The world has gone insane and all I can do is dig in my family's history

The world has gone insane. These last few days have been mad - and that's no understatement. Still, in preparation for the cleaning coming up on Saturday, I have been trying to see the odds and ends on top of the closets or put here and there by a successive number of househelps each with her own way of cleaning and stacking things. So on the good news front, I found some long lost photographs I have been trying to find for a long time - I personally put them in one of the closets, but - Zeina, Amani, Sarah or whomever else from the househelps - decided that they should go elsewhere. Also, the school bag which - I suspect has been bringing mites - was full of wonders. Old electricity bills (check), old water bills (check), but also - I found in them very important legal papers, in addition to my parents' marriage registration, my late father's baccalaureate, a registry of the gifts they (my parents) got for their union, in addition to many items and documents worth keeping in better places.

The more everything goes unhinged, the more I find myself retracting into more secure places, places that are at this point immutable and unchangeable. Because when everything else is going bananas, it is nice to know how much the chandeliers my parents bought when they got wed actually cost. Even if, for the moment, they have been dismantled and have been kept for safekeeping in the upper floor of my house.

Lebanon's History: a Simulacrum by Tarek Chemaly, now available in film and books format

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

So here we are ladies and gentlemen, "The History of Lebanon: a Simulacrum" by Tarek Chemaly, has been fully released. 

In Arabic the title is: تاريخ لبنان - نسخة من دون اصل

The work is released in film format (here) and in a series of books of 14 volumes (here).

I do hope you enjoy them as much as I did creating them.

History, Karl Marx, Thawra, Sulta, and Abou Saada

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce - Karl Marx

I wonder at what stage Lebanon is. The tragedy or the farce.

Zealots are on all sides, all sides. What everyone seems to want is a black and white no gray zones in a world where everything is full of nuance. Strange how lately several people called me optimist or full of hope when pessimism and day to day rationalism seem to guide me (side note: I still believe, one way or another the money in the bank - the Lollar - will be given back in the long run, this is not optimism, this is the long view of things).

What is sexily called "sulta" (authority - regime) is clinging on to what is has always worked (and I must stress that not just politicians and warlords made it work, it is the average Joe as well) - a post-feudal, clientage-based (wasta) system, and lately argued that no one found its interest in changing the current equation (read here) no matter what Thawra (revolution) doe-eyed youngsters playing revolutionary games seem to think.

Naturally, the August 4 explosion only added to the impasse. But also to the division. The narrative that people are breaking free from their political affiliation shackles is a fallacy (again, read here), no matter what you read on Instagram. A certain person I know, who holds a Ph.D. no less, read in his far left view, that the people who went out manifesting after the explosion had already burried the old regime, in a scene right out of the Communist manifestations with "power to the people" and what not.

Perhaps one of the most pertinent analysis I have read about the situation was detailed in Charles Al-Hayek brilliant Heritage and Roots Instagram account (here):

In the turbulent mid-nineteenth century years, Halil Pasha, an Ottoman admiral, was sent to inspect the turbulence in Mount Lebanon following the end of the emirate system in 1841.
Before setting sail from Istanbul, he paid a visit to the exiled emir of Mount Lebanon, Bashir Shihab, who ruled from 1788 until his fall and exile in 1840.
After the usual compliments, he turned to the emir and asked how he had managed to rule Mount Lebanon for so long and what could he tell him about the nature of the region’s inhabitant.
He replied: “It is true that I ruled for that long, but every three or four years the inhabitants would rebel, although they never succeeded. I would kill, hang, imprison and beat without opposition to make them submit”. As for their nature, he said “there is a bird in Mount Lebanon called Abu Far, which hunts mice. He is bigger than a falcon and perches on a high tree. When the sun rises, he looks to his shadow and sees it larger than it actually is and so he tells himself, today, I must hunt a camel. But as the sun rises higher, his shadow grows proportionally smaller until the sun looms over his head; then Abu Far looks to his shadow and sees it smaller than it actually is, and so he settles on hunting mice.”

The emir who has two male descendants, was known as "Abou Saada" ("Father of "- the customary nickname for married men, and instead of the name of his eldest male descendant (Amin) he was called after his eldest daughter) was wise indeed. Russian writer Alexander Herzen did say "the departing world leaves behind it not an heir, but a pregnant widow"... If there is any transition, it will be painful, and long.

Abou Saada for president!

Case failing, Abou Fouad!

