AGENDALEBANON

FILM

‘Arna’s Children’Metropolis – EmpireSofil, AchrafiehMay 5, 8 p.m. TicketsLL5000.00+961 3 793 065Filmmaker Juliano Mer-Khamis is the son of ArnaMer-Khamis, who estab-lished Jenin Palestinianrefugee camp’s FreedomTheater, a platform foryoungsters to find joy andself-expression throughart against the Israelioccupation.The filmmak-er’s award-winning docu-mentary seeks out whathas become of some ofher youthful charges. InArabic, Hebrew and Eng-lish with English subtitles.

PHOTOGRAPHY

‘East Jerusalem and its Environs’The Hangar, Haret HreikThrough May 10, 4-9 p.m.+961 1 55 36 04;+961 70 05 48 71This exhibition of worksshot by Peter Riedlingerbetween 2001 and 2008is part of UMAM’s“Us/Them” series.

ART

‘Electoral Candidate’Safana Gallery, VerdunThrough May 6+961 1 869 564Charbel Samuel Aoun’ssatirical paintings target-ing political advertisingtransfer to the SafanaGallery.

‘Beyro by Abi Hanna – AbiHanna by Beyro’Dar al-Mona Fine Arts,BatrounThrough May 17+961 6 642 215Lebanese artist HannaAbi Hanna and Argen-tinean Diego Beyro pre-sent a series of portraits,exploring perceptions ofthe self and the other.

‘Essences’State of Art Gallery, Sin al-FilThrough May 20+961 1 489 038Painter and furnituredesigner Sandra KheirSahyoun launches hernew gallery with an exhi-bition of acrylic canvasesof exotic figures inspiredby travels in Yemen andIndia, together with acollection of her tabledesigns.

‘Exposure 2009’Beirut Art Center, Jisr al-Wati, Building 13, Street97, off Corniche al-Nahr. Through June 9, 12-8 p.m. +961 1 397 018; +96170 26 21 12 An exhibition of worksby emerging artists Tama-ra al-Samerraei, NadimAsfar, Sirine Fattouh,John Jurayj, JenniferMaghzal, Karine Wehbéand Raed Yassin.

‘From Havana to Beirut’South Border Gallery,Gemmayzeh Through May 9+961 1 584 040 The Lebanese-Cubanartist Luis EnriqueCamejo presents a seriesof paintings capturingthe different senses oflight and movement ofthe two cities.

‘Somewhere … Elsewhere …’The Running Horse Contemporary ArtSpace, Medawar, BeirutThrough May 30+961 3 710 225.The inaugural show ofthis brand new space fea-tures the work of oft-exhibited painter SigridGlöerfelt.

REVIEW

HOROSCOPETaurus (April 20 – May 20)

You have a sudden feeling that youmust be cautious about travel plans.Relatives may call up with schedulechanges, or you may find that thereare additional expenses of the minibar.

Gemini (May 21 – June 21)

Talking to family and close friends mayhelp you clear your mind about an in-vestment decision. Listen carefully to alladvice, but your first responsibility is topay down credit card debt.

Virgo (Aug. 23 – Sept. 22)

You’ll have buckets of energy today, like-ly as a result of some activity you haveplanned. There is an opportunity for youto improve your personal status as a re-sult of the people you know.

Libra (Sept. 23 – Oct. 22)

You will learn that there is serious eq-uity in your home today. Family mem-bers may offer to help you out finan-cially or give you gifts. If you feel youneed advice, look to an older relative.

Capricorn (Dec. 22 – Jan. 19)

You are incredibly attractive today, butpay attention only to those who areactually interested in what have to say.An interesting person with radicalideas could drift across your path.

Aquarius (Jan. 20 – Feb. 18)

You have an opportunity to attend aspa get-away that could be pro-foundly healing to your body andsoul. You want to be surrounded incomfort today. Indulge.

Aries (Mar. 21 – April 19)

There is some good career news com-ing your way. A job offer, a promotionor a significant raise in your operatingbudget will help you become moreproductive and prosperous.

Cancer (June 22 – July 22)

The best place to meet a new roman-tic partner is among friends and fami-ly. You will have a pleasant day be-cause you are popular: Your personalenergy is very attractive right now.

Leo (July 23 – Aug. 22)

You have a breakthrough today in-volving a family member and theirhealth issues. Keep up the support-they may not react positively in everycase but you are needed right now.

Scorpio (Oct. 23 – Nov. 21)

Communication will be easier today.Friends, loved ones and romanticpartners seem to come together inmore positive and loving ways. Every-one seems to be on the same page.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 21)

You will have mixed luck financially to-day. This is an excellent day for long-term planning. Focus on structure, sta-bility and security – and avoid any im-pulsive spending.

