Cement is a memory

Chada Halwani

Installation Performance – Work in Progress within Zoukak’s Theatre Mentorship Program

Monday 6 December, 7:30pm at Station Beirut

Free Entry – Limited Capacity 

The project works on the time that is not yet consumed in a construction site.

It is the time before places are defined, named, and determined.

This project started in journeys to the south of Lebanon through the way Beirut extends to the south on the littoral zone. The familiarity of the place has its own affective thickness and resonance. I stop to observe the sensations that capture this familiarity of the place.

In the natural site, there is still movement, changing, and deforming. The mountain is still there and the material is ongoingly getting extracted. The sonority of the natural site is still audible in the form of echoes’ resonance. It is like a thick white light that hits a surface.

It is about the time that is not yet consumed in construction sites, the time before the space gets defined, named and determined or inhabited, before living in a place where sounds become muted. I precisely chose the time when site workers are resting (usually it is a one-hour break), when the machine is off for a while and the dust is still falling, the material is thick, it pauses. This rest reveals an undefined space where time is suspended and it gives it its own weight.  

Conceived and performed by: Chada Halwani

Mentored by: Omar Abi Azar

Field assistant and camera assistant: Rawad Kanj

Thank you:

Ahmed Abdel Karim, Ahmed Alloush, Alia Hamdan, Dana Halwani, Faisal Alloush, Ibrahim Fakih, Ismail Marfue, May Nabhan, Rawad Kanj

This project is supported by Zoukak Theatre Company within the Theatre Mentorship Program and Production Support Grant. 

Funded by: Fondation de France, AFAC, Al Mawred, UNESCO Beirut Office