PERFORMANCE

Kyoto Experiment 2025 [Performance]

Tania El Khoury & Ziad Abu-Rish: The Search for Power
  • 2025.10.4 Sat. 15:0016:15
  • 2025.10.5 Sun. 13:0014:15
  • 2025.10.5 Sun. 18:0019:15
  • 2025.10.6 Mon. 14:0015:15
  • 2025.10.7 Tue. 13:0014:15
  • 2025.10.8 Wed. 13:0014:15
  • 2025.10.9 Thu. 13:0014:15
  • Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery @KCUA

A banquet of love and revenge unfolds, revealing Lebanon’s history of electricity outage

 
Have you heard about Lebanon’s many decades of electricity crisis and its political implications? The Lebanese state only supplies electricity for a few hours per day and the population resorts to individual and collective solutions. The situation has only worsened with the economic collapse of 2020 and the recent Israeli war on Lebanon.
Tania El Khoury, an artist born during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90), is married to historian Ziad Abu-Rish, who researched Lebanon’s state institutions and popular politics. On a night of a power blackout, the two embarked on a project to uncover the roots of this issue. In this work, El Khoury and Abu-Rish—who describe themselves as “another couple who is into solving mysteries”—reveal their findings in the form of an interactive lecture-performance.
The participants are led to a party venue, and provided with various archival and official documents collected from several countries, including some that have been previously concealed. These form the traces of the dark history behind Lebanon’s electricity infrastructure: financial ploys and hegemonic battles among former and aspiring colonial powers. As the audience members themselves examine each document by hand, they also become the inheritors of this “new history.” The venue will be left as an installation after the performances, and open to the public until the end of the festival.


Duration: 75 min
Notes: Audiences may not enter after the performance has started. No admission for children elementary school age and below.

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Language
English with simultaneous Japanese interpretation
Cost
Tickets are required
Entry
Please refer to Kyoto Experiment ticket page for details.
Childcare services will be available on Sunday, October 5, at 1:00 p.m. (reservation required 7 days before performance)
Kyoto Experiment Ticket Center:
https://kyoto-ex.jp/en/contact/
Organized by
Kyoto Experiment
Kyoto City University of Arts
With additional funding from
Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation
With the cooperation of
Artsadmin
Curated and Produced by
Kyoto Experiment
KCUA Art Gallery
Contact

Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery
Phone: +81-(0)75-585-2010
Please send your inquiry from the form.