With regards to that article about Lebanon being fourth most prosperous nation in 1963

Recently many people were sharing an article about Lebanon that dates back to 1963 which qualifies it as the fourth most prosperous nation in the world after Switzerland, (West) Germany, and the US. The barometer used was how much money was in the banks per capita but also with regards to the country's geographical area (it helps we are a tiny nation I guess). Interestingly, the money in the said banks did not have to be for Lebanese depositors. And it wasn't. Also interestingly, all this came three years before the Intra Bank bankruptcy due to lack of liquidity compared to money deposited. 

Poverty was (and is) rampant in Lebanon and those not aware about how social inequality helped fuel the war that ended up erupting in 1975, I ask them to check their history.

Photo Rudolf Dietrich (1970)

Under the Al Shams building, one of the most celebrated jewels of modernist architecture (by architect Joseph Philippe Karam) and in the pathways that made way to the sea, lived people in extreme Poverty, in makeshift houses. Literally at a stone throw from one of the most luxurious buildings of Beirut at the time.

The history of Lebanon: Simulacra and simulation. (Official release)

Watch HERE:

Based on the philosophical treatise by Jean Baudrillard. This art project is an attempt to retrace the history of Lebanon through signs and signifiers.

Simulacra are defined as copies that depict things that either had no original, or that no longer have an original, whereas simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time.

Lebanon has not had a common official history book since before the war, students still study in archaic books that end somewhere around 1972. The reason for that is simple, since history is not the real version of the events but simply the narrative dictated by the winner, and since there was no clear winner of the Lebanese war at the abrupt end of it, then the saying by Bill Farrell - the late New York Times reporter in Lebanon - "there's no truth in Beirut, only versions" still holds.

To make things worse, the same political families which ruled Lebanon during the war, are still there and refusing to look at their past and be able to understand what they did wrong or assess their legacies in the bloody events. Still, all is not lost, for - no matter in which shelter one was in the Lebanese war - we were all listening to the same ads, jingles, watching the same soap operas, using the same products, going to (different) cinemas which were showing the same movies, enjoying the same heartthrobs - be they in roman photo (translated Italian photoromanze) or singing sensations, and the list goes on.

Only the signs and signals of pop culture of Lebanon will be able to join us when "politics" divides us. Politics stems from the two Greek words, "polis" and "ethos" - polis or the "heart of the fortress" and ethos which means ethics. So the original meaning of the word meant "the ethics of living in a community" and if that had to go through advertising jingles, then so be it. 

The project aims to use pop culture, in terms of symbols, names, catchphrases as a way to unify the Lebanese around the same concepts and ideas, and using the said elements as emotional triggers to help preserve memories both personal and collective.

Baudrillard has said about the iconoclasts: "One can live with the idea of distorted truth. But their metaphysical despair came from the idea that the image didn't conceal anything at all". Should this be true then the images of this project do not conceal anything either.

The project is composed of "episodes" each being a video art 13,5 seconds long, with each video containing 9 high resolution related images (thematically, geographically or time wise) with a total time of 120 minutes. Along with a two-hour long soundtrack which explores the Lebanese collective memory in terms of audio rarities and songs (specifically related to the war era).

The story of the Tokyo restaurant, Beirut (by way of De Freige palace)

Yesterday I was contacted by Mrs Christine Simm inquiring about my photos about the Tokyo Restaurant. By way of explanation Mrs Simm said, "that flat had previously been our home for 13 years and, what I presume became the restaurant had been my parents' bedroom, the only semi circular bedroom I have ever come across."

Here is the photo Mrs. Simm wanted to see:

Photo credit: Tarek Chemaly

The Simm family moved there in 1954 and her father sent her grandparents this particular image (by way of explanation, Mrs Simm's father "was the Middle East Agent for a British Engineering Company. We started off in Egypt but then moved to Beirut as a better place for the family to live while he was travelling."):

Photo credit: Christine Simm

Interestingly whereas there is speculation about the date of the building with architect Karim Andary presuming it dates back to the 1930s, Mr Simm provided an image of the pristine building when they moved in which means it was not built way prior to then.

Photo credit: Christine Simm

"They then put up the Lord's Hotel which blocked the view. My bedroom was right at the back behind the curved balcony."
Just to imagine the scene, please look below:

Or this one:

Photo credit: Karim Andary

Mrs Simm goes on: "We did not use the house as it was designed. What should have been the living room was my parents' bedroom, the main 'entrance hall' was my father's office and we always used what would have been built as the back door for coming and going. Then there were the living and dining rooms and 3 bedrooms. We children used the large balcony at the side, with the arches, as our playroom. At the back there was the kitchen and another balcony which was the maid's domain.

