The Search for Power at Kyoto Experiment 2025

Have you heard about Lebanon’s many decades of electricity crisis and its political implications? The Lebanese state only supplies electricity for a few hours per day and the population resorts to individual and collective solutions. The situation has only worsened with the economic collapse of 2020 and the recent Israeli war on Lebanon.

Tania El Khoury, an artist born during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90), is married to historian Ziad Abu-Rish, who researched Lebanon’s state institutions and popular politics. On a night of a power blackout, the two embarked on a project to uncover the roots of this issue. In this work, El Khoury and Abu-Rish—who describe themselves as “another couple who is into solving mysteries”—reveal their findings in the form of an interactive lecture-performance.

The participants are led to an evening of celebration, and provided with various archival and official documents collected from several countries, including some that have been previously concealed. These form the traces of the dark history behind Lebanon’s electricity infrastructure: financial ploys and hegemonic battles among former and aspiring colonial powers. As the audience members themselves examine each document by hand, they also become the inheritors of this “new history.” The venue will be left as an installation after the performances, and open to the public.