INTERVIEW. Tania El Khoury, artist and curator with Bochra Triki of the festival who travels between Tunisia, Vienna and Brussels.
Lebanese artist Tania El Khoury examines the universal, never-ending story of migration through a family diary of the borders, and the recognition that the cruelest of borders are invisible to the eye and present in everyday life.
In conversation with live artist Tania El Khoury, we will discuss her art, the role of her audiences, and the political potential of her work: What does it mean to do interactive art? What are the politics of her work? What are the experiences of an Arab feminist artist exhibiting and performing around the world? This conversation is part of a joint CMES Brown University and the Middle East Institute at Columbia University series on gender, art, and body politics in the Middle East and its diasporas. The series examines intersecting inequalities and body politics expressed, represented, and transgressed in both visual and performance art.
For the full article in French, by Marion Boudier:
Based on The Search for Power lecture-performance, this book contains the performance script, designed archival documents, and reflections by the collaborating artist and historian. On a night with a sudden electricity blackout in Beirut, the artist and her historian husband discussed the history of power cuts in Lebanon. Born during the Lebanese Civil War, the artist grew up thinking that the problem of electricity in Lebanon began during the war. The historian, however, recalled finding a government document dated 1952 that announced scheduled power outages across Beirut. The two decided to go on a journey to document the history of blackouts in Lebanon. Most were not accessible. The paper trail led them through archives in five different countries. They reached as far back as 1906 when electricity was first introduced to Beirut. They found a transnational story involving businessmen, politicians, warlords, multinational corporations, and colonial powers. They discovered traces of […]
“This spring, I was invited by TQW magazine to speak to Tania El Khoury and Bochra Triki about their work as curators of the current edition of the Tashweesh festival, taking place in Tunis, Vienna, and Brussels. This edition of the festival started during the pandemic; it included an online retreat for artists late last year that tackled different urgencies women face in the art world and beyond. The following is an edited transcript of our conversation, which offers insights into the festival, its program, as well as the artists’ reflection on their own role as curators, and what one can hope to achieve with an international feminist performance festival today.”
For the full article in French by Joséphine Hobeika, click here.
For the full article in French by Malf Social Club, click here.
Lebanese artist Tania El Khoury is known for her genre-bending interactive live artworks performed in unique spaces and concerned with the ethical and political potential of such encounters. El Khoury discusses her latest micro-theater work, As Far as Isolation Goes (Online), which explores the mental health of asylum seekers through one-on-one zoom performances, as well as other works that redefine the role of the audience as an active participant.
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