Three end of year cards through the years

2015 - Tarek Chemaly

2013 - Tarek Chemaly

2000 - Tarek Chemaly

The end of year card for 2014 saw me signing with my own name on a vintage Martine page, 2014 was a with to get through the year without explosions with elements taken from the Regent Shoes old ad (signed Beirut NTSC when it still existed as a brand), and in 2000 it was a jubilatory moment based on the fact that beer has been present in the Middle East since the Phaorohs' times so that would be the drink of choice for a poor family to celebrate the birth of a child in a manger. To be clear, this is not a derogatory card at all since it is based on scientific basis. May it be an excellent 2016 for you.

Hobb after "Love" from Robert Indiana

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

Some of you might have spotted this work of mine before, but today I am showing it by itself (with no other additions). It is an Arabic transliteration of Love by Robert Indiana, which interestingly started as Noel. I guess the world needs some of that, love that is, during these harsh emotional times.

Alfa - emoji driven campaign

There was  time when only geeks would know what emoji meant, then came chatting, then with the advent of smartphones everyone literally knows what they are and the subtle meanings of their use. Hence the end of year road awareness campaign by Alfa. Everyone gets it and hopefully everyone will feel concerned. Stay safe!!

Zaatar w Zeit - a CSR Christmas exercise

So here's the creative premise of this campaign:
"What if the wishes you made came true?
This year we invited our customers to spread the spirit of Christmas through the power of wishes.
For every wish made, we donated a tasty wrap for the less fortunate.
And thanks to you, there was enough #Christmas4everyone."
So far, very good. Zaatar w Zeit engaged in a CSR campaign to help the needy via wishes for its more well to do customers. The result was this Publicis film shown above.
The pros are obvious: Spreading cheer to people willing to go on camera and be thankful for it. Zaatar w Zeit customers making a change (even if indirectly). Lots of emotions going round right on time for the highest emotionally charged period of the year. What's there not to love?
OK maybe a couple of things: I do realize this is advertising (I work in it!), and that campaigns should feature "people" (real or actors) but in such cases it always bothers me to see less-well to do people a bit exploited for the camera (major note: does the production company or whomever signed the film - or even Publicis have signed release papers for these people appearing in the ad?), also, whereas CSR should help the surrounding community, and it rests on making itself known to the public, I wonder if more efficient work could have been done without the media fanfare.
Still, as not to appear ungrateful for the work (conceptual and executional) that came with the ad, here's a thumb up for Zaatar w Zeit and Publicis for actually thinking of the needy people (the movie will show you they are not exclusively Lebanese!) around us which, even if we watch them, we do not tend to see them.
 

Moschino Barbie: "each not sold sperately" for boys and girls.

 

Interesting! Lately the splitting of toys by gender saw people fighting both, both and against. Sure, girls get dolls and boys get trucks is quite a stereotype. And some parents really had a bad time as major stores in Europe or even the US began loosening the "labels" between blue and pink. But naturally Jeremy Scott who is now head designer at Moschino knew how to push buttons by including a boy who is supposed to be a younger version of himself is in the "Barbie Moschino" ad. When they were released on November 9, the toys sold out immediately (even if costing between 300 to 500 US Dollars). I guess some societies will forever find it odd for boys to play with dolls and for girls to play football, but it doesn't mean these kids don't exist. I mean, "worst case", they could grow up to be Jeremy Scott and be Katy Perry's date to the Met Gala.

Joyeux Noel - Merry Christmas - ميلاد مجيد

And so here we are on Christmas morning, this flea market card find, which actually adorns our tree (yes, we decorate our tree with cards, some of them vintage - such as this one which was sent to an Armenian family). I take this time to wish you all a Merry Christmas, may it be a blessed one for you and yours.

The village orator and me. End of year essay.

