Free admission, limited seating available
In connection with the programming of Documentary location and INA Grand Est, “The book on the screen”.
The round table “Evoking Lebanon in its flesh: crossed perspectives” is a proposal from Stimultania, photography center, co-produced in partnership with the Diagonal Network, with the support of the City of Strasbourg, as part of the inaugural week of Read our world, Strasbourg UNESCO World Book Capital 2024.
To close Stéphane Lagoutte's exhibition, “Lebanon, stratigraphy” in Strasbourg, Stimultania invites Dima Abdallah, author, Farès Chalabi, philosopher, Sirine Fattouh, visual artist and Stéphane Lagoutte, photographer, for a round table around Lebanon. It will be moderated by Yasmine Chemali, director of the Mougins Photography Center and head of the modern and contemporary art collections and manager at the Sursock Museum in Beirut between 2014 and 2020.
Four voices to tell the story of Lebanon. Because it is only a series of marginal stories captured by the camera, sketched from life, filmed during a journey or narrated in a novel. The images are above all those of fragmented and fractured memories. Intimate consequences of conflicts and wars on individuals, these stories compensate for the impossibility of writing an official history. Where the space is not structured, wandering remains, a mode of operation chosen by the four speakers to evoke a country. The round table will offer a space to think about collective memory, commitment, the components of a living culture or even the aesthetics that emerge from it, placing perception and appropriation at the heart of the reflection.
Yasmine Chemali, director of Mougins Photography Center
Having followed training in art history and heritage conservation at the École du Louvre, Yasmine Chemali became responsible for a private collection of photographs from the end of the 2014th century and the beginning of the 2020th century, the Fouad collection. Debbas. She was then appointed head of the modern and contemporary art collections and manager at the Sursock Museum in Beirut between 2020 and XNUMX. In XNUMX, she returned to Mougins to dedicate her know-how and requirements in terms of conservation and management. exhibitions.
Stephane Lagoutte, photographer
After studying Fine Arts, Stéphane Lagoutte turned to documentary photography. From the field of information journalism, on the margins of society, he is mainly interested in the relationship between man and his environment. His photography is multifaceted today: from the press to galleries and museums, he navigates between traditional reporting and conceptual photography. For 10 years Stéphane Lagoutte has been documenting Beirut. In five series, he studies the succession of strata which constitute the contemporary history of Lebanon. And if they seem to mix, the facts are never repeated quite identically. Between memory and current events, the photographer takes new paths. Overprints, enlargements, details, new forms of writing respond to and complement each other to reflect the situation in the country.
Dima Abdallah, author
Born in Beirut in 1977, Dima Abdallah grew up during the civil war before going into exile in France in 1989. She has always written since she was little. She studied art history and archaeology. She has published two novels, Weeds in 2020 which was very noticed, and Midnight blue in 2022, both with Sabine Wespieser publisher.
Dima Abdallah is godmother of Strasbourg UNESCO World Book Capital 2024.
Farès Chalabi, philosopher
Farès Chalabi was born in Beirut in 1977. He obtained a degree in philosophy in 2002 from the Lebanese University and a diploma in architecture in 2004 from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA). He continued his studies in philosophy at Paris 8 where he obtained his Master 2 in 2008 and a doctorate in 2017. Between 2012-2020, he taught philosophy and art history in post-war Lebanon at the American University of Beirut (AUB); directs student work in visual arts and teaches art theory at ALBA; and intervenes as part of the Art Criticism and Curatorship program at Saint-Joseph University (USJ). Today Farès Chalabi teaches philosophy at the Lycée Le Corbusier in Poissy. His lines of thought are inspired by the work of Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault and focus on comparative ontology, image theory and the politics of resistance.
Sirine Fattouh, artist
Artist, researcher and teacher at the École Supérieure d'Art d'Avignon, Sirine Fattouh was born in 1980 in Beirut. The constant displacements due to wars and socio-political conditions have forged in her a feeling of internal exile which leads her to explore her environment in all its complexity and to bring to light the stories of individuals whose voices are marginalized. Fattouh is interested in unofficial stories, those that are considered anecdotal. She draws inspiration from her past and present to explore the complex relationship she has with her home country and the consequences of conflict and war on people's daily lives.
