Fisher Center LAB and Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) present
The Search for Power • Installation
Tania El Khoury and Ziad Abu-Rish
February 10–23
Fisher Center LAB and Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) present
February 10–23
On a night with a sudden electricity outage in their Beirut neighborhood, the artist and her historian husband discussed the history of power cuts in Lebanon. Born during the Lebanese Civil War, the artist had grown up with the understanding that the problem with electricity in Lebanon began during the war. The historian, however, recalled finding a government document dated 1952 that announced scheduled electricity outages across Beirut. The two decided to research the history of power outages in Lebanon, delving into the intersection between public utilities infrastructure, people’s relationship to the state, and various popular mobilizations to shape both.
In time, they reach as far back as the introduction of electricity in Beirut before it was even possible to imagine a Lebanese state. In space, they collect documents across Lebanon and beyond its borders, visiting the archives of colonial powers: Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. What they find is a transnational story that locates electricity at the intersection of colonial legacies, the machinations of political and economic elites, and everyday acts of resistance, survival, and sabotage.
Photo by Maria Baranova
In the open installation, the audience is invited to listen through headphones to a pre-recorded text and explore the archive box in their own time. The experience is approximately 45 minutes.
The Search for Power will be on view at CCS Bard / Hessel Museum of Art Monday through Sunday, 11 am – 5 pm, through February 23, 2025.
The last admission for the open installation will be one hour before the museum’s closing.
FOOD ALLERGY NOTICE
Please be aware that the table featured at the center of the performance will be set with—among other items—candles, tree nuts, grapes, dried apricots, and wine.
Tania El Khoury is a live artist whose work focuses on audience interactivity and its political potential. She creates installations and performances in which the audience is a witness and an active collaborator. Tania’s work has been translated into multiple languages and shown in 32 countries across 6 continents in spaces ranging from museums to cable cars. She is the recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, the Soros Art Fellowship, the Bessies Outstanding Production Award, the International Live Art Prize, the Total Theatre Innovation Award, and the Arches Brick Award. Tania is a Distinguished Artist in Residence of Theater & Performance and the Director of the OSUN Center for Human Rights & the Arts at Bard College in New York. She holds a PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London. She is associated with the Forest Fringe collective of artists in the UK and is a co-founder of the urban research and live art collective, Dictaphone Group in Lebanon.
Ziad Abu-Rish is a scholar of the modern Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. His research centers around state formation, economic development, and popular mobilizations, particularly in Lebanon and Jordan. He earned his PhD in History from the University of California Los Angeles, and his MA in Arab Studies from the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. Abu-Rish is co-editor of The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings: End of an Old Order? (2012), among other edited volumes. He is the author of several articles and chapters, including “Garbage Politics in Lebanon,” “Municipal Elections in Lebanon,” and “Lebanon Beyond Exceptionalism.” He serves as co-editor of the Arab Studies Journal and Jadaliyya e-zine, and co-director of the Lebanese Dissertation Summer Institute. Abu-Rish is an Associate Professor of Human Rights and Middle East Studies at Bard College, where he also directs the MA Program in Human Rights and the Arts.
Creation Tania El Khoury and Ziad Abu-Rish
Production Design Petra Abousleiman
Research Ziad Abu-Rish with support from Owain Lawson and Joelle Boutros
Graphic Design Jana Traboulsi & Haitham Haddad
Sound Design Ali Beidoun & Fadi Tabbal
Dramaturgy Deborah Pearson
Production RR Sigel
Technical Supervision Maciej Lewandowski
The Search for Power was commissioned by Anti Festival Live Art Prize. The research was supported by Arts Council England, Shubbak Festival, and brut Wien. The installation was commissioned by Sharjah Biennial 15 (SB15).
Fisher Center LAB is the residency and commissioning program of the Fisher Center at Bard. Tania El Khoury is a 2024–26 Fisher Center LAB artist in residence supported by the Mellon Foundation.
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