During the war, with electricity being off and generators still not being trendy, we used spend our time reading voraciously. Actually, our school had a scheme of giving prizes at the end of the academic year and invariably my brothers and I would land books. Two of such books were "Al Ard Al Kadima" (the old earth) and "Woujouh Min Al Ard Al Kadima" (faces from the old earth), both by Youssef Habchi El Achkar. He spoke of different times of life in villages, which I guess with time have become quasi obsolete. If you can get a copy of these two books I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so.
I suppose today, the day before Christmas, is as good as any to recap the year that has passed us by. I am not going to bore you with details, since I always extrapolate to go to concepts anyhow. I guess, "Khatib al day3a" or the Village Orator, one of the stories in the books, best sums up this year. And heck, just in order not to spoil it to anyone, in case you wish to read it, I will not tell you details but just inform you that this is a story about principles. About a man with principles. No more, no less. He was called names, made fun of, and what not. But in the end his principles were his principles.
Sure, the words of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche did cross my mind: “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” At times I was wondering if through this monster chase, I too was becoming a monster of some sorts in the name of principles.
Today however, I look back - like the village orator - and know, just know, that even with the monster chases and the abyss staring back it was worth it. For the simple reason that I wake up and know that, not only I had principles, but that I stood up for them and that makes it worthwhile.
Was it a "good year"? Well, it was a bit better than the grueling 2010-2014 disaster-filled ones. With time I shall look at it more impartially, perhaps learn to be kinder in my assessment. Someone wrote to me before "I hope a scandal would erupt and would kill your blog like them" (referring to me standing up with Brofessional Review).  Little do they know, that in times of trouble (or whatever they think of as scandal) the real character of a person is revealed - you have seen my character through my writings, arts, lectures, social contributions and all that. Just today two former students acknowledged how deeply I have influenced them in their life.
The village orator would have been proud. 

Woman in the Arab world an installation at USEK

It was with exceptional pleasure that I saw today at USEK this beautiful installation about "Woman in Arab society". The form is very feminine, mystic and very engulfing all at once. Black on the outside but with violent color outbursts on the inside. Fatima Hussein, Acil Tohmeh, Layla Ghazal, Theresia Martine Akiki and Saeed Ayoubi did a very delicate job materializing a very thorny issue. Acil and Theresia Martine also presented their 95 scoring end-of-year master's projects as well, and for that I wish to congratulate them!

Homeland is not a series - now a movie!

Photo credit: From Here to Fame publishing

I just got this press release and this is one of the rare times am publishing it as is.
"What is left to say after having caused a worldwide media sensation that has reached tens of Millions of people? 'The Arabian Steet Artists', Heba Amin, Caram Kapp and Don Karl are very proud to announce our filmic commentary 'Homeland is not a Series' in collaboration with the brilliant people of Field of Vision at The Intercept.
In what has become known as the 'Homeland Incident', 'The Arabian Street Artists' engineered the world's first graffiti media hack by incorporating subversive graffiti on the set of the popular US TV series 'Homeland'. Three months later the episode was broadcast with the show unknowingly critiquing itself. After the story broke it went viral and was reported by media worldwide.
Their poetic short film 'Homeland is Not a Series', produced by Laura Poitras (Citizen Four), explores dialogues following the worldwide resonance of the critique that motivated the hack."
Enjoy the film in its entirety here!

Propaganda Habibi

Photo credit: Tarek Chemaly

This photo was taken long ago, in 2004, in the Southern Suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon. It depicts an AK47 (Kalashnikov) breaking the star of David on the Isreali flag, with the yellow banner which is the trademark color of the Hizbullah saying "we are coming". I got reminded of this after the death of Samir el Kentar, something that Israel rejoiced to but did not confirm or deny having had a hand (or missile) in making it happen. Love it or loathe it this is propaganda at its best in this mural.

Exotica mere Noel, et que la fete commence

Few things, for my generation (I was born in 1974 in case you need a reminder), scream "Christmas" as much as this vintage Exotica ad does. Entitled "Exotica Mere Noel" (or "Mother Christmas") it was - as it aired for several years since back then the life span of an ad was much longer than today's - a signal for us that the Christmas season was upon us. Should the year had been good or bad was irrelevant, this ad was enough for things to be feel alright, that there was hope and warmth and that perhaps the next year was to be better than the one that had just passed. The music, which is a beautiful version of  the hymn "Holy Spirit come to us" was so uplifting and a promise for lovely events to come. The end of the ad even features a lovely rappel as to the original (now iconic) corporate TV ad which you can find here. Que la fete commence - let the festivities begin indeed!

30% of American Republicans want to bomb Agrabah

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

Statistics indicate that 30% of Republican Americans want to bomb Agrabah, 41% of those who would vote for Donald Trump. Should you be confused geographically as to where that "Arabic"/"Muslim sounding city is, well, it is the city where Aladdin inhabited in the movie. Naturally, it is a fictive space. But hey, bombing a place - fictional or not - which sounds "Muslim" is an ethical duty it seems to the US. It also gives you a glimpse of the educational/cultural standards there sadly. Is it too ironic to end this post saying I had "Enola Gay" by OMD humming through my head as I wrote this post?
PS: To be fair, it seems 19% of Democrat Americans would bomb it too....

