"Ismyrna" and "Two Suns in a Sunset"

ISMYRNA
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, 2016
50', in French with English subtitles

Artists and filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige present their most recent film ISMYRNA (2016), a conversation with artist and poet Etel Adnan as seen through the personal stories of Joana and Etel weaving a background to the radical changes that took place in the region after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The artists Etel Adnan and Joana met in the end of the 1990s, they quickly grew close, bound by links to a city they had never been to: Smyrna formerly, Izmir today. Joana’s paternal Greek family were forced into exile from Smyrna by the Turkish armies after the end of the Ottoman Empire. Etel’s Greek mother, was born in Smyrna, married to a Syrian officer of the Ottoman Army and exiled to Lebanon after the fall of the empire. Etel and Joana lived in an imaginary Smyrna, without ever setting foot there. At present, both find themselves engaged with questions around the transmission of history, and interrogate their attachment to objects, places, imaginary constructions and mythologies without images. How are we to live today, out of the nostalgia as Etel would say, in the “eternal present”?

This screening will coincide with the launch of Two Suns In a Sunset, the most recent publication by Hadjithomas and Joreige. Written in three languages – Arabic, French, and English –  this monograph shows the unique way, they navigate between art and film, with works inspired by found documents, personal archives and poetic experiences developing narratives and images around stories kept secret. Including contributions by Hoor Al Qasimi, Philippe Azoury, Omar Berrada, José Miguel G.Cortès, Okwui Enwezor, Marta Gili, Boris Groys, Nat Muller, Anna Schneider and Brian Kuan Wood. 

To mark the occasion, the artists will be in conversation with the Sursock Museum's Head of Programs and Exhibitions, Nora Razian. 

ISMYRNA was coproduced by Abbout Productions, Sharjah Art Foundation, and Jeu de Paume. 

Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige collaborate as filmmakers and artists, producing cinematic and visual artwork that intertwine. For the last 15 years, they have focused on the images, representations, and the writing of history, questioning the fabrication of imaginaries in the region and beyond. Their artwork has been exhibited all around the world as the Guggenheim, New York, US; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; the Whitechapel, London, UK, The Jeu de Paume, Paris and numerous biennales, including the Gwangju Biennale, Sharjah Biennale, the Istanbul Biennale, and the Venice Bienniale.