Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige
Waiting for the Barbarians
Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, En attendant les Barbares, 2013. Vidéo HD, couleur, son, durée 4 min 30 s. Coproduit par
Onassis Cultural Centre for the Visual Dialogues. © Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige. Galerie In Situ — fabienne leclerc
4 november 2017 – 16 april 2018
Following their exhibition Se souvenir de la lumière (Remembering light) at the Pablo Picasso National Museum – War and Peace in Vallauris, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige are at the Marc Chagall National Museum in Nice, pursuing their exploration of the challenges of the creation and reception of images with their video En attendant les Barbares (Waiting for the Barbarians), a singular poetic filmic object.
A panoramic night-view of the city of Beirut shifts from the fixity of photography and the motion of animated images, using a hypnotic process of superposition of images and stratification of exposure time. Borne by this shift in time and dilution of geographic identity, a voice recites the eponymous text by the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933), melding with the rhythm of the images, staging the wait for an enemy, who never arrives or may not even exist. “What will we do without Barbarians? In fact, such peoples were a solution.”
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige are artists and filmmakers working with many different media: video installation, photography, drama film, documentary essay and performance. Inspired by archives, family objects, personal narratives and day-to-day experience, their works unfold in an assertive experimental dimension, narratives delving into dominant visions and the writing of contemporary history.
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige have received the 2017 Marcel Duchamp contemporary art award.
Curator :
Anne Dopffer, general curator of heritage and head of the Musées Nationaux du XXe siècle des Alpes-Maritimes.
In partnership with MOVIMENTA, festival biennal, Nice
