Mondial 2010 & A Spectacle of Privacy
Roy Dib
A Space Main Gallery
April 5 – May 7, 2016
Essay by: Keli Safia Maksud
Copresented by: Images Festival
In the North American premiere of Beirut-based artist Roy Dib’s A Spectacle of Privacy (2014) and Mondial 2010 (2014), Dib uses present-day Middle Eastern laws to discuss institutional borders and the impossibility of representation. The relations between Israelis and Lebanese are governed by laws that forbid Lebanese interaction with nationals of enemy states, and prevents Lebanese citizens from traveling to Israel (or to Palestinian Territories). Mondial 2010 centers on a Lebanese gay couple as they take a road trip to Ramallah. Dib uses video as an apparatus to transgress boundaries, making Mondial 2010 a travel film in a trajectory that doesn’t allow travel, starring two male lovers, in a setting where homosexuality is a punishable felony. Moving from the outside in, A Spectacle of Privacy takes place within the interior of a bedroom. As the outside world continues to bleed into conversations, the futility of intentions toward collective understanding, and the need for intimacy and privacy come to a head. Together, Mondial 2010 and A Spectacle of Privacy normalize the abnormal, and by doing so create their own universe of possibility.
Biographies
Roy Dib is a visual artist and art critic that works and lives in Beirut, Lebanon. Dib received a master’s degree in Theater and Performance Studies from the Lebanese University in Beirut, Lebanon, 2004. His practice is rooted in film, video and video installation with a focus on the subjective constructs of space and how they put forth issues from the Middle East’s geopolitical context. In his work, territory, memory, and imagination come together with his experiences in Lebanon, creating new horizons for interaction with otherness. Dib’s works have been exhibited at the 19th Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland (2015); the 19th Contemporary Art Festival SEDC_Videobrasil / Southern Panoramas, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2015); EcransMed Film Festival, Montreal, Canada (2014); Berlinale International Film Festival, Berlin, Germany (2014); Video Works, Beirut, Lebanon (2014 and 2011); Parallel Vienna, Austria (2013); Senatsreservenspeicher, Berlin Gallery, Germany (2013); Rotterdam International Film Festival, Netherlands (2013); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2012); and other venues.
Keli Safia Maksud is Kenyan / Tanzanian / Muslim / Christian visual artist based in Toronto, Canada. Maksud’s interdisciplinary practice explores the politics of exchange and engagement, notions of trade and its effects on identities. Through an interdisciplinary approach to art making, her work investigates everyday forms and materials in order to confront pre-dominating narrations of history. Maksud graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2007 and her works have been shown in galleries and venues in Kenya, Brazil, Canada and the United States.