This Is Not Lebanon
Festival for Visual Arts, Performance, Music and Talks

Lily Abichahine: Exquisite Corpse
Who decides on life after death? In ‘Exquisite Corpse’ the performer and lawyer Lily Abichahine tells the story of one Lebanese family: after the father’s death his son decides to have the body mummified to allow future generations to have contact with him. Is this a sign of affection or a liability? An almost irresolvable dispute develops between different members of the family which Abichahine describes from the perspective of the lawyer of the family. Entirely in keeping with the motto ‘the personal is political’, the microcosm of this family story provides interesting insights into Lebanese society. Where art meets the law different political and ethical approaches come into play, as does the question: on what temporal, spatial and emotional levels are the effects of the patriarchy felt?
 
 
Noor Abed & Mark Lotfy: Yours Truly [work in progress]

With their multimedia lecture-performance the artist Noor Abed and the film-maker Mark Lotfy share a first public reflection on their three-year research on the private U.S. military engagement in the Middle East. The project uses the example of a Palestinian working as a contractor in an American Private Military Company in Iraq, training the Iraqi Army on weapons to chart the effects of the war industry on the intimate lives of individuals. Thereby they reveal a web of consequences that leaves no sphere of life untouched. In a non-linear narrative, Abed and Lotfy unveil a backstage theatre of military operations, while exploring personal and political positions in a region that has become a stage for perpetual wars.

Biography: Lily Abichahine
Born in 1985, Lily Abichahine grew up in Beirut where she studied law. She then lived between France, Lebanon and The Hague and served as an attorney for ten years. She obtained also a Master Degree in Performing Arts at the University Paris -Vincennes. Critical thinking and adversarial dialogue are at the core of her legal occupation and shaped her artistic practice. Her first work “Exquisite Corpse” is at the intersection of her training as artist and lawyer.

Biography Noor Abed & Mark Lotfy
Noor Abed (b.1988 Jerusalem) is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker. She creates multimedia works on the boundary of performance, film and new media. Her practice examines notions of choreography and the imaginary relationship of individuals, creating situations where social possibilities are both rehearsed and performed.

Mark Lotfy (b. 1981 Alexandria) is an experimental filmmaker and producer. He explores the boundary between fictional narratives, documentary film, and media art. His practice questions the everyday, the contingent and the virtual. His current research is concerned with notions of nationalism, fundamentalism, emotionalism and heroism, examining framed structures in which new alienated subjectivities are being produced.

“Exquisite Corpse” and "Yours Truly [work in progress]"are coproductions by Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and Frankfurt LAB in the frame of “This Is Not Lebanon. Festival for Visual Arts, Performance, Music and Talks”, a cooperation project of the Frankfurt LAB with Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and Ensemble Modern in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Lebanon, supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and Ensemble Modern Patronatsgesellschaft e.V. The discourse programme is supported by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb). The residencies within the framework of “This Is Not Lebanon. Festival for Visual Arts, Performance, Music and Talks” are part of “Frankfurt Moves!”, a cooperation of the KfW Stiftung and the Frankfurt LAB to promote international emerging artists in the field of dance and performing arts.