16 TTHHEE DDAAIILLYY SSTTAARR monday, march 14, 2011ARTS & CULTURE

AGENDALEBANON

DANCE

‘Mudejar’UNESCO Palace, UNESCOStreet, VerdunMarch 19, 8 p.m.01-850-013Spanish dancer and choreogra-pher Miguel Angel Berna per-forms this dance and castanetshow that deals with the themeof the true self.

LECTURE

‘Floating Music’American University of Beirut,Hamra, West HallMarch 15, 6:30 p.m.01-752-000The Austrian rock star Hubertvon Goisern (aka HubertAchleitner) talks about hisadventures sailing down theDanube River on a cargo shiphe calls a “floating musicalsinging village.”

MUSIC

‘Mitrades the Great’Hotel Al-Bustan, Beit MeryMarch 17, 8:30 p.m.01-752-000The Al-Bustan Festival contin-ues with a performance ofMozart’s fourth opera, backedby the Tblisi State OperaChamber Orchestra.

THEATER

‘Youssef al-Hikaya’Dawar al-SHAMS, TayounehMarch 15-17, 7 p.m.01-381-290The 50 Days 50 Years festivalcontinues with this play writ-ten, directed and performed byCharbel Aoun. It promises tobe a theatrical mingling ofreality and fantasy thataddresses the fears, thinkingand illusions of young menand women. The performancewill be preceded by filmscreenings and also followedby a concert.

ART

‘River of God’Surface Libre Gallery, DadourGardens, Jal al-DibUntil March 2304-715-500Zohrab presents his canvasesand religious frescos that havedecorated Lebanese and inter-national churches.

‘Boarding House’UNESCO Palace, UNESCOStreet, VerdunUntil March 3101-499-808The Lebanese Association ofSOS Children’s Villages pres-ents Roger Ballen’s avant-garde photos, as part of a proj-ect that aims to use art to agi-tate for children’s rights.

‘Francois Rabelais-FabienCerredo: The horrible life ofthe giant Gargantua’Villa Audi, Charles MalekAvenue, AchrafiehUntil April 101-200-445In association with the FrenchCultural Center, this exhibitdisplays a series of paintingsby the late Argentinean artistFabien Cerredo, dedicated toFrench writer FrancoisRabelais’ novel “Gargantua.”

Laurent CorvaisierFrench Cultural Center, Damascus Street, AchrafiehUntil March 3101-420-200As part of the French CulturalCenter’s “FrancophoneMonth,” French painter andillustrator Laurent Corvaisierexhibits his artwork. He willalso present several artisticworkshops for children.

REVIEW

The challenge of modernity is tolive without illusions and withoutbecoming disillusioned.

Antonio Gramsci(1891-1937)

Italian intellectual

JJuusstt aa tthhoouugghhtt

Out of time and against modernity

Kaelen Wilson-GoldieSpecial to The Daily Star

BEIRUT: In an intriguing newessay on revolutions in theMiddle East, the sociologistJon Rich argues that due to the

export of conflicts from Europe, theregion “has been the garbage dump ofWestern modernity since its inception.” The Arab world is passing through a

period of upheaval, Rich suggests,because it is dealing with problems thatEuropean democracies have pushedover the edges of their own borders.Painter Jamil Molaeb seems to

agree, and he doesn’t like what he sees. Just as Paul Gauguin helped give

birth to modern art by paradoxicallyturning his back on Western progressand devoting his life and work to dubi-ous notions of primitivism and purity inTahiti, Molaeb has closed his eyes onthe concrete chaos of contemporary lifeto pursue more elusive and idealizedvisions of the world. Though looselyinspired by Morocco, these appear total-ly out of time. “What is modern art?” Molaeb asks,

screwing his face into a pained expres-sion. “I’m confused. I need to come backto my body. My paintings come back tonature. They come back to the primitive.Modernity killed naiveté. It killednature. I don’t know what happened.Now people live in an instant. They liveinside their perception of time.”“The Present of Yesterday and

