A Polyphonic Adaptation: Noir Sensibilities In Naguib Mahfouz And Salah Abu Seif’S Take On Émile Zola’S "Thérèse Raquin", Fadi Awad Elsaid

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In 1951, Salah Abu-Seif directed Lak Yūm yā ẓālim (Your Day Is Coming) – scripted by Naguib Mahfouz – adapting Émile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin (1867). In their third collaboration, Abu-Seif and Mahfouz went beyond merely adapting Zola’s novel – they also incorporated traits and techniques from film noir, creating what this article terms a “polyphonic adaptation” that draws from multiple sources. While their partnership is often credited with pioneering realism in Egyptian cinema, this article argues that the film’s crime-thriller elements invite a reassessment of that narrative. Although adapting French novels was common in pre-1952 Egyptian cinema, their …

The 1953 Codes: Rayyā And Sakīna On Screen (1953-2005), Elena Chiti

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This paper examines on-screen representations of female criminals. It focuses on Rayyā and Sakīna, two sisters who were arrested in Egypt in 1920 and executed in 1921. Since 1953, the sisters have inspired movies and TV series that have entrenched their myth in popular culture. Rayyā and Sakīna are at the core of narratives that bear moral imperatives on societal issues, such as the place of women in society and the relation of the nation to its margins. I will argue that, until a recent off-screen resignification, Rayyā and Sakīna have not been deeply resignified in Egyptian movies. Instead, they …

Lutter Contre L’Effacement Et Pour La Reconstitution De Traces : « Penser Entre Les Disciplines », Lara Mroué

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Living outside Lebanon, Lebanese artists like Rabih Mroué and Lina Majdalanie have contributed in many ways to the evolution and reconstruction of the cultural and artistic scene in Lebanon, as well as to its history. They took part in the shaping of Civil War memory. This article will analyze the way in which these artists put on stage absence, disappearance, and the erasure of traces, while transforming contemporary artistic practice in Lebanon. Rethinking creation as a field of resistance and change, the artist on stage becomes, with Majdalanie and Mroué, an actor, a dancer, and a visual artist.

Résumé

Vivant …

Traduire Novarina En Arabe. Les Mots Sens Dessus Dessous, Georgine Ayoub

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The theater text is always a text to come, according to Valère Novarina’s expression. Once written, it writes itself over and over again on stage. And translating it is always a delicate undertaking. This task becomes even more difficult when the theatrical text is one where the adventure of thought resides in the very act of passing through language – where “a speech from before the ability to speak” emerges, where words, “set in motion,” surprise with unpredictable, incisive meanings, thanks to a mysterious sonority or a tripping up of grammar.
This is the great difficulty in translating Novarina’s theatre …

عن تمويل فنون الأداء المستقلة في المنطقة العربية: في احتضان الجديد, Abdullah Al Kafri

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Nous nous penchons dans cet article sur le sujet des modèles de production et des sources de financement des arts de la scène indépendants, afin d’analyser les questions qu’il génère. Nous examinons son rôle en tant qu’élément fondamental pour l’existence du champ des arts de la scène indépendants durant les deux dernières décennies. Nous tentons de cerner le financement des arts de la scène indépendants dans la région arabe, en nous focalisant sur l’étude des principaux acteurs qui ont joué un rôle clé dans la constitution et l’existence de ce champ, à savoir les organismes donateurs arabes qui ont émergé …

Coopérer Pour Exister : Les Collaborations Théâtrales Avec L’Europe Ou L’Impérative Stratégie Des Théâtres En Palestine, Astrid Chabrat-Kajdan

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Since the Oslo Accords in 1993, theatrical collaborations between European and Palestinian artists have multiplied. They play a role in the development of theatres in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories. In this article, we examine their forms and manifestations. The collaborations range from workshops – which consist predominantly of technical classes – to co-creations involving partly European and partly Palestinian teams.
Through the analysis of European–Palestinian theatrical collaborations, this article questions to what extent different forms of collaboration contribute to the key challenges of professional Palestinian theatre: the sustainability of institutions in Palestine, the visibility of Palestinian artists, and the …

Introduction – Quel Avenir Pour Le Théâtre Dans Le Monde Arabe ? Pratiques, Formes Et Perspectives De La Pérennisation Du Courant Théâtral Dans Le Monde Arabe, Najla Nakhlé-Cerruti

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Quel avenir pour le théâtre arabe ? En posant cette vaste question qui a guidé la réflexion collective présentée dans ce dossier thématique, nous avons souhaité interroger les effets de durabilité et les procédés qui participent à la pérennisation du mouvement théâtral dans le monde arabe. Dans ce contexte, les contraintes, nombreuses et de natures diverses, s’ajoutent à la dimension éphémère du genre théâtral. Il se construit en effet sur sa propre mise en péril puisqu’il n’existe que dans la fugacité du moment de la représentation, lorsque les comédiens sur scène et le public dans la salle sont réunis.

