Archive of the Unknown is an interdisciplinary collaboration between students from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in Beirut and the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, together with Joseph Rustom and Sandra Schäfer and in partnership with UMAM Documentation & Research in Beirut. We are fortunate to participate in the archiving processes of Baalbeck Studios in Beirut, a film production company that operated from 1962 to 1994 and was of immense local and international importance. In 2010, the Lebanese cultural organization UMAM was able to save a large amount of the archival material from destruction. Working with partly inaccessible film, sound, and paper material as well as the ruins of the building, our project investigates Baalbeck Studios’ imaginaries, resonances, diffusions, erosions, contaminations, and composting of materials and memories. We will share this process in Kassel as an installation with a stage-like set comprising sounds, film, and other materials harvested as part of our collective working process. The Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in Beirut and the Academy of Fine Arts Munich are part of the “Composting Knowledge Network” of “documenta fifteen.” (Sandra Schäfer & Joseph Rustom)
From August 13 to September 25 an activation will take place at the Composting Knowledge Network’s premises at Hafenstraße 76 in Kassel.
On 13 August we cordially invite you to a get-together at Hafenstraße 76 on the 3rd floor from 10 - 13:00.
With Georges Azzi, Mohamad Bzih, Paola Faddoul, Anne Gauger, Christina Georges, Benjamin Gerull, Kathrin Herold, Elias Khoury, Magdalena Kratzer, Lucia Ott, Joseph Rustom, Anja Schäfer, Sandra Schäfer, Karen Stephan and Manuela Unverdorben
With financial support from the documenta fifteen, the Goethe-Institut Beirut, ALBA Beirut, and the Akademieverein Munich.
