Son[i]a #387
Haig Aivazian
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To say that Haig Aivazian’s (b. 1980, Beirut) work addresses notions such as duress, capture, resistance and fugitivity is simply to state the obvious considering the basic facts of his biography. Born in Beirut in 1980, Haig was raised amidst the Lebanese Civil War and forced into exile before turning 10.
Through media such as lectures, performance, video, drawing, installation, and sculpture, Haig’s multifaceted works intricately blend the personal and the geopolitical as well as micro and macro narratives. They uncover or perhaps even fabricate complex threads, timelines and visual networks with multiple layers of meaning and ambiguity. His stories are intended to puzzle, reveal intangible connections, and evoke a sense of ghostly friction among conflicting ideas. Since 2009, the duality of light and darkness has been one of the recurring themes that Aivazian examines through various lenses—from the symbolic and metaphorical, to the harsh reality of armed conflict, as well as urban planning and the many ways in which states exercise their power.
In this podcast, we talk to Haig Aivazian about counter-propaganda, sports, blackouts, Palestine, fugitivity and what he calls “the dumping grounds of democracy”.
This podcast is part of New Perspectives for Action. A project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union. Co-produced by BEK.
Conversation: Roc Jiménez de Cisneros and Anna Ramos. Script and sound production: Roc Jiménez de Cisneros. Voice over: Javiera Cadiz. Sounds: RWM Working Group, sounds from the Willem Twee Studios library, in Den Bosch. Photo: Myriam Boulos.
Marwa Arsanios
In this podcast, Lebanese artist, researcher, and filmmaker Marwa Arsanios unpacks the many conversational tactics embedded in her modes of working in the gaps between art and activism, in the intersection between ecological thinking, land struggles, and feminist politics. We talk about reading groups, the film object, solidarity as a practice, and using the art economy to bring communities and movements together.
Bouchra Khalili
Through a practice that combines documentary, conceptual art, installation, and oral storytelling, Bouchra Khalili explores questions of self-representation, political agency, and the resistance strategies of individuals and communities rendered invisible by the colonial, oppressive, and exclusionary dynamics of nation-states. Who is a witness? Who tells the story? Who documents, archives, and transmits the accounts that reach us? These are the central questions that run through all of Khalili’s work. In this podcast, we talk to Bouchra Khalili about what it means to produce images and to approach film and documentary practice from new places and perspectives.
Eric Baudelaire
Born in Salt Lake City but based in Paris, Eric Baudelaire uses various formats to explore politically-charged historical events and documents. In FONS ÀUDIO #21 he discusses the background and context of the ideas and procedures behind 'The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi, and 27 Years Without Images'.
Naeem Mohaiemen
Naeem Mohaiemen talks about pragmatic politics and failed masculinities, about Yasser Arafat, Muammar Gaddafi, and Salvador Allende, about the backstories of "Two Meetings and a Funeral", and about the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. We also talk about the generative aspect of melancholy, behind-the-scenes politics, and the importance of keeping up the search for the things that we still do not know.