In solidarity with Lebanon, Darat al Funun invites you to the exhibition Until the Elegy Ends on Thursday 31 October 2024 at 6 PM. The exhibition hosts a collection of audiovisual and archival works by the Lebanese artist Joe Namy.
In the wake of the ongoing genocide in Palestine and the war against Lebanon, Joe Namy offers a space to listen to what endures. His works echo the persistence of life across generations and landscapes—the resilience of communities, the lifeways rooted in trees and soil, and the stories that resist erasure despite violent attempts to silence them.
Until the Elegy Ends brings together interconnected works, each tracing the continuity of people, identities, and cultures. Among them is Namy’s documentation of ancient olive orchards in Deir Mimas in Southern Lebanon, where Israeli white phosphorus airstrikes have targeted many trees, while others stand as quiet symbols of generational vitality. Another work, a sound sculpture, evokes the haunting call of a siren, exposing the fragility of settler colonial safety in Palestine and bearing witness to silenced realities.
Namy also draws on the musical legacy and philosophy of Halim El-Dabh, whose composition after the Nakba underscores sound as a vessel that can carry meanings and memory across time. His collaboration with musicians from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music builds on this idea of sound, transforming personal memories into sonic testimonies that speak to the deep connections between Palestinians and their land.
Together, these works function as interconnected elegies—mourning the profound loss unfolding around us while also echoing survival. They testify to the enduring relationship between people and land, suggesting that memory is not passive but an active force—one that moves through generations, bears life, and shapes new realities in defiance of the persistent threat of erasure.
The works of Joe Namy will be on view until the end of March 2025.
In solidarity with Palestine, and concurrently on display at Darat al Funun, is Under Fire, a display of drawings by four artists in Gaza: Basel Al Maqousi, Majed Shalla, Raed Issa and Sohail Salem on view at The Blue House. Consider, a video work by Brazilian artist Ж that pays tribute to the martyrs of the war
on Gaza, is playing on loop at The Ghorfa. The text based installation We Won’t Leave by artist Suha Shoman, which confronts the war waged on Gaza by the Israeli military, as well as the war on arts and culture unfolding around the globe, continues to be exhibited at The Lab.
Press release from Darat al Funun
Image: Joe Namy. A Siren Song Sung in Different Ways. 2024. Images courtesy of Darat al Funun-The Khalid Shoman Foundation
