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Exhibition by Houssam Bokeili
A Bus...
And Its Replicas...
بوسطة...

وأشباهها...
April 8 - May 1, 2011 @ The Hangar | Beirut


Between April and May 2011, visitors to The Hangar were able to view Lebanon's most notorious vehicle: the infamous bus of Ain ar-Rummaneh that drove Lebanon into 15 years of civil war.

Artwork done by Houssam Bokeili, infused by childhood memories of Beirut before 1975, engaged with the figure of the "bus" and led the audience to the largest and most symbolic exhibit: the bus itself. What Bokeili's work achieved is that it did not just send viewers back to the past; it invited them to make critical leaps between the memory repositories and artifacts assembled. Using a mechanical reproduction technique inspired by Pop Art, Houssam Bokeili's work navigated his personal memories in relation to collective commemorations of social and political history. The replicas of the Ain ar-Rummaneh bus, iconic in Lebanon’s historical imaginary, interrogated the relation between art and history forming, to use Pierre Nora's phrase, a "lieu de mémoire."

In "A Bus and its Replicas," Bokeili sought to replicate the essence of "bus" as it figured in his imaginary: a complex combination of joy and dismay. Ultimately, its path unfolds onto a new space, where memory and imagination intersect.

This exhibition was made possible thanks to the institutional support from the Embassy of Denmark in Lebanon and Mawred Culture Resource.


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Photo Gallery
From the Opening
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From the Exhibition
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