Al Riwaq Art Space

During the event, which is organized in collaboration with Mondriaan Foundation, the Lebanese artist will be discussing her practice, focusing in particular on her work “Paris Without a Sea”, the video featured in the exhibition “As the Land Expands”, the international mixed media show which took place at Al Riwaq Art Space on March 2010.

“Paris without a Sea” was one of the most talked about works in the exhibition; the video focuses on Mounira Al Solh’ interviews with a group of men who swim everyday at the beach in Beirut no matter the circumstances: rain, wind, war, etc…The work questions, without really altering it, the status of the interviewer and the interviewed as two different entities.

Questions and answers turn absurd being not based on logical connections and due to both their contents and their fast rhythm. Mounira Al Solh was born in Beirut in 1978. She currently lives and works in Beirut and Amsterdam.

Focusing on her home country of Lebanon, Al Solh has been working on the physical and mental effects of immigration, as well as the country’s socio-political and religious conflicts. Her approach is not strictly realistic but takes on a fictional or even fantastical dimension.

Language and text have a significant importance in her work, with Arabic taking a performative role on which she reflects in various ways, while English is often used simply for narration.