Synopsis
| Ever since man first existed, struggle surfaced
as a prime mover of his very existence. At the outset, this struggle
was directed against nature with an aim of remaining alive. Then,
as humanity developed and moved on from one age to another, this
struggle evolved, became more complicated and branched into its sequences.
Gibran Khalil Gibran, at the beginning of last
century, gave a philosophical and existentialist vision, emanating
from a sublime spirit of romanticism, about the types of human
struggle represented by three gods of the earth. The first represented
the defeated, the second the victor, and the third their umpire. |
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In our work, as inspired by this logic, we are attempting to create
a framework not alien to this logic; we have conserved the essence
of his concept and his sensibilities, although we have forsaken Gibran's
romanticism.
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This work represents the two poles of philosophical
and political concepts that govern the universal struggle of
our day within the confines of a vision akin to that of the Taoist
philosophy, where each of the poles comprises its inverse. This
vision is represented in a ping-pong framework where the dividing
line constitutes the confrontation point, the most realistic
and clear point of formulation.
From hence emanated the gods of the earth.
The first represents the god whose hands are tied, the defeatist,
who looks through the eyes of the oppressed and whose miseries
and trials are therefore intensified. He is smarting under his
burden. |
| He tries to resist but readily breaks
under the might of power. Whereas, the second represents the concept
of pragmatic opportunism which views power and strength as pillars
of advancement, while the oppression that befalls the others is
no more than the moving force of the wheel of promotion. |
The third is the one who calls for a return to the confrontation point,
the essence of humanity, which resides in love, beauty, serenity, understanding,
justice and tolerance.
Those three gods address us with an open question and a veiled invitation….
Which of the sides should we take, and does this choice comprise a
spark?
"Sparks fly all over and each comprises a sun"
About the working process
This is an attempt to
challenge fantasy and to provoke imagination. It is not easy
to work with a poetic and philosophical text in what was my first
experience in professional direction. It resembles more closely
a study in the creation of a private existential vocabulary.
In this piece I have tried to form the theatrical space with
the actor's bodies, and to work with language as a dynamic energy
that emerges from our infinite ways of understanding, and moves
towards that which has no limits, passing on its way each being
capable of receiving that energy.
I have tried, in leaving the
day-to-day routine, to dive and soar in the silence of egolessness.
I have tried to dismantle the |
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| cement walls that envelope the self,
the walls which each of us bear in our journey through this world,
and I have excavated them together with the actors in order to
go behind and beyond selfhood. |
This is the embryo
which gave life to this new creation, which I hope as it grows will
not be passive, nor oppressive, nor yet oppressed,
but will stand boldly on the frontiers of innovation and shine forth. Iman Aoun
In my life I have painted and painted. I froze time and people
in my paintings. But now, in this new experience, I am flying far with
my spirit, freeing myself and engaging with other artists in a new
way. The characters that were formerly frozen now whirl in timeless
space, and with them I form the strength and softness with which
I can resist the wind. By this I show the victory of my fathers,
to which I have contributed nothing. It is as if I am healing wounds
and opening others, and striving to transcend it all. This is a departure
from the familiar into the unknown.
It is the Canaanite crimson, Hammurabi's lilac and the blue of
Alexander the Great. It is the rainbow in the east, the first
bathing and the
first touch of ocean spray on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Tayseer Barakat
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