I’M THERE EVEN IF YOU DON’T SEE ME
Courtesy of the artists.
September 1 – October 10, 2009
Curator: Michèle Thériault
The work Circle of Confusion is produced and presented by the Gallery and Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, as part of the exhibition I’m there even if you don’t see me.
Exhibition Opening
Tuesday March 31, 5:30 – 7:30 pm
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige belong to a generation of artists, filmmakers, writers and intellectuals who have contributed to the rebirth of artistic culture in Beirut after 15 years of civil wars in a country that is still subject to profound instability. This first major exhibition in Canada presents key works such as Circle of Confusion (1997) and Khiam 2000-2007 (1999-2007) as well as recent pieces such as War Trophies (2006-2007) and Faces (2009) that have not been previously presented in North America.
Latency is one of the concerns that informs their practice, whether it be their films, videos, photographs, or indeed the texts and narratives they write. It suggests what cannot be fully present, restored, recovered or known, as if something is lying dormant and can potentially be awakened; it is the reminiscence of an image, of knowledge that is difficult to grasp. It also implies a quest, a continual search in which both artists and viewers participate. The works in this exhibition represent this quest’s beginning, its process and its materialization.
This notion of latency is informed by Lebanon’s recent History, its violence and destructiveness and the infinite complexity of its conflicts and their consequences. Hadjithomas and Joreige do not attempt to write that History, but rather to resist its totalizing forces by sounding its hidden, ignored, forgotten, secret or unclassifiable aspects so as to question it and explore “what divides the world today.”
The diverse modes of presentation and representation of the image in their work is based on the use of the document (archival, popular or family) and fiction that does not place them in opposition to each other but rather examines their capacity to generate a discourse that questions the image by blurring their boundaries. This encounter sharpens the viewer’s vision and mind.
The exhibition is an opportunity to come to terms with a practice that creates a series of narratives that attempt to displace one’s gaze and understanding, to share questions, to seek out “moments of truth.”
Born in Beirut in 1969, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige have collaborated as filmmakers, writers and artists for over 15 years. Their work has been shown extensively in film festivals, art galleries and museums throughout the world. This summer, they were invited to present their work as part of the Festival d’Avignon.
The 11th edition of Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal is titled The Spaces of the Image and explores the questions of mechanisms and staging; due to the range of possibilities, photographers are increasingly called upon to become aware of their relationship with the exhibition. Production methods and viewing modalities, as integral parts of projects, exert a direct influence on the aesthetic of images. Gaëlle Morel, guest curator.
The Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery’s contemporary exhibition program is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.