Lamia Joreige
Uncertain Times - Montage series #4 and #9 | 2022
Mixed Media on paper.
The project "Uncertain Times" involves the research, writing and production of a body of work covering the period between the end of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of the French and English mandate in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine (-1914 1920). The Sykes-Picot Agreement, the Balfour Declaration, as well as the First World War and the famine of Mount Lebanon, which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, led to a geographic, social and political transformation of this region, and had major consequences that still impact our lives today.
It is precisely today’s feeling of anxiety and uncertainty in our region, which triggered the artist’s interest in looking back at this turning point in history — a moment of rupture, of fragmentation and creation at once.
In this series the artist assembles drawings and writings of selected archival documents and photographs from the WWI period in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.
The drawings are based on film stills from the Imperial War Museum archive; photographs from Fouad Debbas Collection at Sursock Museum, the American University of Beirut/Library Archives and Special Collections; The Arab Image Foundation (Collection and Photograph by Dr. Eugène Cottard); Saleh Turjman collection; the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. (Jerusalem in 1915 & Silk factories - Copyright by
Underwood & Underwood.) as well as online sources.
The documents are selected from Baskanlik Osmanli Arsivi, Istanbul (Ottoman documents); The Institute for Palestine Studies (excerpt from the diary of Ihsan Turjman), Linda Jacobs (The diary of her Grandmother Kate Milkie) and Ishac Diwan (Letter to Ishac Diwan from his brother Jacob, Aleppo August ,25, 1914). Rare Map of Ottoman Lebanon During World War I, circa 1911 was originally published by Foster, Zachary.
Reference LJ-WP-2022-S
Biography of the artist
Born in Beirut. 1972
Works and Lives in Beirut
Lamia Joreige is a visual artist and filmmaker. She earned her BFA in 1995 from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she studied painting and filmmaking. She uses archival documents and elements of fiction to reflect on history and its narration, and the relation between individual stories and collective memory. Her work explores the possibility of representation of the Lebanese wars and their aftermath in Beirut, and centers on Time: the recording of its trace and its effects on us.
Joreige has written, directed and produced works ranging from short essay films and one feature narrative, to multimedia installations, as well as drawings and sculptures. A first monograph: In 2018, her first monograph, ‘Lamia Joreige: Works 1994-2017’ was published by Kaph Books. ‘Records for Uncertain Times’ was published by Taymour Grahne Gallery in 2015. She is also the author of ‘Under-Writing Beirut —Mathaf’ (2013) 'Time and the Other' (2004) and 'Ici et peut-être ailleurs' (2003), and has contributed to numerous panels and publications among which : TDR, Apexart, Sarai Reader, Art Journal, Art Forum, Livraison and Camera Austria.
Joreige was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for advanced studies at Harvard University for the year 2016-2017. She was shortlisted for Artes Mundi 7, the United Kingdom’s leading biennial art prize and was awarded the Amore & Psiche award for best film at Medfilm festival, Rome in 2015. She is a cofounder and board member of Beirut Art Center, which she codirected from 2009 to 2014.
The artist’s work has been presented in prominent global institutions, biennials and festivals including: Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino; MAXXI, Rome; Venice biennial; Harvard University’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the International Center of Photography, the New Museum and Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York; Centre Pompidou and 104, Paris, Nicéphore Niépce Museum; FID Marseille; Tate Modern and The Serpentine Gallery, London; Liverpool Biennial, Cardiff National Museum; Modern Art Oxford; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; Seville Biennial; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Townhouse gallery, Cairo, Sharjah Biennial, UAE; Mathaf, Qatar ; and in Beirut, Marfa’ gallery, Homeworks (Ashkal Alwan), Festival du film Libanais and Beirut Cinema Days.
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