Al Rifai goes all Star Wars

Need I explain? You see, a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.... Seriously, to tie your product to Star Wars without even using the logo (and therefore to avoid suits) yet while still being explicit in the association is no mean feat. Rifai made it, may the force be with them.

Bring military serivce back to Lebanon

The title of the post says it all, and let the online fight begin.
But I am adamant. Military service was a good and smart element which happened in many young men's lives. It lasted a year, was filled with boredom, hurry-up-and-wait, routine, early waking up, many "unfairness" moments and what not. But it was also a time of discipline, inter-religious cohesion, inter-regional meeting, inter-cultural mash up, inter-frenchie-coucou meets die hard Spinoza-in-Arabic reader, and the list goes on.
It is exceptionally rare for young Lebanese men to meet other people in such circumstances - cut off from their daily environments, all thrown in a mumbo jumbo mess, dressed in fatigues and therefore obliterating obvious socio-economic exterior signs, suddenly the beauty of an egalitarian society shines through.
Am not stupid, I know a lot of those men activated wastas (or pistons) to be in such and such caserns and whatever have you, but this does not negate the closeness you feel towards someone coming from the other end of the spectrum who is in the same position as you. You bond, you connect, you influence one another, you smuggle cookies to the casern, you give free cola bottles to the night guards, you dislike that officer, you chummy up to this other one, you lament how the monthly rotation was set up - but deep down you actually create unforgettable moments with people you otherwise would not meet under normal circumstances.
Your view of humanity softens, suddenly not everyone is lumped up in one single category... "Hawde el.... [those] (insert any term which engulfs a whole multitude of different people here)". Because "those (whatever)" suddenly start getting differentiated. Start becoming humans. They have mothers who seem enamored with the same soap operas your own mother likes, they have social settings which have a lot in common with yours to your surprise, they invite you to their weekend homes which - save for their geographical location - are quite similar to your family's mountainous hangouts and the list continues.
In a country more divided than ever on the fault lines of "us" and "them", military service brings that unifying element which gets everyone to march to the same beat - on the same speed - and here I speak not of the compulsory military march exercises, but rather on the mental influence of all this.
Perhaps the military service had its shortcomings, am sure of that, but in retrospect, it was a personality-building, perspective-shifting, country-unifying effort which I truly believe was for the best.
Let us bring it back.

The USEK library tree is made out of....

... books! Actually, the tree is so charming, with the manger made out of an open book with the small statue of baby Jesus on it. Not much I can add actually. There is a small competition even around it. The gesture though is quite nice and even if obvious to some, quite charming in its own way!

From Hermes, come the beautiful things

The windowshop of Hermes is a trove of wonders, and I am not even talking about their own goods, but rather about their set up of thousands of embroidered objects on velvet backgrounds - literally hundreds upon hundreds of small objects have been sewn in a gigantic capharnaum of vintage flea market feeling, even the Hermes bags, gloves and other objects are almost invisible in the melee which makes finding them an added joy and wonder. From the security guard to the boutique staff, the Hermes boutique exudes welcome and kindness, something which cannot be said of in some of the other luxury boutiques in town.

Sursock Museum, the natural ecosystem for Lebanese art

Detail from a work by Khalil Zghaib

My readers will be forgiven for not knowing about the "Salon de l'automne" - the yearly criterion for art which used to take place in the now reopened Sursock Museum. I am one of the lucky ones to have attended it - several editions of it - and so visiting the museum today was tinted by nostalgia. Come to think about it, even the people overseeing the museum are tinted by the same feeling. And truth be told, there's nothing to be ashamed of.

The museum houses, in two floors, what is labelled as "permanent collection" which includes anyone who is anyone in the artistic Lebanese scene: Rawas, Molaeb, Zghaib, Jurdak, Achkar, Madi, Nahle, Assadour, Seraphim, Totikian, and the list goes on and on. I even saw today with what was an audible gasp in the otherwise silent place, a work by Seta Manoukian I remember having seen as a teenager on one of my trips to the museum. It was there as I remembered it, a woman with thighs on the foreground smoking a cigarette with the whiff combining with her hair. The frisson that ran through me was truly indescribable.

The collection sheds a light as to how Lebanese artistic masters - with very few youngsters among them (Flavia Codsi comes to mind) - managed to produce beautiful, ugly, touching, reverberating art in a country always teetering on the edge of the abyss.

There are also two rooms facing one another on the ground floor which seem to be focused on newer artists, such as Randa Mirza, Roy Dib or Vartan Avakian, which - on the whole - perhaps due to the restrained space feels a bit more forced as an effort.