Pisces (Feb. 19 – Mar. 20)

If you are single, look to your circle offriends for opportunities to enhanceyour little black book. Your social oppor-tunities are fantastic today, and you havea chance to make exciting new friends.

Radio is the theater of themind; television is the the-ater of the mindless.

Steve Allen(1921-2000)

American Comic, Actor,Composer and Writer

Just a thought

12 THE DAILY STAR monday, may 4, 2009ARTS & CULTURESTAR SCENE

BEIRUT: The Ambassador of France in Lebanon HEAndreParant hosted a cocktail reception at the Residence des Pinson Wednesday evening. The event was occasioned by theannouncement that Radio France 24 has begun to broad-cast 10 hours of Arabic-language programming a day. Asyou might expect, several hundred people turned out tojoin the ambassador and his guests – France 24 presidentAlain de Pouzilhac, France 24 director-general ChristineOckrent and France 24 Arabic service director NahidaNakad – for the event. Not least among them were SolangeGemayel, Danyel Romania and Simar Turk.

French ambassador hosts party tocelebrate Radio France 24 launch

Maya and Andre Parant, Nahida Nakad, Alain de Pouzil-hac and Christine Ockrent

Michelle de Freij and Solange Gemayel

Francis Stephan, Patrice Begay and Joseph Abi Khalil

Kamel, Faida and Zeina Mehanna

Sady Farah

Phot

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Music for the masses Lebanese musicians mark May Day

BEIRUT: Lebanese chanteuse Hiba Kawas performs during her May Day concert at the Casino du Liban on Fri-day evening. She was accompanied by musicians from the Lebanese national symphony orchestra under thebaton of Karl Sollack and by Spanish guitarist and composer Jose Maria Gallardo Del Rey.

Michelle Nichols Reuters

NEW YORK: An Iranian filmabout college friends reunitingfor a weekend by the CaspianSea and a US documentaryabout teenage go-kart racerswon the top prizes at the TribecaFilm Festival on Thursday.

Asghar Farhadi’s “AboutElly” (“Darbareye Elly”) wonthe Best Narrative Feature andMarshall Curry’s “RacingDreams” took out the BestDocumentary Feature. The di-rectors, who have previouslyshown films at Tribeca, wereeach awarded $25,000.

The world narrative compe-tition judges – producer RichardFischoff, filmmaker ToddHaynes, and actors BradleyCooper, Meg Ryan and UmaThurman – described “AboutElly” as a “seamless piece of en-semble filmmaking.”

“The universality of thecharacters and themes, and thedirectors riveting grasp of thisstory make ‘About Elly’ a filmthat collapses barriers anddeepens our understanding ofthe world we share,” they said.

The judges in the world doc-umentary competition were

filmmakers Liz Garbus,MorganSpurlock, author and academicHenry Louis Gates, Jr., actressWhoopi Goldberg, and NBCNews anchor Brian Williams.

“Is it nature or nurture?” thejudges said. “Is it the car or thedriver? While those eternalquestions will live on, we react-ed with unanimous, unques-tioned affection for ‘RacingDreams,’ and found it a com-pletely compelling, entertain-ing film of incredible quality.”

Norwegian director RuneDenstad Langlo was namedBest New Narrative Filmmaker

for “North” (“Nord”), whichtells the tale of a depressed 30-year-old ski lift operator whosets off to reclaim the life he lostafter a sporting accident.

Irish actor Ciaran Hinds wonthe Best Actor award for play-ing a widower with childrenwho volunteers at a literary fes-tival in “The Eclipse,” while USactress Zoe Kazan won the BestActress award for her role as acollege student in “The Explod-ing Girl.”

Ian Olds won the Best NewDocumentary Filmmaker for“Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal

Naqshbandi,” which examinesthe life of an Afghani who trans-lates and arranges interviewsfor foreign journalists. Naqsh-bandi was kidnapped and be-headed by the Taliban in 2007.

“A film about an unsavoryworld, and its unsavory charac-ters,which through its superb di-rection, shines a light on a worldunfamiliar to many Americans,”the jury commented.

In the New York competitioncategory, the Best Narrativewent to “Here and There,” di-rected by Serbian Darko Lun-gulov, starring David Thorntonand his wife, singer Cyndi Lau-per. It tells the tale of a jadedmiddle-aged New Yorker whotravels to Serbia to make somequick money by marrying awoman who wants to move tothe United States.

Best Documentary in theNew York competition went to“Partly Private,” which ex-plores the issue of circumcisionand is directed by Danae Elon.

