Who's Afraid of Representation?

To call oneself an ”artist” in Lebanon is a provocation for ironies and sarcasm. ”Artist” can usually equal an insult in the sense that the status of an artist is an imported concept from the west. The collective understanding of the artist’s character is one of a weired, anarchist crazy individual, pretending to be a genius. To be an artist could be an aspiration for the concept of an individual who through his individualism threatens the social, political, and religious insitutions that govern the Middle East. It is a well known fact that the religious communities are the ones controlling the political and public institutions in Lebanon strangling any attempt to build a state of civil rights. Could this be the reason for the inexistence of actions done by artists in this region, as for instance the ”the Body artists” in the west in the late 60´s and early 70´s?

Rabih Mroué took an interest in the extremists among them and wrote a script made up of short monologues by performance artists from that time, told and represented by actress Lina Saneh.

Who’s Afraid of Representation? is a compilation of the gruesome physical mutilations that these (Western) artist-performers did to themselves, against the background of violent events from recent history such as the civil war in Lebanon. Mroué juxtaposed the cruel struggle of these artists for their individuality with the true story of Hassan Ma’moun, who recently gunned down his colleagues in an office in Beirut.

Source: BIT Teatergarasjen, Spring programme 2006. 13.09.2010: http://www.bit-teatergarasjen.no