Molière Chez Les Hommes De Théâtre De La Nahda Et Tayeb Saddiki, Mahfoud Kecili

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In this paper, we study the presence of Molière in the theatre of Mārūn al-Naqqāš and of Tayeb Saddiki. We show how al-Naqqāš appropriated Molière’s theatre to introduce a new literary genre in the Arab world: Western-style theatre. He employs the comedy and satire of Molière’s theatre as a tool for reflection. In his play al-Baẖīl, he deals with the theme of avarice and that of generational conflicts, which he exposes with a comic vein and satire. In doing so, he urges his fellow citizens to innovate in the arts, drawing from the classical adab and the glorious past …

Belonging On Stage: Theatre As A Practice Of Belonging For The Syrian Diaspora In Turkey, Asma Hedi Nairi

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This article is a preliminary research focusing on the role of theatre as a belonging practice for the Syrian diaspora in Turkey. Based on a qualitative and narrative research methodology, the work analyzes the experience of the Theatre Scene group and their performance of the play Outside the Flock. Building on the belonging conceptual framework presented by Yuval-Davis (2006), the work offers an overview of how theatre served as both a space and a practice of belonging for the Syrian diaspora. It contributes to the growing scholarship on diasporic arts, highlighting the specificity of the Syrian theatrical experience.

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Entretien Avec Roger Assaf. Théâtre Et Espace Public : Entre Immersion Et Divertissement, Roger Assaf, Marianne Noujaim

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In this interview, Roger Assaf perceives the constraints of contemporary Lebanese and Arab theatre through the lens of his reflection on the relationship between History — with its dark periods and revolutions — and theatre’s history. Contingent on its historical context, theatre has always oscillated between entertainment and immersion. Assaf evokes his Al-ḥakawātī theatre experience as well as the earliest Arab theatre festivals, drawing a comparison between their sociopolitical dynamics and production modes, on the one hand, and those of contemporary Lebanese and Arab theatres, on the other. He believes that the memory of such theatrical experiences, albeit lacunary, stands …

La Mort Par Les Yeux, Omar Abi Azar

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Omar Abi Azar témoigne de la naissance et du cheminement de la compagnie de théâtre Zoukak. Il met en relation le parcours de ses membres et de ses créations avec les crises et impasses historiques du Liban, d’une part, et avec les conditions de production imposées par les fonds européens et la réception des pièces en Occident, d’autre part.

Le Pire ?, Chrystèle Khodr

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Chrystèle Khodr, actrice, autrice et metteuse en scène, témoigne de sa pratique du théâtre aujourd’hui au Liban, des moyens qu’elle met en place pour pérenniser son travail, et des effets de la production sur la forme et le fond de ses spectacles.

Faire D’Avignon « Une Sorte De Grenade, De Ville Dans Laquelle Toute La Méditerranée S’Est Synthétisée ». Retour Sur La Programmation Arabe Du Festival D’Avignon 2022, Pauline Donizeau

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Arab artists had an important place in the 2022 edition of the Festival d’Avignon in France. This edition was the last one directed by Olivier Py, whose mandate was marked by the regular programming of artists from the Maghreb, the Middle East, and the Near East. This article analyzes the different performances directed by Arab artists on the stages of Avignon in 2022, with a particular focus on issues of representation (especially female figures on stage) and production.

Résumé

L’édition 2022 du Festival d’Avignon a donné une place importante aux artistes arabes. Cette édition fut la dernière dirigée par Olivier …

Repenser Le Théâtre D’Objets : Témoignages, Réflexions Et Retours D’Atelier Au Théâtre Tournesol De Beyrouth, Yassaman Khajehi

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Les manifestations de 2019, dites la Révolution ou thawra, la pandémie liée au Covid, l’explosion du port de Beyrouth, la gravité de la crise économique, les élections législatives de mai 2022, les questions d’immigration et d’émigration trouvent leur place sur la scène contemporaine libanaise.
Cette présence très évidente de ces éléments confirme une fois encore la réciprocité entre théâtre et société : une synergie devenue de moins en moins perceptible sur la scène occidentale. La situation théâtrale et sociétale libanaise ouvre alors aux études théâtrales de nouvelles pistes de réflexion sur l’interaction entre politique, société et création scénique.
Cette …

