Zena El-Khalil
Born in 1976 in London, currently living in Beirut. A installation artist and painter, and the co-founder and director of Xanadu, an art/space collective based in London and New York.
Q & A
Most of the work featured in Rebirth Lebanon seems to have a spontaneous, reactionary feel in its expression. What prompted you to write?
I began to write almost as a means of survival. I was worried that people outside of Lebanon would not be getting the whole story about what was really going on. As I began to write and get many responses, I realized how valuable the writing was; people wanted to hear about the everyday realities of war told from a regular person rather than for example, a politician.
What sort of reactions, positive and/or negative, did your work receive upon its first diffusion?
I got so many comments posted on my blog that which were both positive and negative. The positive ones were really encouraging and compassionate and were directly about my writing. The negative comments, however, were totally irrational. It was as if they just logged in to post negativity and then leave to attack the next blog. They were what I called, "The Army of Hateful Bloggers". There was a war on land, but there was one online too.
How do you view the role held by artistic expression in Lebanon, especially in relation to the current crisis?
We make art, we write, we create almost as a testimony. I think people appreciate work that is made in "real time" because it is a lot more honest. It doesn’t give you much time to come up with dense theoretical work; rather, one is focused on their immediate experience, which can be highly emotional. And of course, it is much easier for people to respond to that.
What does "Rebirth Lebanon" mean to you?
Lebanon is in a continuous state of re-birth, reinventing herself. It is part of our culture and identity; we do it too. Though some may find this instability annoying, I believe it is what gives Lebanon her extraordinary power to attract artists and thinkers.
http://beirutupdate.blogspot.com/
