Zico house, Sunflower theatre, Beirut
16/05/2011 - 20/05/2011
The second of a series of 8 hour long collective “inner travels” experiments
ZICO house, Sanayeh, 16 to 18th May 2011
1 departure lounge evening – 15 travellers
1 day trip – Zico house – 4 travellers
1 excursion by the seaside – 2 travellers
Sunflower theatre, (with Alligora PROJECT organised by Human & Urban), 19th May 2011
1 day trip – 10 travellers
24h de la BD 2011, Sanayeh, 20th May 2011
GRANDPAPIER annual international design challenge, hosted by Hatem Imam
24h indoor marathon – 15 travellers
Zico House
Zico House
Zico House
JF in Beirut snap
Sunflower theatre
In Beirut I guide two groups of willing ‘tourists’ on a trip to their own “hidden paradise”.
The first one on the roof of Zico House in the centre of Beirut. We also took to the streets to create a series of short improvised actions responding to the environment.
In Sunflower theatre, the tour was focused around the famous Martyr Square statue, a monument to the troubled history of the country, finishing with a series of improvised reenactment.
Headlines and captions I collected from tourism advertising in newspapers and magasines, “in bracket and italic” in this text, were used as Fluxus kind of prompt for action. Without ever leaving the confines of the workshop space, we became producers rather than consumers of places and experiences. All images here are taken by participants while being lost in inner travels.
beirut, jungle fever, postcard
I concluded my stay with taking part in les 24H de la BD in Beirut, hosted by Hatem Imam, an annual international event organised by GRANDPAPIER, a publisher of comics with a free online reading platform. I used some of my JUNGLE FEVER snaps in OÚ, a 24 pages long comic story responding to the theme given to us: a John LOCKE quote about ‘ innate ideas ‘: ” Où trouve-t-on cette vérité pratique universellement acceptée sans doute ni problème aucuns, comme devrait l’être une vérité innée ? “.
Tour operator – MOItravel Inc. Team – Hatem Imam, Zico house, 98 weeks, GRANDPAPIER.
Project funded by UCA research fund.
JUNGLE FEVER (wish you were here)
was initiated in 2011, originally as an attempt to reclaim Leisure and Tourism, by subverting the strategies of their consumption for collective explorations of personal borders, as if they were exotic or unchartered territory. The project has evolved in response to what fellow junglers contributed along the way. We are now concerned with a broader engagement with the everyday, advocating a creative and playful rather than a passive or consuming attitude.
It is inspired by Rober Filliou insightful words: “ Leisure will have an important role in society. .. The role of the artist is to promote the creative use of leisure and creativity as a way of life, but also as a weapon against alienation” (Teaching and learning as performing art, 1970.)