The Common Magic Bullet Sought to Chase Away Death
2020–21
Photography
30 x 23 cm (closed); 137 x 23 cm (open); leporello
Artist’s Statement
This series of six portraits of the same woman captures a choreography between life and death ruled by desire. The feeling of genuine pleasure captured in its crescendo can become an act of resistance in a country where insecurity makes life and being alive so valuable. This moment of intimacy acknowledges the common magic bullet sought to chase away death.
—Sophie Armache
هذه السلسلة المؤلفة من ستّ صور لامرأة واحدة، تجسّد حركاتٍ بين الحياة والموت، تحكمها نزعة الرغبة؛ الرغبة بوصفها اندفاعًا حرًّا من جهة، ومن جهة أخرى ضرورةً تفرضها غريزة البقاء والتكسّب.
في كلتا الحالتين، يُغدو الشعور بالمتعة الصافية – عند بلوغه ذروته – فعلاً من أفعال المقاومة، في بلدٍ غدت فيه مجرّد الحياة غنيمةً في زمن انعدام الطمأنينة. الحميمية تلك، هي نفسها الطلقة الأخيرة التي تُوجّه إلى الموت، لا فراراً منه بل تحدّياً له.
صوفي أرماش
Biography
Gilbert Hage (b. 1966, Beirut) is a photographer who lives, teaches, and works in Lebanon. He is also the co-publisher and co-editer, with Jalal Toufic, of Underexposed Books. His recent photographic projects include, Toufican Zombies? (2021), The Earth Is Like a Child That Knows Poems by Heart (2020), Things Will Happen Elsewhere. Things Are Always Happening (2019), and The Place That Remains (2018). His works have been exhibited at Abbaye de Jumièges, France; Halle 14, Leipzig; 2022; Soma Art Gallery, Cairo; Villa Empain, Brussels; Galerie 8 + 4, Paris; Beirut Contemporary Art Space, Lisbon; Paris Photo; Galerie Tanit, Beirut; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; and Venice Biennale of Architecture (2018), among many others.
Gilbert Hage – The Common Bullet Sought to Chase Away Death
Quarantined in Beirut; For Cities Under Quarantine – The Mailbox Project