The School Of The One: A Mystery On Canvas, Noah Salomon

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In late 20th century Sudan, a new school of visual art emerged that sought to bridge what it saw as a gulf between contemporary Islamic renewal and the arts. Lamenting that the latter had gone in the direction of secular life, while the former had taken on a deeply anti-aesthetic bent, the school looked to Sufism’s aesthetic archive to revitalize Islamic artistic practice for the 21st century. Calling itself “The School of the One” (Madrasat al-Wāhid), its artists sought to harness the power of beauty inherent in Islamic theological and ritual traditions while suturing it to new ends …

Imagining Lebanon With Islamic Art: The 1974 Exhibition At The Nicolas Sursock Museum, Sarah Sabban

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Focusing on the first exhibition of Islamic art in Lebanon, organized by the Nicolas Sursock Museum in 1974, this article shows how the construction and the operationalization of the concept of Islamic art overlapped with postcolonial endeavors to foster national identity. By closely examining the making of the art exhibition and tracing material histories intersecting in Beirut, it elicits constructions of the national, the secular, and the spiritual via the notion of art. It contributes to the growing scholarship on the historiography of Islamic art, regional museums, and nation-building in the second half of the 20th century.

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S'intéressant à …

"This Is Not An Exhibition. And This Is Not Beirut" A Free-Format Curatorial Platform Exploring The Space Of Beirut In The Aftermath Of The August 4 Explosion, Philippa Dahrouj

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This is not an exhibition. is a platform for experimentation in the public spaces of the city through timely interventions in the form of installations, performances, discussions, walks, etc. These interventions aim to question and contest established artistic and curatorial practices by transgressing the normalization of social, political, and urban dynamics in the spaces in which they take place. They invite the audience to participate in the production of the works.
The pilot version, This is not an exhibition. And this is not Beirut., engages with Beirut in the aftermath of the August 4 explosion through artistic interventions in …

"In This Place: Reels Of Beirut" Une Installation Filmique De Hady Zaccak, Entre Nostalgie Et Amertume, Yara Nashawaty

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“My Government Did This”: Exploring The Erasure Of The Beirut Port Wall, Lara Sabra

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This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork to examine the affective and agentive power of graffiti in Beirut after the August 4 Beirut explosion, specifically the graffiti on the port wall: “My government did this.” The paper investigates the whitewashing of the port wall, the erasure of this phrase, and the subsequent policing that took place.
It studies how graffiti holds an emotional or affective grip on civilians and is intrinsically tied to the practice of agency. In short, the paper discusses how graffiti opens a space for the transgression of dominant or hegemonic systems of power.

Résumé

Cet article s’appuie …

"Hady Zaccak: 'In This Place: Reels Of Beirut'" La Scénographie Comme Chassé-Croisé Entre Plusieurs Espaces/Temps, Joanna Raad

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Ce compte-rendu tente d’inscrire l’installation de Hady Zaccak, In This Place: Reels of Beirut, dans un concept théâtral de « scénographie d’exposition ». L’article conjecture un dialogue entre l’espace-temps des films et celui de l’observateur/spectateur. Pourquoi la fiction peut-elle jouer le rôle d’archive ? Comment le passé dialogue-t-il avec le présent ? L’ancien Beyrouth, la « Suisse de l’Orient », est-il un mythe ou une réalité ? Autant de questions abordées dans un langage interdisciplinaire.

Theorizing The Spiritual-Secular Binary In Modern And Contemporary Art Of – And By Artists From – The Swana Region, Valerie Gonzalez

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The present article critically examines the spiritual–secular binary in modern and contemporary art from the SWANA region and by artists with heritage from that region who live or have lived elsewhere. Given this binary’s origin in the European Enlightenment’s view of religion, and its epistemic canonization through post-Enlightenment ideas on art and culture in the colonial era, this examination is carried out within the framework of current decolonizing art historical discourses and their postcolonial background.
The reflection begins with a key moment of global modernism, underpinned by the colonial diffusion of secularism. It then proceeds to explore the cultural shifts …

Introduction – Whither The Spiritual? Rethinking Secularism’S Legacy In Post-Ottoman Art, Hannah Feldman, Kirsten Scheid

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This dossier seeks to pinpoint hazards emerging on the globally redrawn map of art and culture. It was conceived to expose and navigate the mines laid when the ostensibly methodologically secular discourse of art history turns to art made outside Euro-American cultural centers – art often considered out of sync with Euro-American modernity.¹ As commonly approached, the pinnacle of that modernity corresponds roughly to what one of us has referred to as the “decades of decolonization,” in an effort to avoid reaffirming the Eurocentrism inherent in labeling the period as ‘post-war’...

