160 feet under pure blue sea (2010)
Video-performance, 25 minutes
Vidéo-performance, 25 minutes
The face, obliteration, the hero/antihero symbolic image of the father, and the exploration of possible means of narration and testimony are the core of 160 feet under pure blue sea.
The video-performance addresses the subject of remembrance, the loss of images that should be printed in the artist’s childhood memory, images of chaotic space and time, and a need to see again with the eyes she had at the time and her present conscience.
Emphasizing the infinite possibilities of rewriting history through personal “histories”, this work underlines the difference between the voices telling a hypothetically same story, with identical words, but from which continuously emerge immeasurable differences.
Le visage, l'effacement, l'image symbolique du père, héros/antihéros, et l'exploration des moyens possibles de narration et de témoignage sont au cœur de 160 feet under pure blue sea.
La vidéo-performance aborde le sujet du souvenir, la perte d’images qui devraient être imprimées dans la mémoire d'enfant de l’artiste, des images d'espace et de temps chaotiques, et un besoin de revoir avec les yeux qu'elle avait à l'époque et sa conscience actuelle.
En mettant l'accent sur les possibilités infinies de réécrire l'histoire à travers des histoires individuelles personnelles, ce travail souligne la différence entre les voix qui racontent, hypothétiquement, la même histoire, avec des mots identiques, mais d'où émergent continuellement des différences incommensurables.
Excerpt 1
For a long time, I mean, since I was a child, I have been obsessed with the sea, specifically the shore that goes along Beirut, from Raouché to Manarah.
The thing that used to amaze me the most was the lottery ticket hawkers, stretching their half arms trying to sell their lucky merchandise.
Back then, many were those who had lost a hand, an arm, a leg, or even an eye on the Manara bank.
Those people were part of my childhood “paysage”, just like the “express vans”, and they didn’t scare me at the time.
They were there for as long as I remember and I never asked myself where their missing parts were.
As I grew older, they disappeared little by little. And I never saw any other mutilated man until my 16th birthday.
It was only then that I as noticed how annoyed by silence I was.
I used to feel that silence was full of thoughts and voices, all hidden and scared to come out.
I was mostly confused by silence when my father would pick me up from school. I had to prepare something to say everytime, something to talk about, any subject, to avoid listening to the sounds in the silence.
I used to ask him all kinds of questions, about everything, because he knew everything.
My father knows everything, he owns the absolute truth, and he would never say “I don’t know” as an answer.
On my 16th birthday I saw the last man who had no arms. It was only then that I asked myself why he looked that way. Why are there people who look that way?
I do not recall anyone answering my question at the time.
So I started thinking, that maybe, the sea was the one to swallow their missing parts, that it was responsible for their
deformities, since their image was always related to it, as if they did not exist without the sea - the “corniche” and the “vans express”.
They did not scare me at the time, today they do.
But maybe the sea had nothing to do with it… I mean, wasn’t it generous enough to accept all these parts? What if it was protecting them?
I don’t know, maybe I’m defending the sea to stay friends with it.
After my 16th birthday, I started searching for the nearest point to the water from the “corniche” everytime I went there; the point where, if I stood, I could only see the sea, while the land - the “corniche” and the “vans express” with the passersby would disappear to my eyes.
It was the point where the only perspective is the horizon.
After my 16th birthday, I started thinking that the sea was full of cadavers.
Excerpt 2
On Monday January 25th, 2010, 2:35 A.M. local time, an airplane belonging to Ethiopian Airlines disappeared from the radar, 5 minutes after taking off, and crashed in the Mediterranean Sea.
The plane had left Beirut Int’l Airport heading to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. On board were 8 crew members, 51 Lebanese passengers, 23 Ethiopians, and passengers from other nationalities.
The airplane crashed 3.5 km west of Naameh village, 15 km to the south of Beirut.
Monday January 25th, 2010, at 02:45 A.M. local time, a bulletin was issued from the marine base at the Beirut International Airport
I’ll read excerpts of it:
“As this bulletin was being composed, 15 bodies were being transported along with other human remains and objects that were on board the plane (gloves, masks, bags, blankets, and hand-gel sanitizers). Sources mentioned that one of the airplane’s engines was found along with some high frequency wireless telecommunication equipment. “
On Monday February 7th, 2010, an article was published in a Lebanese newspaper.
I’ll also read excerpts from this article:
“On the 13th day after the crash of the Ethiopian airplane by the Lebanese seashore, a big part of the airplane’s tail was found near the Naameh seashore, south of Beirut; at a later stage, the Minister of Transportation announced that the black box had been located underneath the tail of the airplane, and that the divers from the Lebanese army were working on retrieving it.
The “Ocean Alert” ship had finally been able to film parts of the wreckage that were found yesterday and it appears that these were parts of the tail. Measuring between 10 and 12 meters, they had been located at a depth of 48 meters, 3km away from the shore.”
All this information is not really important. The most important part is this:
“Information has been circulating of the presence of a strange body in the water at a distance of 4.5 kilometers from the shore and at a depth of 160 ft.
It later appeared it was a cargo container made from aluminum, blue in color, and highly rusted. The container is 6 min length, 2 meters in width, and 2.4 meter in height.
It is important to mention that the body of the container is full of small holes, each of which has an approximate diameter of a few centimeters.
These holes date back to long before the plane crash and it seems that the container itself has been in the water for many years.
After it was finally opened, an eyewitness described the container’s contents which included the decomposed remains of human bones and it was concluded that these remains could not have belonged to the victims of the plane crash.
It has been confirmed that the container was disposed of in the water with at least 18 people inside it. The cause of death has not been determined and no autopsy was conducted to study what has been found.
No official statement was issued by any Lebanese authority and no comments have been made. “