecture but this time the link to utopia is a little more difficult to discern. A series of photographs show a scale model of a building as it is destroyed according to Khoury’s special design.
“In 1991, as the newly proposed plan for the re-habilitation and re-construction of the Beirut Central District was being implemented,” says Khoury, the architect of such landmark structures as the BO18 nightclub. “We proposed to turn the process of demolition of war-damaged buildings ... into a collective architectural experiment.”
His idea was to encase the building in a transparent skin with another inside, so that the building collapses in between the two layers, in a manner vaguely akin to the hugger-mugger bricks trapped behind the wire façade of the Future television studios in Qantari.
In the last photograph, however, even the transparent facades are destroyed. The aim, it seems, was not to preserve these buildings but to involve them in “an ephemeral architectural act.”
Buildings are a preoccupation of various exhibitors, including Claude Closky’s “Construction,” a video screen showing an ever-changing structure, and Nocolas Moulin’s sci-fi-esque “Warmdemar,” showing a man running around a vast concrete structure that seems to fall more on the dystopian end of the spectrum.
There’s also an opportunity to see “The Lost Film” by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige – a journey through contemporary Yemen.
The opening saw a showing of Xavier Giannoli’s 2009 motion picture “From the Beginning.” There are several more films to come, including Philippe Garrel’s “Everyday Lovers” on May 18, following several students during the Paris riots of the 1960s, and Eric Rohmer’s pastoral tale “The Romance of Astrea and Celadon” on May 25. Both are subtitled in English.
Polymath Michel Elefteriades, who claims Emperorship of “Nowheristan” as one of the many strings to his bow, will give a talk titled “Nowheristan: Utopia of Today, Reality of Tomorrow” on May 11. Given carte blanche to choose a film to follow his lecture, Eleteriades has selected Enki Bilal’s “Bunker Palace Hotel.”
As part of the season, Metropolis cinema will screen a retrospective of the films of French master Jacques Tati.
“Utopie(s)” ends on June 4 with a lecture from hedonist philosopher Michel Onfray: “Do Utopias really exist?” He returns to the original tension between “utopia” and “eutopia” to question the place of utopia in contemporary philosophy.
“Utoie(s)” continues until June 4. For further details, visit www.ccf-liban.org or call +961 1 420 230.
Copyright The Daily Star 2010.
