Hadjithomas & Joreige
Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige. On their show in Beirut, with projects from 1997 to 2012. Beirut Exhibition Center, until 20 April 2012.
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The President’s Album, 2011
32 digital prints, folded and mounted on wood
800 x 120 cm each
Co-produced by the 10th Sharjah Biennale, 2011
Sharjah Art Foundation Collection
Lebanese Rocket Society: Elements for a Monument, the newest of the presented artworks, focuses on a special historical moment, unfolding it in a complex constellation embracing its manifold repercussions: it concerns an almost forgotten project undertaken by a group of researchers at the Armenian Haigazian University in the 1960s. While Americans and Russians were engaged in their frenzy space race, these Lebanese scientists created the first rocket in the Arab world. The scientists were dreaming of exploring outer space, however, the subsequent involvement of the army introduced a certain ambiguity as a rocket can also possibly be used as weapon. This project appears to the artists as a prism, reflecting at the same time the quest by a small group for scientific progress, the quasi-romantic dreams of liberty, the tense political situation of the cold war, and the emerging ideologies in the Arab world.
© Photo: Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige
Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige. On their show in Beirut, with projects from 1997 to 2012. Beirut Exhibition Center, until 20 April 2012.