Walid El Mays presents their first solo exhibition as part of CATAPULT.visual’arts El Mays explores the past through mechanisms of consciousness – what makes us move, feel and act, and foresees the future while it unfolds simultaneously with the past and present. Perpetuate invites the viewer to surrender to a predictive escapade that overlaps the realities with speculation and experience a journey that is not linear, sounds that are not appeasing, and smells that are uncommon. 18 photographs are accompanied by musical noise and a scent created in collaboration with Serge Yared and Lelya Halabi respectively for the show.
Walid El Mays: Perpetuate is the sixth 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.
About Walid El Mays
Walid El Mays is a visual artist based in tumultuous Beirut.
Growing up close to a painter, his mother, painting was an activity that they practised regularly together and came to be a base for his work. While Art has played an immense role in his upbringing, he chose to pursue the world of science, much like his father. He received a BS in Agriculture and a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine, developing great affinity for metaphysics, and questioning the notions that science cannot answer.
In March 2018, an intense, personal event triggered his distrust in several institutions all at once. It was then that his search for an alternative and his real purpose of existence began. With a sense of urgency, he bought his first analogue camera and roll of film as tools to emulate the world of painting he grew up fully immersed in, and to paint – with light, emotions, colours, texture, and movement – the personal turmoil that left him hanging by a thread.
While his earlier negligence in pursuing painting incited his motivation to deliberately fail at representation, El Mays treads on the duality of his interests, exploring photography at the intersection of science and visual arts.
Artist Statement, Perpetuate
The mechanisms of consciousness. What makes us move, feel and act.
Unconsciousness. Is it a cessation of these mechanisms or a different consciousness with different ones?
Often, in the most omniscient manner, when I am in my present moment, I see – as vividly as the past, what my future will look like. I know of my future while it unfolds simultaneously with my past and present. I believe the chronological sequence of events unrolls at once for this consciousness we experience. With every visual, auditory, olfactory, or tactile trigger and encounter, I know what my existence will look like.
PERPETUATE is an attempt at a narrative that portrays presence and absence, visibility and invisibility, self-memorialization, and timelessness full of movement, manipulation and distortion. One where I surrender to a predictive escapade that overlaps the realities of past and present with a speculative future. PERPETUATE is a journey where the visual is not linear, the sound is not appeasing, and the smells are uncommon.
The exhibition is accompanied by musical noise and a scent created in collaboration with Serge Yared and Lelya Halabi respectively for the show.
Visitor Information
Admission: Free
Opening times: Tuesday – Saturday, 11AM – 3PM, 5PM – 7PM.
Artlab Beirut. Gouraud St, VGV8+VF Beirut.
T. +961 (3) 244577 | E. [email protected]