ARP Talks: Said Baalbaki

Said Baalbaki’s recent works question the mechanisms of perception in museum space, the construction of knowledge within this space, and the credibility given by the public to objects exhibited in a museum. He is interested in questioning the authority and power vested in museums and cultural institutions, and the influence of culture, ideology, and myth in how we participate in cultural consumption.

Baalbaki will present his work, departing from his lithography series Memories of Stones (2012-2015), produced in relation to texts by Gregory Buchakjian, Valérie Cachard, and Marwan Kassab Bachi to his interest in history and the act of writing history in his trilogy series Al Burak (2006-present), and his ongoing research into the life and works of Palestinian-German artist Jussuf Abbo.

Following his talk, Baalbaki will be in conversation with Gregory Buchakjian.

Said Baalbaki (b. 1974, Lebanon) currently lives in Berlin. He studied painting at the Institut des Beaux-Arts, Beirut (1998), Darat al Funun Academy in Amman, and Universität der Künste, Berlin, and holds a master’s degree in Art in Context from the University of the Arts, Berlin. Recent exhibitions include Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2013); Rafia Gallery, Damascus (2010); Dome City Center (DCC), Beirut (2009); and Wilde Gallery, Berlin (2008).

Gregory Buchakjian is a Beirut-based art historian and photographer. He teaches at l'Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA)-University of Balamand, where his research revolves around modern and contemporary Lebanese and Arab art. He recently completed his Ph.D. at Université Paris IV Sorbonne, where he wrote a dissertation titled Abandoned Dwellings in Beirut: Wars and Transformation of the Urban Space (1860-2015).