Revolutionary Reenactment: Militant Futures Past In Rania And Raed Rafei’S “74 (The Reconstitution Of A Struggle)”, Judith Naeff

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This article analyses how innovative narrative techniques operate in the movie 74 (The Reconstitution of a Struggle) by Rania and Raed Rafei (2012). The film is a reenactment of an historical event: the student occupation of the American University of Beirut one year before the start of the Lebanese civil war. The use of improvised reenactment, testimonials and the voiceover all strengthen the film’s approach to the event as an embodied transformative experience, even as it descends into its defeat. While a cynical spectator might argue that the focus on “revolutionary becoming” reduces collective action to individual experience, the article …

Le Cinéma Politique Et Engagé Turc, Mehmet Ozturk

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This article is about Turkish political cinema. The cinema, which began with the authorization of the state during the fall of the Ottoman Empire, did not have an important political role during the construction of the Kemalist Republic. In the 1950s, it entered its golden age in pro-American Turkey. At the end of the 1960s, especially in the lead years (1970), political cinema was used on several occasions as part of the ideology of the far right and the revolutionary left. After the violence of the military coup of 1980, it remained rather cynical and disengaged. Political interpretations represented the …

Introduction – Le Cinéma Militant Dans Le Monde Arabe (Des Années 1960 À Nos Jours), Joseph Korkmaz

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Le cinéma militant dans le monde arabe, des années soixante du siècle dernier à maintenant, est tributaire d’un contexte historique marqué par le conflit israélo-palestinien et, par induction, israélo-arabe. Ce contexte s’inscrit à son tour dans la Guerre froide et le bras de fer entre le bloc communiste, mené par l’URSS, et le bloc occidental, parrainé par les États-Unis...

Usages Du Ciné-Tract Dans Le Film « Demande À Ton Ombre », Camille Leprince

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Lamine Ammar-Khodja's first feature film, produced in 2012, Demande à ton ombre (Ask your shadow) is part of the so-called "creation" documentary. A diary and political chronicle, this film which runs from January to March 2011 plunges us into the news of the Arab uprisings seen from Algeria. While distinguishing itself in several respects from a militant cinema, Demande à ton ombre does not deny certain processes of the tradition of cine-tracts. In order to measure this distant, even distanced, proximity to the resources of militant and engaged cinema, it is proposed here to analyze their function and …

From Classroom To Gallery Floor: A Processual Exploration Of Rene Saheb’S (Meta)Physical Engagements With Clay, Kasper Tromp

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This article presents a case study detailing the creative process of Iranian artist Rene Saheb. It analyzes the various stages, developments, and challenges Saheb went through while she explored the medium of clay, which was new to her artistic repertoire. Rather than focusing on outward properties of ceramics such as style or technique, the artist’s inward experiences of her medium and creative process are foregrounded by means of interviews.
As Saheb frequently turns to Islamic mysticism and poetry as conceptual anchorage throughout her creative process, her engagements with the ceramic medium will be discussed in light of relevant Islamic discourses …

Liberating “Khatt” From Calligraphy: Samir Sayegh On Art, Religion And Spiritualit, Kristen Scheid, Hala Shoucair, Saleh Barakat

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The eminent Samir Sayegh has contributed substantially to Arab modernism as a critic, historian, and artist himself.¹ His writings in Arabic are well known, through numerous journal articles, interviews, and most notably his 1988 book, Islamic Art: A Speculative Reading of Its Philosophy and Aesthetic Particularities.²
Further, his thinking impacted scores of students and colleagues in architecture or graphic design from the American University of Beirut, where he lectured from 2003 to 2007.
However, his voice has not been heard loudly in English. This transcript amalgamates multiple sittings with Sayegh, between 2009 and 2022. He kindly allowed us to …

History Or Project? The Double Life Of Islamic Art Since The 1970s, Hamed Yousefi

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This article argues that since the 1970s a duality divides the concept of Islamic Art. On the one hand, we have Islamic Art as the subject matter of a modern mode of historical inquiry, invented and developed in the colonial period in Europe but then taken up by scholars from around the world, including Muslim academics. This is the Islamic Art of Islamic Art History as a field of secular scholarship.
But then, in the decolonization period, and more pronouncedly since the 1970s, we witness the birth of another concept of Islamic Art that is not focused on the past. …

The Nonidentical Identical; Or, Notes On Violence And Escape In Basel Abbas And Ruanne Abou-Rahme’S "Oh Shining Star Testify", Ruslana Lichtzier

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A review of Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme’s installation Oh shining star testify at the 12th Berlin Biennale (2022), where the artists present Palestinian lives and deaths by disrupting the progressive chronologies of Palestine’s ongoing obliteration.
The essay considers the representation of racist epistemologies through recourse to the work of Saidiya Hartman and Fred Moten, while also situating the installation within a lineage of cultural productions that respond to the histories of genocide.