Today,” Molaeb’s latest exhibition atGalerie Janine Rubeiz in Raouche,owes a sizable debt to Gauguin’s Tahit-ian women, as well as to Cézanne’sbathers and Picasso’s desmoiselles.The show includes some two dozen

paintings of women and birds. Thewomen are arranged in various groups– anywhere from three to thirty – sell-ing flowers, cleaning fish, balancingearthenware pots on their heads anddrying each other’s hair. The birds, meanwhile, converge in

patterns of different densities, some

sparsely inhabiting the branches of astylized tree, others squeezed in to cov-er the entire surface. Two of the bird pic-tures are ominously paired up, depictingone bird hanging from fish hooks, theother flopped dead on its side.Although the dominant colors are

those of sun-browned skin and crispwhite clothes, the show rumbles from arosy terra cotta to a melancholy blue.The backgrounds are primarily mono-chromatic, with broad strokes alludingto architecture as they emulate the formsof the figures – a series of arches curveover the bodies of three seated women,for example. Only rarely does a horizon line dash

across the canvas. The sense of spacecreated in each picture is shallow with-out feeling claustrophobically pressed.The only nod to modern life is a sin-

gle painting of a cityscape titled “Fez,”a dazzling pile of expressive urbanismtowering two meters high. Molaeb dismisses the work with a

scoff and a scowl.

“I don’t know why everyone likesthis one,” he says. “I ask myself, why?Maybe it’s because anyone could do it.” After a moment’s thought, he adds,

“Scratch that. When I went to Fez, Iwent to the market and I felt I was com-ing back to my childhood. I am happyto come back and sketch what my handwas unable to do before. Then I amready to express myself and draw whatI love and what I see and what I feel.” Molaeb is one of Lebanon’s most

prodigious painters, mounting solo exhi-bitions roughly every other year sincethe early 1970s. The son of a house-painter who harbored musical ambi-tions, Molaeb devoted his life to art witha fierceness his father never managed. A lucky break landed him at the

Lebanese University’s Institute of FineArts at a time when blockbuster talentssuch as Shafic Abboud, Aref Rayyesand Amine al-Bacha were teachingthere. A scholarship took him to Alge-ria. Graduate school situated him in theU.S., where he dabbled in computer art

and wrote seven as yet unpublishedworks of literature. What Molaeb is best known for,

however, is both the brashness withwhich he experiments with differentmedia – from stone sculptures to wood-cuts, gouaches, acrylics and mosaics –and the sensitivity he lends to torturedworks on Lebanon’s troubles, such asthe 1977 book of drawings entitled“Diary of the Civil War.”These days, Molaeb says he is stick-

ing to oil paintings. Five days after theopening of “The Present of Yesterdayand Today,” he also re-hung half of theexhibition – an unusual move – remov-ing a series of abstractions and leavingonly explicitly figurative works.“I took down the abstract paint-

ings,” he says. “To do a figurativeshow is more interesting for me in thistime. I have done a lot of abstractionsbefore. Now I want to make abstrac-tions in the figure.“This is the first time I do a pure oil

painting exhibition, with no other ele-

ments. This is the only material for menow. Oil painting made me relax,” heexplains, “knowing I had found themedium in which I can express myself.Right now, at least, because I change.I’m not sure I’ve arrived at what I needto express exactly. I’m not sure I’vefound what I need to fill up my life. “I paint every day in the same way I

eat and drink and sleep every day. Iwant to make painting an extension ofmy body. You have limited time in life.A tree has more time than you do. Youcan continue your time with your touchon a canvas. You can extend your life orreincarnate yourself in some way orsome form, whether it’s music or poet-ry or painting or photography. You canfix yourself in some way. You can reg-ister your voice.”Jamil Molaeb’s “The Present of Yesterdayand Tomorrow” is one view at GalerieJanine Rubeiz in Raouche through March23. For more information, please call 01-868290 or visit www.galeriejaninerubeiz.com

Jamil Molaeb’s latestexhibition finds himbeating a retreat to theprimitive and the pure

“Bahara,” 2009, 155x285 cm, oil on canvas.

