Rabih Mroué, one of the most widely discussed names in the international art world for his work in contemporary art, theater and performance, is coming to Istanbul as a guest of Kundura DocLab with two different shows. The Lebanese theater director, actor, visual artist and playwright Rabih Mroué‘s performances “Riding on a Cloud” and “Make Me Stop Smoking” will meet audiences for the first time in Türkiye at Kundura Sahne in April.

The war on our screens, on stage

“Riding on a Cloud”, which you can see on April 24 and 26, takes us to Lebanon and introduces us to Yasser Mroué, Rabih Mroué‘s younger brother and the work’s lead performer. Inviting Yasser, who was wounded in the leg during the Lebanese Civil War and lost his ability to speak, to play a character resembling himself, Mroué creates a subjective portrait of Lebanon’s political conflicts through videos shot on the basis of the memories recounted on stage. Blending reality with fiction, the work examines the modern history and painful present of the Middle East, while also raising a jolting awareness of our globalized visual culture, in which war is watched on screens.

Building a lost world

Rabih Mroué‘s non-academic lecture “Make Me Stop Smoking”, on the other hand, stages a presentation that steps outside the conventions of performance. Taking place free of charge on Saturday, April 27, and followed by a talk with Mroué, the presentation ponders the question: “It may well be possible to rebuild a lost world, but what is the point?” Using a large number of anonymous and personal documents, videos, photographs, newspaper clippings and eyewitness reports to reconstruct and recover Lebanon’s lost images, the artist questions how valid a reconstructed “reality” can be.

Riding on a Cloud

Performance, 65′, in Arabic with English and Turkish subtitles

Written and Directed by: Rabih Mroué / Performer: Yasser Mroué / Contributor: Sarmad Louis

/ Assistant Director: Petra Serhal / English Translation: Ziad Nawfal / Co-production: Fonds Podiumkunsten, Prins Claus Fonds, Hivos & Stichting DOEN – (Netherlands)

Images… One disappears, another appears. Most of the time, he cannot grasp the connection between one photograph and the one next to it. He needs someone who knows him well to explain it and set the memory in motion, so that the photograph ceases to be merely itself.

How does memory work when the memories in your head resemble still photographs that contain no scenes from the past?

Director Rabih Mroué’s theater work is a compelling blend of the personal and the political: in ‘Riding on a Cloud’, he invites his brother Yasser to play a character resembling himself. Yasser, who was wounded in the Lebanese Civil War and lost his ability to speak, begins shooting videos based on the memories he recounts on stage, and these create a subjective portrait of political developments in Lebanon. ‘Riding on a Cloud’ also tells of the fragile structure of biography, a structure that emerges between political reality, memories, facts and fiction. For Mroué, this is always the starting point of artistic personal reflection, which he then adapts for the theater.

Make Me Stop Smoking

A presentation of examined ideas

A non-academic lecture by Rabih Mroué, 60′, in Arabic with English and Turkish subtitles

Production: Ashkal Alwan – Beirut

It may well be possible to rebuild a lost world, but what is the point?

In this audiovisual lecture/performance, Lebanese writer and director Rabih Mroué ponders precisely this question. Using a large number of anonymous and personal documents, videos, photographs, newspaper clippings and eyewitness reports to reconstruct and recover Lebanon’s lost landscape, the artist questions the accuracy and credibility of records. In doing so, he uses this complex system of convoluted narratives and examines how valid a reconstructed “reality” can be.

Commissioned by Akram Zaatari, 2006.