Lebanon - Malta - International Exhibitions
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Exhibitions in Beirut: Lost and found
by Helen Khal
Special to The Daily Star
Last week, the organizers of the International Biennial of Malta paid
homage to Beirut as the 1999 cultural capital of the Arabic-speaking world by
bringing us a minuscule selection of the almost 2,000 works that were
shown in its last biennial. The collection, containing 191 very modest
samples of art from 32 countries, was shown in one of the newly restored
galleries of Unesco Palace. In another equally spacious gallery across
the hall, as a return gesture of homage to the Malta biennial, the
paintings and sculptures of 37 Lebanese artists were on display.
I cannot give you more than a bird’s eye view of this twin exhibition
and even if I could, it would mean nothing to you. It’s not there for
anyone to see any more. It folded its tent and quietly stole away last
Sunday, after only a one-week run. This newspaper received no notice of
the event and I learned about it the day before it closed only by
word-of-mouth chance.
But I can and will share my reflections on why this multi-national art
event failed to impress me. First of all, reducing an international
biennial from 2,000 to 191 pieces and expecting to show what the art of
32 countries is all about takes much more planning and effort than just
putting together a confusing platter of mixed hors d’oeuvres. There were
no separate pavilions or sections devoted to each country; the paintings
were hung haphazardly one next to the other, with little rhyme or reason
and without adequate identification; some of the works were photocopies,
not originals; and there was no catalog to provide information on the
show.
All merged into a dizzying maze before my eyes. I didn’t know what I was
looking at and can’t remember what I saw.
What was brought to Beirut is apparently a sample of the exhibition
digest concept that Malta applies to each of its biennials. The idea is
to “export” the biennial in segments instead of holding it in one
place. For example, the 1999 Malta show, scheduled to run from Sept. 12
to Oct. 12, will be held simultaneously in seven countries Malta,
Egypt, France, Italy, Lebanon, Britain and the United States. If what we
saw is the way this concept is being handled, it just doesn’t work.
I also could not understand why the biennial was accompanied by a
full-scale show of Lebanese art. It’s no homage to Malta to have Lebanon
take over a huge room to spotlight its artists while cramming the art of
32 other countries in another. Not very gracious of our country, I would
say. Had the organizers of the event concentrated on a proper
presentation of the Malta biennial throughout the two UNESCO galleries,
they would have at least ended up with a more visually coherent show.
Frankly, exhibitions like this do not add up to effective cultural
exchange.
The works of the three women painters that make up the exhibition now on
at Galerie Rochane provides me with another kind of bone to pick. I have
always encouraged people to get involved in the creation of art it’s a
wonderfully satisfying occupation. But I also believe and certainly
know from experience that it takes years of splashing paint on canvas
before one can produce art of meaningful value and worthy of public
exhibition. Too many young artists these days are jumping into the
professional arena before they are ready.
Nada Machnouk Eido and Roula Sammakieh, who completed their art studies
in 1991, are still experimenting, still searching. It shows in their
work. What they have produced so far does not move me. They follow a
path of least resistance and come up with superficial abstractions that
lack authenticity of expression. Nor do they possess the personally
oriented and honed skills needed to achieve valid expression.
Sammakieh combines figuration with abstract expressionism in an attempt
to convey poetic musings on life. The images she creates would indicate
she is reserved and introspective in temperament, but her jarring color
combinations and nervous brushwork introduce an aggressivity that
disturbs the quietude of her figures and sends the viewer conflicting
signals.
Eido, totally abstract, seeks to give emotional impact to the material
itself. Working in square dimensions, she builds up thick, roughly
textured surfaces out of what could be plaster but is probably a
synthetic resin of some sort. She then proceeds to coat these surfaces
with monochromatic tonalities of color mostly red or blue. The
weakness here is that the material remains hard, cold, inert and lacking
in breathing, living spirit.
Bawab, who works in the figurative genre, is much further along in her
search. She completed her art studies in 1975 and her skills in both
oil painting and collage are admirably accomplished. In style,
composition and color scale, the oil paintings strongly resemble the
collages, which are made up of cuttings from magazine photos. Each
looks, in fact, like the painted enlargement of a collage. Which makes
me wonder why Bawab is shifting to oils when she is so much more
vibrantly expressive in the collage medium. We’ll have to wait a bit
more to see where her work in oils take her.
Galerie Rochane, Verdun Plaza, Rue Verdun, until March 4. Tel: (01)
818547