Cindy Chehab and Serena Arnita
On the fringes of a burning memory is a hauntological audiovisual exploration into memory, space, and time, in relation to excessive consumption habits of the modern image in a saturated social media sphere. The project reconciles contradictory habits that we have formed due to our relationship with modern technology and that may have changed the way we revisit a memory. The visual installation contains ‘snippets’ of the artists’ daily life with the soundscape of both cities Nicosia and Abu Dhabi, where two different locations are presented, but the narrative is not grounded in either. The vertical aspect ratio represents the contemporary way we consume content, reflecting an imagination of a dystopian world that is created by shadows of scattered memories, fast social media content, and a distorted perception of the present. The visual images are intertwined with two poems that have an undecidable, ‘in-between’ status, haunting between material and immaterial, real and virtual, past and present.
أكتب و ألتقط الصور ثم أكتب و ألتقط الصور ثم أكتب و ألتقط الصور
أتأمل ورقي الأبيض ثم ألتقط الصور
أتذكر ليلة لقيانا ثم ألتقط الصور
أحن إلى رائحة أمي ثم التقط الصور
أشرب قهوة مرة ثم ألتقط الصور
أدخن سيجارة لا أريدها بين شفتي ثم التقط الصور
أغمض عيني و أراك تحت ضوء القمر ثم التقط الصور
أعيد الفيلم الفرنسى للمرة الرابعة ثم ألتقط الصور
أنتظر الباص للمرة الثالثة في الحار ثم ألتقط الصور
أردد الأغنية نفسها ثم ألتقط الصور
أخاف الموت و ألتقط الصور
أردد بعضًا من الصلاة و ألتقط الصور
يأكلني الخوف ثم ألتقط الصور
أشرب كوب المياه لأنه مفيد
.ثم ألتقط الصور
I write and take pictures, then write and take pictures, then write and take pictures, looking at my white paper, then taking pictures
I remember the night we met and then I take pictures
I long for my mother’s scent and then take pictures
I drink coffee once and then take pictures
I smoke a cigarette I don’t want between my lips and then take pictures
I close my eyes and see you under the moonlight and then take pictures
I repeat the French film for the fourth time, and then take pictures
I wait for the bus for the third time in the heat and then take pictures
I sing a song to myself, and then I take pictures
I fear death
I repeat some prayers
Fear eats me
And fun and a lot of insomnia
Where are we and why do we have what we have
I drink a glass of water because it helps
then take pictures.
Four hours are not short enough
To forget his face,
The wrinkles and ripples
Of the wind’s song on his black shirt,
Or the way his fingers danced
On her palm lines.
As the sun lingers less
And the fall breeze carries him away,
1000 lifetimes of potential are harbored
in a moment
floating
On the oceans between them.
Forty days are not long enough
To forget their city —
a paradox perfectly positioned
between the mountains and the sea
between lawless pleasures and stolen dreams
Its port still collapsing
Its safe haven still burning
Its heart carries the weight,
the sins of the fancy suits and fancy speeches, its pulse
weakens
With every blind eye and deaf ear turned
At the the top
Until it can only be heard
In news breaking through door sills
In every sip of Turkish coffee
followed by a smile
In every phone call to the sons and daughters
of jaded hands reaching out for the sea
In sweet nothings between lovers
As their moment
Their safe haven
Burns until nothing is left,
Until hellos are goodbyes.
How long has it been?
The fancy suits and fancy speeches
plaster their faces
On top of the cracks in the walls
The moment burns
Until nothing is left
Until hellos are goodbyes.
أكتب و ألتقط الصور ثم أكتب و ألتقط الصور ثم أكتب و ألتقط الصور
أتأمل ورقي الأبيض ثم ألتقط الصور
أتذكر ليلة لقيانا ثم ألتقط الصور
أحن إلى رائحة أمي ثم التقط الصور
أشرب قهوة مرة ثم ألتقط الصور
أدخن سيجارة لا أريدها بين شفتي ثم التقط الصور
أغمض عيني و أراك تحت ضوء القمر ثم التقط الصور
أعيد الفيلم الفرنسى للمرة الرابعة ثم ألتقط الصور
أنتظر الباص للمرة الثالثة في الحار ثم ألتقط الصور
أردد الأغنية نفسها ثم ألتقط الصور
أخاف الموت و ألتقط الصور
أردد بعضًا من الصلاة و ألتقط الصور
يأكلني الخوف ثم ألتقط الصور
أشرب كوب المياه لأنه مفيد
.ثم ألتقط الصور
Cindy Chehab pursued her BA in film and television studies at the Lebanese University IBA2. Cindy released her first documentary, “Seated Roots,” in November 2021, winning the jury prize at the Arab Short Film Festival in December 2021. Her main practice consists of merging poetry and imagery in order to revisit Arab poetry and experiment with its revolutionary potential when combined with visuals. She’s predominantly interested in hybrid creative documentaries and critical essays, centered around socio-politics, anthropology, relationships between people and urban spaces, identity, and orientalism. Cindy is currently part of an artist residency with Sharq.org in the city of Larnaca, Cyprus, under the theme of migration and belonging.
Serena Arnita is a Film & New Media graduate from New York University Abu Dhabi. Her work focuses on the often-complicated process of constructing a national identity and the implications of that journey in terms of long-term wellbeing. She is passionate about exploring the ways in which the socioeconomic, cultural, and political systems in society are everpresent on both the interpersonal and intrapersonal levels, especially in the context of life in the Gulf and ‘third culture’ children.
This project was developed as part of the 2022 edition of the Virtual Collaborative Program for Emerging Artists, presented by Exit 11 Performing Arts Company. It is presented as part of Exit 11’s exhibition, Peripheries.
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