The eighth annual TribecaFilm Festival, founded by JaneRosenthal, Robert De Niro andCraig Hatkoff to help rejuvenateManhattan after the September11 attacks, showed 85 featurefilms from 32 countries.

Golshifteh Farahani and Taraneh Alidousti in “About Elly.”

Iranian, US films win top Tribeca awards

Self-portrait as a document ofone society in flux ‘Unselfish Auto-Portraits’ exhibits work of 20 young Iranian artistsBavand BehpoorSpecial to The Daily Star

TEHRAN: A shower ofwhite foam pours fromthe mirrored open-mouthed figure of

Behrang Samadzadegan’s unti-tled piece, taken from his series“H&H = Heaven & Hell.” Thecycle provokes a cacophony ofquestions to the spectator.

“What if the dwellers ofhell were given a chance torepresent what they are expe-riencing? What if I had thechance to depict the hell Ihave internalized?”

Such questions follow youthrough “Auto-portraits,” agroup exhibition of photo-based self-portraits by 20young Iranian artists,accompa-nied by an audio self-portraitby sound artist Kaveh Kateb.Curated by photographer-criticAli Ettehad, the show was ondisplay in Tehran’s Azad ArtGallery in April.

Self-portraiture character-izes a great deal of Iranian con-temporary art, which in its com-mitments seems more of amovement rather than a catego-ry. It is striking how sharply thisart differs from its mainstreamEuropean counterpart. No mat-ter how seriously it is dragged

into the art market or is faithfulto the western audience, it re-mains obsessively attentive tothe social life of a people whomay altogether ignore it.

One might try to defend thismovement for how hard it triesto compensate for the lack of at-tention given to the complicat-ed situation in Iran, and to pro-

vide a careful, cruel critique.Ettehad and Nikoo

Tarkhani’s contributions (bothof which are printed on mir-rors) could be gendered reflec-tions of one another. Tarkhanicaptures herself enclosed with-in an ornate cage. Elaboratelyframed, standing before a workof dire contemporary architec-ture, Ettehad is enclosed with-in a hooded army fatigue jack-et. Both artists clutch objects totheir chests. Having pushedthrough the mesh, Tarkhani’shands frame a bowel thatshould be a camera lens. Ette-had grasps a toy police car.

Behrouz Rae’s untitled workis self-deconstruction in action.Fully intact when it was hung onApril 3, the print began to slow-ly fade, so that at the end of theexhibition it was blank paper,albeit one redolent of the smellof Sex Appeal cologne.

Ghazaleh Hedayat’s workresembles a wallpaper sample,whose pattern is comprised ofher own face.At first, this isn’tobvious to the spectator, whohas to come very close to thepicture to see that it is made upof some 4000 of Hedayat’s self-portraits. (“What if I am im-

prisoned in a mirror-workedoriental shrine which reflectsmy shattered image thousandsof times?”)

The new current of youngIranian contemporary artiststakes the revolutionary ambi-tion more seriously than the rev-olutionaries themselves andtries to remember what the rev-olution is apparently eager torender unforgettable. Thus, itcan be said that Iranian contem-porary art has taken a personalinterest in a political structurethat takes no interest in it.

The art looks into itself as aby-product of a discourse in or-der to make itself critical,thereby destabilizing the rigid-ity of the steely, frozen cata-strophe around it. More an ac-complice than a judge, the cur-rent’s powerful core is its rejec-tion of being a victim.

All this expresses itself invariations on a theme of self-portraiture. The works Ettehadhas chosen here show a strikingsimilarity in attitude withoutsharing much resemblance intheir modes of expression. Allthese bitter, confessional self-portraits – which the cataloguesuggests are more related to so-ciety than the “self” – are im-bued with a courage to cutthrough one’s image to reach aninsight into the over all situation.

The selection is, surprisingly,less about personal unreachable“histories” than one collectivehistory that has been so cruel to-wards the mutliplicity of indi-viduals.The works go beyond asense of narcissism and pushaside what one understands ofself-portraiture and use the im-age of the artist himself to neu-tralize any personal identity, asSamira Alikhanzadeh does byusing pyramidical mirrors whichdepict those standing next thespectator, rather than the spec-tator himself.

It seems the current move-ment of Iranian contemporaryart develops against a hatred ofLacan and his famous mirror orvoid. It tries to escape the mir-ror-worked shrine, to breakthrough the mirror, to liberatethe one trapped behind it.

Samadzadegan’s untitled piece from series ‘H&H = Heaven & Hell.’

The work of AliEttehad, whocurated theshow.