August 27 – September 5, 2021
Art, Ecology & The Commons: Together in Agony We Persist is an event organised under the patronage of the Municipality of Sin El Fil, with the support of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), the Institute Francais, the Goethe-Institute Lebanon and Culture Resource (Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy), TAP (Temporary Art Platform) in collaboration with the OtherDada.
These are unprecedented times. We are all fragilized by economic, psychological and social collapses; summoned to continuously question our priorities. However, TAP and the OtherDada are no strangers to these challenges: it is because and in spite of this context of crisis that Art, Ecology and the Commons is more relevant than ever.
This project brings six participants together for ten days of experimental learning and exchange from and on a young forest site in Sin el Fil, Beirut, Lebanon. Punctuated by a series of commissions, public and outreach activities together with individuals, collectives and institutions who share the same values and positioning vis a vis our communities during these times of distress. The program seeks to harness this young forest’s interference and resilience to inspire and bring a community together under circumstances of undeniable agony in a gesture of persistence.
The image of this community, united and speculating on possible tomorrows has been the solace for the project, this energy built the program. Can togetherness be harnessed as a practice?
Site-specific commissions includes installations by artists Charbel Samuel Aoun, Franziska Pierwoss, with a PodPoem commission by Nadim Mishlawi and a billboard intervention by Omar Fakhoury and Christian Zahr; followed by an open-air film of Wild Relatives by Palestinian artist Mujana Manna.
