This essay highlights and examines a number of works by the artists Samir Khaddaje, Rabih Mroué a... more This essay highlights and examines a number of works by the artists Samir Khaddaje, Rabih Mroué and Lina Saneh that present and represent different forms of embodiment: the body pillar, the body ghost, the body in ruin, and the body battlefield. The inquiries of the artists draw on a number of underlays that characterize the contexts the works stem from, contexts that belong to different periods in time, yet present a number of common characteristics in which violence and silence are dominant. The works converge in both their sharing of the same topos: the body, and in their thinking about the meaning of the individual, the human being. The topos of the body allows them to anchor and exceed any given certitude about the individual, and exposes the fact that it is a reliable site despite, and maybe because of, its ability to encompass paradoxes. Kohl 1.1 | 71 1 I don't refer to the identities of the individuals-men, women, militiamen or citizens-because the works of Khaddaje, Mroué and Saneh undermine such identities. This argument exceeds the scope of the article.
This article discusses how violence, force, and law and order are problematized in the selected a... more This article discusses how violence, force, and law and order are problematized in the selected artworks of the Lebanese contemporary artist Pascal Hachem. The notions Hachem tackles are grounded in his personal experience of daily life in Lebanon. And the subjects of his artworks are related to current issues in Lebanon and the region. Describing and analyzing a selection of artworks, I emphasize the staged workings of violence in law and order. My interpretation of the artworks relies on the theoretical frameworks provided by Jacques Derrida in “Force of Law” and Asef Bayat in Life as politics. They help underline the connection between the concepts of ‘force of law’ and ‘ ordinary life’—exposed in Hachem’s work. The artworks, I argue, deal with both ‘ordinary’ and political issues, and highlight and disclose the similar workings of force in law and order, proposing a critical evaluation of violence. The analysis leads to a rethinking of the question of change in a region that ‘cr...
Haifa Wehbi is a Lebanese singer who started her career as a model. She was the first runner up f... more Haifa Wehbi is a Lebanese singer who started her career as a model. She was the first runner up for Miss Lebanon in 1995. She became known in the Arab world after the release of her first album Huwa al-Zaman (i.e. it is time). In 2006 she was on People magazine’s list of the 50 most beautiful people.
This essay highlights and examines a number of works by the artists Samir Khaddaje, Rabih Mroué a... more This essay highlights and examines a number of works by the artists Samir Khaddaje, Rabih Mroué and Lina Saneh that present and represent different forms of embodiment: the body pillar, the body ghost, the body in ruin, and the body battlefield. The inquiries of the artists draw on a number of underlays that characterize the contexts the works stem from, contexts that belong to different periods in time, yet present a number of common characteristics in which violence and silence are dominant. The works converge in both their sharing of the same topos: the body, and in their thinking about the meaning of the individual, the human being. The topos of the body allows them to anchor and exceed any given certitude about the individual, and exposes the fact that it is a reliable site despite, and maybe because of, its ability to encompass paradoxes. Kohl 1.1 | 71 1 I don't refer to the identities of the individuals-men, women, militiamen or citizens-because the works of Khaddaje, Mroué and Saneh undermine such identities. This argument exceeds the scope of the article.
This article discusses how violence, force, and law and order are problematized in the selected a... more This article discusses how violence, force, and law and order are problematized in the selected artworks of the Lebanese contemporary artist Pascal Hachem. The notions Hachem tackles are grounded in his personal experience of daily life in Lebanon. And the subjects of his artworks are related to current issues in Lebanon and the region. Describing and analyzing a selection of artworks, I emphasize the staged workings of violence in law and order. My interpretation of the artworks relies on the theoretical frameworks provided by Jacques Derrida in “Force of Law” and Asef Bayat in Life as politics. They help underline the connection between the concepts of ‘force of law’ and ‘ ordinary life’—exposed in Hachem’s work. The artworks, I argue, deal with both ‘ordinary’ and political issues, and highlight and disclose the similar workings of force in law and order, proposing a critical evaluation of violence. The analysis leads to a rethinking of the question of change in a region that ‘cr...
Haifa Wehbi is a Lebanese singer who started her career as a model. She was the first runner up f... more Haifa Wehbi is a Lebanese singer who started her career as a model. She was the first runner up for Miss Lebanon in 1995. She became known in the Arab world after the release of her first album Huwa al-Zaman (i.e. it is time). In 2006 she was on People magazine’s list of the 50 most beautiful people.
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