Lecture | Conversation
In the Making #1: Rabih Mroué, Sand in the Eyes
- Rabih Mroué
- Date
- Sunday 26 November 2023
- Time
- Address
- West in the former American embassy
Lange Voorhout 102
The Hague
The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) of Leiden University and art institute West Den Haag are pleased to announce their close collaboration in the new public series In the Making. In six public sessions they will present to the public different practices of research in the arts.
Artistic production has always expressed the forms in which we know, explore, and sense the world we live in. The current practice of research in the arts consciously assumes this exploration. In the past decades the focus on research in the domain of the arts has grown – as well as its role in universities and other research contexts – expressing its engagement with the realities of the world at large.
In the Making will address how artists conduct their research. Guest artist researchers and artist researchers from Leiden University will present their projects, approaches to research, methods and results. Each session will address questions inherent to these projects. In the Making aims to deepen a perspective which conceives of artistic practice not as the sole product of individual visionaries but as a collective endeavor embedded in society. It addresses the role of art in the construction of the present and the creation of possible futures.
In the Making #1
In this session Rabih Mroué will present his Non-Academic Lecture “Sand in the Eyes” and will enter into a dialogue with art curator and critic Nat Muller, photographer Andrea Stultiens and art historian Sven Lütticken.
In Sand in the Eyes Rabih Mroué explores the image politics of ISIS videos in contrast with videos shot by drones. Based on research material comprised of recruiting videos secured by the officers of the German Intelligence Services, Mroué asks not only what these videos reveal about their producers or the videos’ capacity to document killing, but also questions the politics inherent in dealing with these videos from the point of view of the state and society.
Sand in the Eyes is what Mroué calls a ‘non-academic lecture’, it is followed by an interview and panel discussion.
This session is organized in collaboration with the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam and Society (LUCIS). Rabih Mroué’s visit has been carried in coordination with ACPA’s Minor Creative Strategies for a Society in Change.
About Rabih Mroué
Rabih Mroué, born in Beirut and currently living in Berlin, is a theatre director, actor, visual artist and playwright. He is a contributing editor for The Drama Review /TDR (New York) and co-founder of the Beirut Art Center (BAC). He was a fellow at The International Research Center: Interweaving Performance Cultures/ FU/Berlin from 2013 -2014. He has been a theatre-director at Münchner Kammerspiele from 2015 -2019. His works include: Hartakāt (2023), Sunny Sunday (2020), Borborygmus (2019), So Little time (2016), Ode to Joy (2015), Riding on a cloud (2013), 33 RPM and a Few Seconds (2012), The Inhabitants of images (2008).
Lecture Our Hirāk: The Tishreen Revolution
On Tuesday 28 November, Rabih Mroué will give a presentation at Leiden University, read more here.