Not a matter of if but when: brief records of a time in which expectations were repeatedly raised and lowered and people grew exhausted from never knowing if the moment was at hand or was still to come

Overview

Not a matter of if but when was developed in 2005-2006 in Damascus, Syria. This period was marked by momentous events: Rafiq Hariri, then Prime Minister of Lebanon, was assassinated; Syria was pressured to withdraw from Lebanon after a 30-year military presence; the 'Cedar Revolution' came and went; elections were held in Iraq and were followed by a descent into civil war; and Hezbollah strengthened its position in southern Lebanon.

These events reverberated in Syria and gave rise to widespread anxiety and anticipation around the potential for imminent change – regime change, internal reform, internal collapse, civil war, and religious upsurge.

Over a period of several months, the artists collaborated with actor and filmmaker Rami Farah to record short sequences in which Farah responded to a prompt or a written text. Through a combination of direct address and fantastical narrative, Farah’s improvisations speak to living in a condition of uncertainty, chaos and stasis.

In collaboration with Rami Farah


April 2011

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 10