untitled

(working title)


2023 - ongoing

Pack #1 (Beirut, 2023)

Mixed media on 160grm paper (oil pastel, acrylic and oil paint)
10x16m paper roll (x2)

Pack #2 (Dubai, 2023)

Oil pastel on A3 cotton paper


Pack #3 (Dubai, 2023)

Oil pastel on paper
Various sizes


 


Deconstructing Contemporary Palates

2022 - ongoing

Different installaments of the work were exhibited or performed in:
Castel Coucou, Institut Francais, Sept 2022
◍ Middle East Institute , “MEI Climate Exhibition”, Dec 2022

◍ Saradar Resideny program, 2022-23
◍ Alserkal Arts Foundation, Nov 2023

The research reflects on the formation of the contemporary palate by delving into the deconstructions and reconstructions of food and farming culture. Adopting a rhizomatic approach, the culinary presentation puts forward a series of vignettes related to the forces of domination, colonization, and commercialization of the food system. These vignettes, combining narratives and images, reflect on the political-economic and cultural forces that have contributed to altering our relationship with food, and ultimately, our taste palates.

With the support of Alserkal Arts Foundation, the research is now documented in a Zine publication.


Get a copy from Alserkal Arts Foundation or download the digital copy here




Myth of Mulberry


This section recounts key moments in the trajectory of the food and farming system. It begins with the example of monoculture farming, a market-driven phenomenon that has long been proven to be incompatible with nature. Through the story of the mulberry and silkworm farming, I show how monocultures played a role in famine and occupation in Lebanon.


Reframing olive oil


The next section discusses industrialization and the rendering of food as a mere commodity. Here, I trace the story of olive oil, ending on how the humble ingredient has been monetized and co-opted as a dietary trend.The two stories highlight instances of foreign powers manipulating ingredients to advance their own country’s agendas, while simultaneously exploiting other countries for cheap labor.



State of food


This section focuses on the relationship between food and the state, as I see the nation-state as the main vehicle through which influences on food culture have been enacted. Food ceased to be a regional or place-based phenomenon and began to be tied to the concept of a ‘nation’ as a whole. The narratives put forward are selections from a collection of scholarship engaged with around the topic, all of which feature the state as the main actor behind changes in the food system




a stretch of land


2023
Graphite on cotton paper, handmade paper from Inula Viscosa, Nettles, natural fiber and found objects Mixed media on paper
Dimensions variable
Commissioned by Beirut Art Center



Pharmakon is a Greek word that describes a polarity inherently present in pharmacological substances. It comes from the idea that a poisonous ingredient can just as easily transform into a medicinal one and vice-versa. This polarity is not physically visible. The work gives visual form to pharmakon present in exchanges with my surroundings.

On my foraging trips, Inula “طيــون” (pronounced as Tayyoun) is a dominant plant in most sites. It is a shrub that is also known as the wound herb due to its healing characteristics. It ’’عشــبة الجــرح“ flourishes best in areas where the soil is heavily degraded. I’ve encountered Inula on the side of the newly excavated road near my parents’ house. I see it in empty parking lots in the city, on the sidewalks next to my studio, and in the various unused plots in Downtown Beirut. The healing conditions of this shrub are juxtaposed with its propensity and inclination to grow in depleted environments.

A Stretch of Land is a visual investigation of the different forms of pharmakon present in my daily surroundings. It traces the materiality of the conditions provided for things to grow, particularly ones which offer us nourishment in return.

The work will be accompanied with regular foraging walks around Jisr el Wati area and a presentation on different forms of Pharmakon.







a brief introduction
to tesliq




2020-2022
Artist book
(written in English and translated to Arabic)

- AFAC Artist support Grantee 
- Mophradat Grantee
- Excerpt from the book was pubslished in Samandal comic #17


Tesliq (تسليق); part of rural lebanese dialect, refers to the act of collecting chard (seleq-سلق) which became associated with picking edible plants. Gathering shrubs offers a communal instinct, a sense of awareness that these plants belong to the community that looks after it.

The book weaves a collection of reflections around foraging as a communal tool to look for primary resources and to reclaim expropriated lands in Beirut.

- size 14.5x18cm
- 144 pages
- English and Arabic (both in same book)
- Every copy includes a poster; size 28x35cm

to order the book please sign up here
   







You Can't Discourse Without Disco


 
Final week of WHW Akademija, October 2022
Galerija Nova, Teslina 7

Darko Aleksovski, Željko Beljan, diana cantarey, Adrijana Gvozdenović, Maksym Khodak, Nadežda Kirćanski, Stela Mikulin, Ruoru Mou, Kristina Pashkova, Christian Sleiman, Bojan Stojčić, Huda Takriti

Beginning in March 2022, the 4th edition of WHW Akademija has evolved as a process of collaborative and reciprocal learning, facilitated by a group of invited professors but also by the twelve selected participants, whose individual commitments have unfolded over time into an investigation of collectivity and the common. The final week in Galerija Nova is both a presentation and continuation of this process, an exhibitionary habitat for themes, questions, joys and anxieties that have accumulated through a host of online and onsite workshops, lectures, seminars, meetings, chat groups, collectively edited documents, excel sheets and mind maps. Conceived and organized by participants themselves, with the mentoring support of this year’s resident professor independent scholar and writer Ivana Bago, this final event is structured as a “base for artistic research,” or simply, a bar, which will serve as an anchor point for a series of public events happening daily from 5 to 8 pm and constituting an exhibition-in-progress.