And level -2 is where the big current exhibition takes place. It is about - what else? - Beirut through the years and through the art. Calling it extensive would be an understatement. Sylvia Ajemian the chief curator did a wonderful - dare I say pleasant - job amassing all these works from different sources and media. Usually artistic institutions pride themselves in being undecipherable in their settings, scenography and works. This one however is embarrassingly approachable, convivial and opens its arms far and wide to the visitors making it a delightful experience of knowing Beirut through the (perhaps treacherous) eyes of the artists who have experienced it through the years.

What is delightful about the Sursock Museum is that it has filled a much needed gap in the artistic sphere in Lebanon - one that goes back to the roots, to the big names, to the past, to the beginnings of the Lebanese artistic experience. And for keeping this balance, I cannot but congratulate all those who pitched in this endeavor for letting me, once more, experience those magnificent feelings I have felt growing up when I visited the museum.

Telling you to visit there would be useless, you should all run to experience it.



 

IGroup, and the erroneous selling of domestic abuse

I was shown this ad today: A battered woman with a bruise on her face with the slogan "what are you still waiting for? 0% first payment, you can now be independent". The ad basically uses domestic abuse - something that NGOs have been fighting tooth and nail to curb down and to create laws to stop - into a selling tool for IGroup. Needless to say that the backlash on the internet was severe and rightfully so.
Apart from the not-very-smart thing of using domestic abuse as a sales tool, the ad also simplifies a more complex issue. First, let me say that hitting (and on the face no less) is something that happens progressively in a relationship. So by the time such a thing happens, the spouse would be in a Stockholm Syndrome with her partner/abuser and emotionally unable to disentangle herself from the relationship.
True, finances, apart from emotions, can be factor for women to remain in an abusive relationship. But the reason why these women stay for financial issues is because of lack of alternative resources. Meaning if they left their abusive partner, there is no way for them to remain afloat financially (with their children, as women certainly would have the instinct to flee with their offspring). Mind you, even if the first payment is 0% these women lack the financial autonomy of committing to long term financial solutions especially that I am sure, at one point, I Group want their to recoup their investment.
Another factor that drive women to remain in an abusive relationship is the "ayb" and "haram" they are faced with - in essence the public shaming of whatever decision they take. If they do leave the house and the scandal breaks, the patriarchal society we live in as Orientals in Lebanon would find millions of ways for justifying why she was abused. "She wasn't good enough", "she was cheating on him", "she deserved it", "she brought it on herself" and so on. If they remain in the relationship, the results are ever escalating physically and morally for the women in question. So as they say: damned if they do, damned if they don't.
All of the above is to say that abusive relationships cannot be solved exclusively with financial entitlements, because they come from a complex set of socio-cultural reasons as well.
But in short - what on earth anyone involved in coming up and approving this ad was thinking?

The Coca-Cola quagmire: Wanted and coerced "colonialism"

Unfortunately, I cannot locate the source of the image above. It was one of those forwarded images in the early 00s way before "sharing". A "haha" moment, "funny" in the context it is intended and definitely with racial and derogatory undertones. But here it is, an African tribesman is wearing a tie as a sign of distinction and high position within his society. It is a mark of prestige, even if as an ornament it has little or no purpose. Then again to quote a Dutch friend who wore towels around his neck all day - "yeah, try wiping your sweat with a tie and then tell me about my towel".
If I am writing this today it is following the "offensive" Coca-Cola Mexico advertisement which is has now been withdrawn. The video tells the story of fair skinned youth who are out to build a Christmas tree in the town square of  what is an indigenous village., handing out bottles of the drink in the process.
The article continues: “This type of publicity is an act of discrimination and racism,” Elvira Pablo, an indigenous lawyer, said at a press conference in Mexico City on Wednesday. “It is a comment on our type of life and an attempt to put a culture of consumerism in its place.”
Up till now, the argument is correct. Coca-Cola is trying to bring in their deeply entrenched narrative of Christmas to new zones, but it is a replica of Mark Twain's "To the person sitting in darkness" quote: Is it, perhaps, possible that there are two kinds of Civilization--one for home consumption and one for the heathen market?
Except that the lines between "home consumption" and "heathen market" get blurred. Sarah Palin drinking "Big Gulp" to mock/defy/make fun of Michael Blomberg the mayor of New York city who tried to limit the availability of large soda drinks as a measure to combat obesity.
After all, McMansions, two-car garages, Suburban houses with an extra room and extra fuel for commuting to the city, conspicuous consumption, Black Friday (cyber Monday!), Halloween costumes, donuts, free refills, and all such items, habits, social norms are a bedrock of the "American way of life" which obviously no longer works and is causing serious health epidemics.
Do note that, what is perceived as prestigious also goes both ways culturally, while trying to imitate French wine, Nappa producers in the US ended up beating the original, the champagne battle between the two countries was also legally won by the US.
The source article I am quoting for the Coca-Cola crisis also states:

"To counteract Coca-Cola’s message, the Alliance for Food Health created its own video, including Mixe people speaking about the soda industry’s influence on their community.

