Love Letters to a Union (2012)
Lecture Performance with Lara Khaldi
Presented at Ashkal Alwan / HomeWorks 6, Beirut 2013
and at Forum Expanded / Berlinale 2014
Two friends distanced by their constant travel exchange emails about their love lives, the weather, and often-banal daily events. They use the letter/ email format by tricking it; they use it and what it elastically permits for weaving different contemporary events with long-forgotten ones. In the performance, Khaldi and Khalili weave together the events that lead to the formulation of the United Arab Republic (1958-1961) between Syria and Egypt and its failure, while also speaking about the contract of marriage, love and pan-Arabism. They question their friendship, their love lives; they wonder, what is a union? But they are afraid to answer, so they write to each other about a failed love story. The artists will also show two short films: The Story of Milk and Honey (Basma al Sharif, 2011) and The Diver (Jumana Emil Abboud, 2004).
To read the whole letters, go here to Ibraaz Projects page