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REVIEW

‘Baharestan’: Longing to return, but to where?By Ali EttehadSpecial to The Daily Star

TEHRAN: Derived from theGreek words for “return” (nos-tos) and “suffering” (algos),“nostalgia” most obviously

evokes the painful longing for animpossible return Odysseus felt afterdeparting Ithaca.“Baharestan,” the latest series of

paintings by young Iranian artist Mehdi

Farhadian, presently up at Tehran’s MahArt Gallery, is redolent of nostalgia.These works do not express a clear long-ing to return to the past but, rather, to acondition that the artist has never him-self had an opportunity to experience.His paintings take as their subject

representations of historic Tehranbuildings, set among historical or con-temporary figures. Spectators may findpeople playing golf or bowling withinthese cityscapes, a combination thatgives the work an otherworldly aspect.

These structures have played animportant role in the artist’s life, form-ing a part of his personal history andthat of his generation. Raised within atraditional family, Farhadian was alsoin a position to experience the vibrant(somehow forgotten) culture of theseparts of Tehran.Erected in the past century, land-

marks like Baharestan Square, QasrPrison, Khiaban Gate and Eshrat AbadPalace/Prison have all recently beeninvested with new meaning.

These buildings and crossroads haveborne witness to almost all Tehran’simportant socio-historical changes –from the nationalist struggle to its sup-pression and the rebirth of so-calledIslamic virtues, from Reza Shah’s ban-ning of the hijab to the imposition of thehijab by Islamic governments.Farhadian’s renderings of these

structures assemble their contradictoryand paradoxical meanings together toform a new world. This world, whosevisual specifics seem totally differentfrom that of the artist’s experience,could be an alternate universe.The buildings and squares painted

here seem familiar but the colors of hissky and earth are those of a dreamworld. In one work, a volcano eruptsin the background – though the Iranianvolcano in question has been inactivefor thousands of years. Wild plantssurround one famous building, while alion sits on a storm-felled tree. Farhadian’s alternate universe

sometimes evokes an image ofArmageddon and the ghostly figureswandering his streets suggest that allthese images are simply an afterimage,abandoned by the city’s memory.For Tehran residents, “Baharestan”

recalls one of the city’s oldest districts,but this is one of many and varied his-torical and linguistic references. Liter-ally, it means “The Land of Spring.” InIranian literature it refers to lost Eden.Baharestan is also the name of a

jewel-encrusted carpet woven of goldand silver, measuring 140x27 meters,that dated from the Sassanid era. Dur-ing the Arab invasion and the conquestof the Sassanid Empire, this carpet wasdismembered, its shards distributed toArab soldiers as booty. Because of this incident,

“Baharestan” is equated with a point ofno return. The conquest of the SassanidEmpire is equated with the rise of theIslamic Empire, reinforced throughchanges in the alphabet and calendar. Even if all the pieces of the dis-

membered carpet were reassembled,

Baharestan would remain beyondrecognition because the context inwhich it was woven has changed. Farhadian’s “Baharestan” series

works along similar principles. Theartist knows that the story of his home-land has passed a point of no return.The history is irreversible. By usingelements from past, present and thepossible future, he creates an alternateuniverse which, though comprised ofknown elements, is completely differ-ent from our world. Not wholly good or bad, the impos-

sibility of Baharestan makes it some-thing to be longed-for. There residesthe nostalgic agony.“Baharestan” may be compared to

the works of renowned Iranian film andtelevision director Ali Hatami. Repletewith stories from the last century ofIranian history, Hatami’s oeuvre is fix-ated upon how there can be no return;all his movies are just a sterilized ambi-tion to return to his ideal context. Aware of these parallels between

Hatami’s work and his own, Farhadianchose the soundtrack of Hatami’srenowned television series “Hezardas-tan,” composed by Morteza Hannaneh,to accompany the exhibit. About twodecades ago Iranian national televisionused to broadcast this tune every week.Upon hearing the theme, then, Farha-dian’s audience is immediately thrustinto a state of nostalgia for this period.Another more obvious point linking

Farhadian’s works and Hatami’smovies is the period that “Hezardas-tan” depicted, which the buildings inthese paintings strongly evoke.“Baharestan” is a bricolage of time

and place. It breaks historical periodsinto thousands of pieces and combinesthem to make a new whole. This newworld is both familiar and unfamiliar, aninterstitial condition in which, perhaps,the Baharestan carpet is still intact.Mehdi Farhadian’s “Baharestan” series ison show of Mah Art Gallery until PersianNew Year, Nowrooz.One of the works from Farhadian’s “Baharestan” series.

