Bahaa Souki: Spinning Yards
CATAPULT.visual’arts (5/10)
May 12th – June 2nd, 2022
Artlab Beirut
Spinning Yards
Bahaa Souki presents their first solo exhibition as part of CATAPULT.visual’arts
Spinning Yards is an invitation to existing within conflict.
Faced with the vague and uncertain in a city of constant unrest, retrieving fragments of fading memory forces a
perception beyond our coping mechanisms. What began as reflections on the October 17 Revolution in the streets
of Lebanon shifted to tracing the destruction left by the Beirut Port Explosion. In black ink, the brutal deformation
that our city, emotions, memories, and perceptions underwent is contrasted with the white frames that parallel each
scene; a room to breathe, a moment to reflect, to absorb.
The exhibition is accompanied by a hand-written poem by Elige Abou Youness to reciprocate the works on display.
www.britishcouncil.org.lb | CATAPULT.visual’arts Press Release
Notes to Editors
Elias Nafaa: Impulsions is the fourth of ten exhibitions as part of CATAPULT.visual’arts, a partnership between British
Council Lebanon and Artlab.
About CATAPULT
CATAPULT is a pilot initiative launched by British Council Lebanon’s Arts and Culture department. It is thought as a talent
development program in collaboration with existing hubs in 4 different creative sectors: Dance and Performing Arts, Visual
Arts, Music and Gaming Industry.
The initiative is about recognizing potential in each of the sectors and developing, with our chosen partners, programs
that respond to the needs and ambitions of artists. British Council’s involvement in each program takes different forms but
has one aim; to support creative talents from Lebanon while building strong connections with the UK, focusing on creative
expression, exchange, and enterprise.
CATAPULT is about upskilling, growth and thrive.
About CATAPULT.visual’arts
Developed in partnership with Artlab, CATAPULT.visual’arts is a 5-day empowerment programme aimed at equipping ten
emerging visual artists with the necessary capacities to advance in their careers and ensure sustainability. The initiative
culminates into a series of ten 3-week exhibitions at Artlab, covering logistics fees and honorarium.
While we’ve received over 70 promising applications to the CATAPULT.visual’arts Open Call, our esteemed jury of
practitioners and professionals have selected a round-up of selected 22 emerging visual artists working in Lebanon to
participate. The jury members are: Antoine Haddad, founder and Director of Artlab Beirut; Bettina Badr, painter and
professor at the Lebanese American University; Marc Mouarkech, Arts and Culture Programmes Manager at British Council
Lebanon; Richard Noyce, freelance writer, lecturer, and curator; and Sirine Fattouh, multidisciplinary artist.
The Artists are: Ahmad Ghaddar, Asadour Kdouranian, Bahaa Souki, Betty Ketchedjian, Elias Nafaa, Elsie Haddad, Gabriela
Choueifaty, Gosha Beshlyana, Ieva Saudargaite Douaihi, Laeticia El Hakim, Laura Menassa, Manu Ferneini, Mia Baraka,
Myriam Boulos, Omar Gabriel, Paul Gorra, Rima Maroun, Roger Mokbel, Shames Safiedine, Tarek Haddad, Walid Elmays, and
Walid Nehme. You’ll have the chance to know more about them in the coming months and attend their exhibitions from
February onwards.
On Tuesday, January 11th, 2022, we organised an online exchange session with the selected artists to define the
participatory methodology based on which the five-day training program will be designed. We have dissected the current
situation of the artists in Lebanon, and gauged the participant’s interest in pressing contemporary themes relevant to their
artistic practice. From the 23rd till the 27th of February, the workshop manifested into a series of core activities and
lectures to unpack the process behind organising an exhibition, delving into fundamental aspects such including funding,
the Art production ecosystem, and storytelling and communication.
The artists were presented with numerous opportunities including the 4-week CATAPULT.visual’arts Residency in
partnership with Hospitalfield and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. In August, 2 selected applicants, Elias Nafaa and Laetitia
El Hakim, will have the chance to explore their research interests in Scotland, facilitated both critically and practically,
partake in studio visits and activities that involve sharing of practice, attend exhibitions and events across the UK
including the Edinburgh International Festival, access the facilities and guidance that both institutions offer.
www.britishcouncil.org.lb | CATAPULT.visual’arts Press Release
Notes to Editors (continued)
About Bahaa Souki
Bahaa Souki was born in Lebanon in 1984. In 2001, he joined the Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture at the Lebanese
University where he began his art studies.
In 2005, Souki started researching and experimenting with multiple disciplines including painting, photography, and
videography. Since then, he has participated in many group exhibitions across Beirut, UAE, New York, and Rome. Bahaa
moved to the UAE in 2013 and returned to Beirut in 2017 to settle and work, and has been primarily experimenting with
pigment ink pens.
Spinning Yards
A beautiful meadow stretches before my eyes
The green was unending
Mountains
Unmoved
Unloved
Unshattered
My shadow is there
It’s barely walking
Lost in the smoke
It’s a blurr
The water is so clear with the grass growing out
The poppy splattering its redness on the green and brown
There was red next to my shadow
It was running all around
Crying
Carrying itself
Moving quickly
Like a poppy fighting the wind
To maintain its fragile leaves
But this is not nature
This is a blurr
Birds, frogs, a dog here and there
A boy with his friend
A mom walking
You could hear here
Nature taking its course
Leaves rustling
This was not nature
This can’t be nature
There was rustling
It’s a pending collapse
The screams are loud here
It’s heavy
It’s dark
It’s scary
I’m starting to feel my heartbeat
Take me out of this
www.britishcouncil.org.lb | CATAPULT.visual’arts Press Release
I come back
A flock of birds is landing on the water
There’s snow on the mountain
It’s white
What’s left of it
It’s clean
No I can’t go back
I’m staying here
In nature
Where sounds are natural, birds, frogs, dogs, kids, and my injured friend walking in the back living his life beyond his
trauma
Where the only red is the poppy petals
A lot of poppies
And daisies and
There’s smoke
Where the only panting is from the walk
I can’t go back
But it won’t leave my mind
Why did I see the smoke
- Elige Abou Youness
Visitor Information
Admission: Free
Opening times: Tuesday – Saturday, 11AM – 3PM, 5PM – 7PM.
Spinning Yards is on show until June 2nd, 2022.
Artlab Beirut. Gouraud St, VGV8+VF Beirut.
T. +961 (3) 244577 | E. [email protected]