There was a widow, Madame Saab, who lived below us. Her flat was only half the size of ours because of the hill. In the flat next to us, for the whole time we were there, were the Kekhia's, with their two sons. We were often bothered with stray cats which used to jump in the back windows as they were on ground level."

Mrs Simm goes on reminiscing about Beirut, saying the family lived there in the 1950s and 60s "and my brothers and I attended the British Community School. To start off with it was in Rue Abdel Aziz and then it eventually moved to the Airport Road. But in between these 2 it was in temporary accommodation in the Marquis De Freige Palace."

In case you wish to see the palace in question here it is:

"I clearly remember my classroom, which was the biggest room in the building even though there were only 8 of us in the class. Our teacher was the headmistress and we had to be there so she could be near the telephone. It was a lovely room with stained glass windows, such a pleasure to look at when you were trying to learn french verbs or do arithmetic. I can remember we were strictly not allowed to the upper floor, even though rumor had it there was a room with rat poison in it!"

Sadly here is what the palace has been substituted with today.

Source

Mrs Simm now lives in Scotland and has never been back. "I don't think I would like the changes as the Lebanon was such a wonderful place to grow up in at the time."
"Wonderful childhood!" she concludes. Meanwhile last time I was there which was in November 2019 only the K and O still held strong from the letters which once indicated a restaurant and prior, the Simm family residence.

And during lockdown, time is elastic.

Well, you know how people are saying that all days feel the same during lockdown due to lack of measuring parameters when one does not go out to work, or knows when the weekend or when Easter is? Oddly, I do not face that problem. Yet, time is indeed elastic. My serious lockdown started way earlier than anyone due to a combination of trying to save money (you know capital controls oblige and all that....), to me quitting my university lecturing (nope, I will not be paid by head rather than by course!), severe winter (that Friday the 13th storm!), and an all-around other family factors. Meaning that to me - working from home is not a novelty. With work being so scarce to begin with, what's with shops/companies/institutions shutting down left and right.
Yet, the time I speak of during lockdown being elastic is a different kind. For a long time I hanged on to a useless past with its relics, objects, boxes, and dwindling emotional significance: Natural Born Killers soundtrack I used to listen to on loop, Red Hot Chili Peppers CD which I introduced as the agency's official sound to the creative department of the ad agency in KSA, my old university books whose info by now is quasi obsolete...
These objects meant something.  At least they were sent to the recycling which is being run by the municipality. Hanging on to these objects was perhaps a way to keep possibilities, a way to go back to a life that is now done with and too far back. Today I look around to a present that is too fractured and to a future that is as odd/perilous as ever (what will happen to my money in June 2021, will I get back the missing money that was supposed to come from Oman? Will this? Will that?). And yet, spring has come with its cleaning - make that springs and cleanings - considering what was thrown away.
Maybe in time we will look back at this period and say it was a new start or perhaps it will be business as usual when things go back on track. Whatever happens/does not happen, time proved to be elastic and disposable and getting rid of an economics book will not negate the person I am today.
"By the way, I tried to say, I know you from before".
No you didn't, but we will leave that to another post.

Lebanon: Identity with an Arab(esque) face (video art by Tarek Chemaly)

Still from "Lebanon: Identity with an Arab(esque) face"

A new video art has been launched by Tarek Chemaly. Please watch it here.
Lebanon always had an issue with its Arab identity, so much that in the original 1943 constitution, Lebanon was called a country with an "Arab face" (only for this to be changed in the Taef agreement which ended the 1975-1990 war and which became the new constitution in which Lebanon became an "Arab country").
By applying arabesque (with its link to Islamic culture)  to Lebanese "iconic" buildings/old stamps/vintage postcards/historic tiles... - according to a complex mathematical algorithm I constructed - and by using the act of repetition (yet with variants despite the uniformity), made me look back at our history as a chequered past - as a both personal and collective narrative - in a new fragmented (as opposed to linear) way, especially since writing history (specifically that of the war years) is almost impossible in Lebanon).
Interestingly, the whole exercise was done by hand through painstaking use of the rudimentary Microsoft Paintbrush rather than Photoshop (joining technology with the folk movement championed by the likes of Soetsu Yanagi).