[Nettime-ro] Lunds konsthall: I, the Undersigned. Rabih MrouÃ

[Cosmin Costinas <cosmincostinas2004@yahoo.com>]

I, the Undersigned. Rabih MrouÃ
12 Marchâ8 May 2011

Opening:
Friday, 11 March 6â8pm

Lunds konsthall
MÃrtenstorget 3
SE-223 51 Lund, Sweden
T +46 46 355295
lundskonsthall@lund.se
www.lundskonsthall.se


It
 is with particular joy that Lunds konsthall presents the exhibition I, 
the Undersigned. In these days of profound change and hopefulness in the
 Arab world we are very proud to be able to show the first-ever solo 
exhibition by the internationally renowned Lebanese theatre director, 
actor and artist Rabih MrouÃ.

Curated by Cosmin Costinas, this 
exhibition is produced by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst in Utrecht, the 
Netherlands, where it was premiered in the summer of 2010. It is 
traveling to a number of international locations in 2011 and 2012. The 
exhibition has been somewhat changed for Lunds konsthall and includes 
new works. But most importantly, a number of points, ideas and 
statements in the show have been reformulated or altogether changed in 
light of the 2011 Arab Revolution.

Rabih MrouÃ's art roams the 
boundaries between the narrative and the visual, between things that 
require special attention (including the patience to listen and read) 
and things that can only be experienced here and now, with all senses. 
He articulates sophisticated political consciousness and hands-on 
experience of the political, but in doing so he starts from the 
personal, which does not conform to any given ideology, at least not in 
the long run.

The exhibition borrows its title from one of the 
works, from 2007, in which Mrouà offers a public apology for what he 
himself did during the civil war in Lebanon, lasting from 1975, when he 
was eight years old, until 1990, when he became twenty-three. The video 
could be considered emblematic of his practice, which is grounded in the
 directness and physical presence of theatre and performance art but 
also presupposes textuality. I, the Undersigned demonstrates how a 
skilled and sensitive actor can create meaning with subtle phrasing, in 
dialogue with a well-written text.

Like MrouÃ's other videos, 
video installations or text and sound compositions this casts light on 
the complex and often brutal recent history in what we usually call the 
Middle East. Yet he does not treat his own experience of a long-lasting 
and labyrinthine conflict as something specific that an outsider could 
never understand it or identify with, and thereby as something exotic 
that cannot really threaten us. 'I, the Undersigned' can be anyone of us
 who tries to take responsibility for his own actions and â no less 
importantlyâhis memories of these actions.

Lunds konsthall has 
translated MrouÃ's works into Swedish. One reason for this is that our 
own audience should be able to feel that the lives reflected in the 
exhibition might have been our ownâthat a well-to-do, secure and 
progressive existence, for instance in Beirut before the hostilities 
began, can be pulverised before there is time to react.

We have 
also chosen to print most texts from the exhibition in the catalogue, in
 both Swedish and English. This is meant as a service to our visitors, 
so that they might read and re-read the wall texts and video scripts at 
their own leisure, and also as a way to advertise the writerly qualities
 of MrouÃ's art. His writing normally appears in symbiosis with other 
forms of expression, but it also deserves to be enjoyed on the printed 
page.



      
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