“Fifty years ago, cases of diabetes type 2 in our indigenous communities were rare,” says one person, speaking in the Mixe language. “Now they begin to be an epidemic. In order to remain united, we must preserve our dignity, our health, and our culture. In Oaxaca, we drink tejare, tea and clean water.”

This is like saying that the Druze religious adherents only drink Mate, or that Greeks exclusively sip Ouzo, or that the Japanese only have sake. If this seems like cultural appropriation or even stereotyping, it is because I am intending it to be so: "In Oxaca, we drink tejare, tea and clean water". No one drinks coffee? No one drinks Nescafe? Yes, a specific brand of coffee? No one drinks sweet drinks such as - gasp - Coca-Cola?
The American way of life, is often seen as a measuring rod for "success" is replicated, exported, bastardized, throughout the globe. I once read a sentence that went "what America has for breakfast, the world has for lunch". And it is true, just look at the Halloween/Saint Barbara mash in Lebanon.
Actually, Christmas date itself is a mish mash of Pagan/Christian fluxus with theories suggesting it was intended to replace the Saturnalia Roman festivities.
However, in today's world, "making it" is not about the Edsel any longer (a hint to the slogan "they'll know you arrived when you drive an Edsel") even for the United States, or at least some fragments of it. It now includes other more socially and attentive norms (once more, this is not a total generalization of the US, just tendencies going here and there in its society). But this leaves other nations, stuck in a different mindset: a form of wanted "colonialism".
To feel/know/be looked at as if they "arrived" they still need the equivalent of an "Edsel". Something big, flashy, showy, obvious, which translates into viewer's eyes immediately as "success", or money or wealth.
A bottle of Coca-Cola perhaps?
 

Gabriel Benderski takes design to the next level.

(C) Gabriel Benderski

(C) Gabriel Benderski

(C) Gabriel Benderski

(C) Gabriel Benderski

Of all places, I had to meet him on instagram. His feed, minimalistic, clean yet expressive and communicative was a breathe of fresh air in a world instagrammed food. His website is even more revelatory of the things he does. And by God, he answers to you if you write him despite the number of his fans. Gabriel takes design, specifically typography, to new realms. His latest series, a monogram of three letters embodies this esthetic - something which appears simple but which is actually a labor which has taken hours of intensive work and required complex conceptualization. TJC are my own initials - anyone who got an email from me will attest to how I sign using them and Gabriel kindly obliged to doing them for me!

Kholset Ossetna - Tout le monde a gagne! (New series from Tarek Chemaly)

Ton Amie Liliane

Dede

Ecole des Fans

Hikmat Wehbe

Maha Salma

Mimi Farah

Rosie Naccour

Sam and Kiki

Chantal Goya

Sandy Kouchakji

The world of children entertaining through the ages and generations in Lebanon. Even two French entities were tossed (L’ecole des Fans and Chantal Goya who was more Lebanese than the Lebanese). The title of the series comes from the closing song of “Alam al sighar” – our story has ended – and from Jacques Martin’s (the animator of L’Ecole des Fans) “everyone has won!

Were the Ashekman boys ripped by Nayla Saroufim?

As the saying goes in Arabic "Awwal dkhoulo cham3a toulo" (as soon as he entered, he got a candle as tall as him), minutes after starting this blog I got tagged on Instagram by the Ashekman boys revealing what they claim is a case of plagiarism from artist Nayla Saroufim. The whole thing got messy with people taking sides fiercely. I am not going to judge myself, but I am going to copy the photo they posted on their own account about this and let you decide for yourself.... Exasperation!

No beginnings, only middles.

“My dear,
It’s who first thought the thought. You’re searching, Joe,
For things that don’t exist; I mean beginnings.
Ends and beginnings—there are no such things.
There are only middles.” Robert Frost Thank you for having followed me here all of you for a bit less than nine years. If you want more, please stay with me.