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Infos
On the first weekend of the festival, performance artist Rabih Mroué invites artists and writers to shed light on events in Lebanon both past and present from a range of perspectives. It takes its title from a quotation from a Lebanese activist that was published in a Lebanese newspaper to mark the first anniversary of the October protests. Was this what the activist meant or did the journalist misunderstand her? It suggests that the revolutionaries will inevitably fail but that their moment of capitulation has yet to come. Rabih Mroué calls on us to endure this ambivalence and, along with his guests, to create scope for thinking and discussion about questions old and new, for expression of doubts, fears, ideas and incomplete thoughts.
The first day is centered around lectures and discussions by experts from a wide variety of disciplines. At the second programme day the series of lectures and talks will be continued. Here are all the recordings summarised in a playlist.
Day 1: We cannot determine what will make us surrender
16.00 Uhr Rabih Mroué: Introduction
16.10 Uhr Souhaib Ayoub & Fadi El Abdallah: Look Away to See
The writer and journalist Souhaib Ayoub and the lawyer, poet and music critic Fadi El Abdallah combine to look at their home city of Tripoli – one of the most underestimated cities of the Levant – and attempt to capture its complex and timeless nature.
17.30 Uhr Tarek El-Ariss & Rana Issa: Gender Apocalypse
Starting with the protests in Beirut and other cities that were particularly inspired by queer and feminist activists, Rana Issa and Tarek El-Ariss explore the genesis and the political and cultural potential of queer struggles.
19.30 Uhr Lamia Joreige & Ghada Sayegh: Uncertain Times/The End of the World has Already Occurred
The artist and film-maker Lamia Joreige and the film scholar Ghada Sayegh establish links between Lebanon’s past and the current situation in the country and – almost 100 years after the end of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of the period of the French and British mandate (1913-1920) – ask questions about belonging in the context of wide-reaching geographical, political and social changes.
20.45 Uhr Bu Nasser Touffar & Hello Psychaleppo: Our Music, Need or Duty?
The Lebanese rapper Bu Nasser Touffar aka Naserdine Al Touffar and the Syrian producer and visual artist Samer Saem Eldahr aka Hello Psychaleppo talk about the uniting and healing potential of music in the context of their home countries, Lebanon and Syria.
Day 2: We cannot determine what will make us surrender
1.00 Uhr Introduction Rabih Mroué
11.10 Uhr Jean Kassir & Jamal Saleh: Megaphone News: Disrupting Lebanon’s Media Landscape
Two of its founders talk about the social media platform Megaphone. This has questioned the establishment’s prevailing narratives about the situation in Lebanon since 2017 and was an important voice in the 2019 protests, especially for a younger generation.
12.30 Uhr Khalil Joreige & Joana Hadjithomas: The Postponed Story of Orthosia
The film-makers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige explore the ambivalent status of the Roman city of Orthosia that was rediscovered beneath the ruins of the Palestinian refugee camp Nahr El Bared, which was completely destroyed in 2007 by a terrible war between the Army and a group of Islamists.