Saudia Arabia, Bahrain among record88 countries in 2011 Venice BiennaleROME: Saudi Arabia and Bahrain willbe among the record 88 countriesscheduled to take part in the VeniceBiennale contemporary art festivalthis year, which will include top artistssuch as Thomas Hirschhorn, AngelVergara and Cindy Sherman.The biennale, which first opened in

1895, will start on June 1 and run untilNovember. This is the first timenational pavilions from Andorra,Bahrain, Bangladesh, Haiti and SaudiArabia will be included in the festival.The Democratic Republic of Con-

go and India, which have not takenpart since 1968 and 1980 respectively,will also be taking part in a series ofexhibitions and shows.“The biennale is a place of pilgrim-

age for the whole world,” director

Paolo Baratta told reporters in RomeFriday, adding that the total cost of thefestival this year was $18 million.The Biennale is known for its often

provocative shows. At the last show in2009, Chechen artist Andrei Molod-kin’s work used blood donated by Russ-ian soldiers who fought in Chechnya.At this year’s show the national

pavilion of the U.S. will feature JenniferAllora and Guillermo Calzadilla and theChinese one will contain works by YuanGong, Pan Gongkai, Liang Yuanwei,Yang Maoyuan and Cai Zhisong.Japan will be represented by

Tabaimo.Mecca-born Shadia Alem, who has

works in France, Ireland, South Africaand South Korea, will exhibit in Sau-di Arabia’s pavilion. – AFP

Afghanistan, U.N. against rebuilding BuddhaBy Edith M. LedererAssociated Press

UNITED NATIONS: UNESCO’sassistant chief has said the U.N. cultureagency and the Afghan government areagainst the reconstruction of one oftwo giant 1,500-year-old Buddha stat-ues in central Afghanistan dynamitedby the Taliban 10 years ago.UNESCO assistant director-general

for culture Francesco Bandarin said theagency has asked for a feasibility studyfor reconstructing the smaller Buddha,which several German scientists havebeen promoting and will carry out.Bandarin told a briefing that the

study “doesn’t change our position onthe reconstruction, which we think isnot feasible” and would unnecessarilydivert resources from other priorities

at the UNESCO world heritage site inthe Bamiyan Valley.Standing 54 meters and 38 meters

tall respectively, the two statues werechiseled about 400 meters apart into acliff face teeming with cave shrines andpaintings about 1,500 years ago whenBamiyan was a major Buddhist center.The Taliban dynamited the giant

Buddhas in March 2001, deemingthem idolatrous and anti-Muslim,prompting a worldwide outcry.Since the fall of the Taliban regime

in November 2001, Bandarin said theniches where the Buddhas stood havebeen stabilized and 20-30 percent of thegiant Buddha and 40-50 percent of thesmaller Buddha have been recovered.“But this material doesn’t have any

shape,” he said. “It’s just pieces ofrock … because the statue was actual-ly carved, and then it was plastered.

The plaster is dust, but the plaster wasgiving the shape.”At a meeting last week of the Inter-

national Committee for Bamiyan atUNESCO’s Paris headquarters, Ban-darin said there was “complete agree-ment” among the experts that it isn’tpossible to reconstruct the great Bud-dha but there was disagreement on thesmaller Buddha.Even though there are more pieces

of the smaller Budhha, he said, “thereare significant doubts that a reconstruc-tion is possible because reconstructionwill require a lot of integrations what atthe end will result in a fake.”Afghanistan’s Culture Minister

Makhdoom Raheem attended themeeting, Bandarin said, and was“quite in agreement with us becausethey see the need to focus on thingswhich are essential.