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My work is on a double edge sword.

 

I can say the following: if there was no war, I would never have been able to meet so many new faces coming from Syria to settle in Lebanon for a year or two or until often they find a better place to go.

 

Through drawings and texts, I plan to give a hint about the lives of those who have had to flee Syria to settle in Lebanon or in other countries; both those with legal documents as well as those who have entered illegally. Through my drawings, I am confirming their temporary status, and their simultaneously precarious and enriching presence around us in Lebanon. Thus, I am documenting many diverse faces and voices. The drawings will be transformed into embroidered portraits at a later stage.  

Au cours des douze prochains mois, je compte rencontrer des personnes provenant de la Syrie, en organisant des brunchs d'accueil pour eux et en mettant ainsi en contact ceux qui sont intéressés par certaines associations et les populations locales intéressantes. Je vais documenter ces réunions, ainsi que le processus de rassemblement du matériel, afin de tirer dans les prochaines années les portraits de 1000 personnes qui ont récemment fui la Syrie. Le processus de recherche inclura également la collecte de matériel et de statistiques relatives au statut des réfugiés de façon plus générale.

 

Beaucoup de gens que j'avais rencontré au Liban en 2013 et 2014, et dont j'avais fait les portraits, se sont maintenant déplacés vers d'autres pays, principalement en tant que réfugiés. La prochaine phase du projet consiste à les rencontrer de nouveau en Europe ou dans d'autres pays arabes où ils ont tenté de s'installer. Plus tard, je pourrais travailler avec des groupes de femmes ou des groupes mixtes pour terminer les broderies.

 

Le budget de KLF sera dédié à la facilitation des réunions au cours desquelles les séances de dessins auront lieu, dans le but de produire 150 dessins.

 

Enfin, je vais travailler avec diverses associations et organisations, et d'autres bailleurs de fonds pour être en mesure de faire 1000 croquis dans les années à venir.

 

Ce projet est également financé par YATF et est actuellement à la recherche d'un financement supplémentaire pour être réalisé.

About the artist

Mounira Al Solh's visual practice embraces video, painting, embroidery and performance. Integration of social and political themes grounded in daily life are reflected in research, as well as in production and presentation of work and in the role of the investigative organizer Mounira has. Al Solh's art aspires to ask large questions in small places, operating according to Ginzburg's notion of microhistory. Humor is surprisingly an integral part of the artist's work, concealing trauma in laughter as a way to process it.

As the editor of NOA (Not Only Arabic) magazine, a performative gesture co-edited with collaborators such as Jacques Aswad and Mona Abu Rayyan, and of NOA language school (with Angela Serino), Al Solh examines topics such as treason, arrest, fragmentation of language and schizophrenia in dialogue with artists and writers.

Her work has been displayed in exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut; Kunsthalle Lisbon, Portugal; Art in General, New York; Lebanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennial; Homeworks, Beirut; The New Museum, New York; Haus Der Kunst, Munich; Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain; The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai; Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Al Riwaq Art Space, Manama, Bahrain; Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin and the 11th International Istanbul Biennial.

In 2003 she was awarded the Kentertainment Painting Prize in Lebanon and her video Rawane's Song received the 2007 jury prize at VideoBrasil. She is Uriot Prize winner at the Rijksakademie, and was nominated for the Volkskrant Award in the Netherlands in 2009. Most recently she has been shortlisted for the Abraaj Group Art Prize, 2015.

Mounira Al Solh studied painting at the Lebanese University in Beirut (LB), and Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (NL), where she was also research resident at the Rijksakademie in 2007 and 2008.

Al Solh teaches as a guest in various art schools in the Netherlands and in Beirut, and she is represented by Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut & Hamburg. She lives and works between Amsterdam and Beirut.


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