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Lot Essay
Marwan Hanna is a member of the Atlas Group. However, the Atlas Group is a fictional collective, created by Walid Raad, supposedly aiming to research and document the history of Lebanon. Raad's works, presented as documents and photographs from the past, narrate and visualize stories about the wars that happened in Lebanon between 1975 and 1991, but Raad joyfully plays around with fiction and reality. Now living in the USA, Walid Raad is considered to be one of the most important and most influent contemporary artists of the Middle East.
"We Decided To Let Them Say 'We Are Convinced' Twice.
In the summer of 1982, I stood along with others in a parking lot across from my mother's apartment in East Beirut, and watched the Israeli land, air, and sea assault on West Beirut.The PLO along with the Lebanese and Syrian allies retaliated, as best they could.
East Beirut welcomed the invasion, or so it seemed. West Beirut resisted it, or so it seemed. In 1982, I was thirteen, and wanted to get as close as possible to the events, or as close as my newly acquired telephoto lens permitted me that summer.
Clearly not close enough. This past year, I came upon the negatives from that time, all scratched up and deteriorating. I decided to take a look, again".
Marwan Hanna, 2004
Marwan Hanna is a member of the Atlas Group. However, the Atlas Group is a fictional collective, created by Walid Raad, supposedly aiming to research and document the history of Lebanon. His artworks, presented as documents and photographs from the past, narrate and visualize stories about the wars that happened in Lebanon between 1975 and 1991, but Raad joyfully plays around with fiction and reality. Now living in the US, Walid Raad is considered to be one of the most important and most influent contemporary artists of the Middle East.
"We Decided To Let Them Say 'We Are Convinced' Twice.
In the summer of 1982, I stood along with others in a parking lot across from my mother's apartment in East Beirut, and watched the Israeli land, air, and sea assault on West Beirut.The PLO along with the Lebanese and Syrian allies retaliated, as best they could.
East Beirut welcomed the invasion, or so it seemed. West Beirut resisted it, or so it seemed. In 1982, I was thirteen, and wanted to get as close as possible to the events, or as close as my newly acquired telephoto lens permitted me that summer.
Clearly not close enough. This past year, I came upon the negatives from that time, all scratched up and deteriorating. I decided to take a look, again".
Marwan Hanna, 2004
Marwan Hanna is a member of the Atlas Group. However, the Atlas Group is a fictional collective, created by Walid Raad, supposedly aiming to research and document the history of Lebanon. His artworks, presented as documents and photographs from the past, narrate and visualize stories about the wars that happened in Lebanon between 1975 and 1991, but Raad joyfully plays around with fiction and reality. Now living in the US, Walid Raad is considered to be one of the most important and most influent contemporary artists of the Middle East.