Lightbox, Acetate Sheet, 38×53 cm, 2017
Three attempts at giving a shape to the land on acetate plastic material which no longer exists (the one I found was by coincidence). The artist, Rafik Mourad, and I traced and etched our initial attempts at drawing a map of the Wadi al-Hujeir area. This technique in map-making is out of practice today.
The technique of engraving maps, which involves transferring information from aerial photographs onto film or what is called couche tracée in French, is now obsolete. I met the last cartographer in Lebanon, and together we used this method to engrave and prepare these maps as a preliminary step toward drawing or defining the map of the land I intend to dedicate to the gallery. A piece of land that has no official survey or property deed, simply because the state never made its way up to the southern villages of Lebanon to carry out a land survey. This work questions the role of the state , from the time of the French Mandate, through the era of feudalism, and into the formation of the modern state.
This work was part of “There Is No Right Or Wrong Here”. A solo exhibition at Marfa Gallery
