KORO together with HVL and 3.14 proudly present:
It Is Only Through Your Thoughts That I Can Remember Who I Am:
An Exhibition in Three Acts
by Theatre Of Operations: Hagar Ophir and Hakim Bishara
20.10. - 17.12.2017
In December 1943, an exhibition entitled L’Art moderne au Liban opened at the Bezalel Jewish National Museum in Jerusalem, featuring works of modern art by leading artists from neighboring Lebanon.
The exhibition was to be followed by a reciprocating display of works by Jewish artists from Mandatory Palestine at the National Museum of Beirut, but that never happened.
Aborted before its completion, L’Art moderne au Liban has since sunk into forgetfulness, and it remains impossible to complete until today.
It Is Only Through Your Thoughts That I Can Remember Who I Am reimagines the story of L’Art moderne au Liban into a theatrical exhibition in three acts.
Madame M.S, a mysterious Lebanese painter who was one of the participating artists in the 1943 exhibition, is conjured up from the archive to recount the tale of her time by reimagining the past into the future.
This Exhibition will be shown for the first time in Kunsthall 3.14, Bergen, Norway, and is curated by Sissel Lillebostad and Trond Hugo Haugen in collaboration with Malin Barth, Kunsthall 3.14.
The exhibition is produced by KORO - Public Art Norway, and co-produced by Kunsthall 3.14, and in collaboration with BEK - Bergen Center for Electronic Art.
The exhibition is part of Vågestykke, a KORO-project in collaboration with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL).
Exhibition folder >>>
Theatre of Operations was formed in 2015 by Hagar Ophir and Hakim Bishara in the coastal city of Jaffa in Israel/Palestine. Hakim Bishara is a New York-based Palestinian artist and writer. As an art writer, his work has been published in various publications worldwide. He received his MFA from The School of Visual Arts in NYC in 2017. Hagar Ophir is a Jerusalem born and Berlin-based research and action artist. As co-creator and performer in Public Movement (2008-2016), she took part in actions at various international venues including: Guggenheim Museum, NYC; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel; ACA Melbourne, Australia; Asian Art Biennial, Taiwan. The dou’s name—Theatre of Operations—is taken from the military term used by the great powers to describe the Middle East as a warfare zone, from WWII till today.
Audio works and Sound installations by Miriam Schickler
Light design and programing: Rachid Moro
Set Design: Studio Martha Schwindling
Researcher in France: Ellie Armon Azoulay
Researcher in Beirut: Stephanie d'Arc Taylor
Production coordinator in Bergen: Adriana Mar Alves
Opening by Bjørg Kristin Selvik.
Speech by Nuray Yildirim Gullestad.
[Photo: Hagar Ophir, 2015]
