Fouad Elkhoury

In conjunction with the Fouad Elkoury’s solo exhibition be…longing, Beirut art center is screening two video works by the artist, jours tranquilles en Palestine and welcome to Beirut.

Jours tranquilles en Palestine (13’, 1998, French, Arabic subtitles) of Palestine, we know the violence and the suffering. This film tells another story: the story of a pre-Israeli society happily living on its land. Using old photographs found by the Arab image foundation and the voice of five women who were born in Palestine before 1948, the film recalls ordinary moments of life. With the voices of: Leila Shahid, Jumana Husseini, Lena Saleh, Aida Shehade, Nabila Nashashibi

Welcome to Beirut (45′, 2005, French – Arabic, English subtitles) welcome to Beirut is about daily life: driving in the city, going to the hairdresser, discussions with the grocer, visiting a motor show, a wax museum, dining out… it is a driven promenade inside the city with a few open windows through which to peep in. more ironic than sarcastic, the film reveals the state of mind of a certain Lebanese society, a direct consequence of the atlas syndrome: when one opens a European atlas of the world, Lebanon is in the middle but also in the crack, central yet invisible.