Interview about Embodied Realities by Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art
Thanking Barcelona-Spain based Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art for the feature of our exhibition "Embodied Realities".
Here are excerpts:
"**Given the current socio-political climate in Lebanon and beyond, how do you see this exhibition contributing to broader conversations about identity, history, and resilience?
In many ways, Embodied Realities is a response to the ongoing disintegration - of states, infrastructures, and narratives. In Lebanon, the body often bears the weight of these breakdowns, whether through physical displacement, protest, multiform violence, or even just surviving day to day. Globally, we are seeing similar pressures, just in different forms. By foregrounding embodiment, the exhibition insists on the personal as political. It doesn't offer easy answers, but it does create space for expression, reflection, resistance, and dialogue.
**One key aspect of Embodied Realities is its hybrid format, taking place both physically and in the metaverse. How do you see digital spaces transforming the way we engage with contemporary art?
Digital spaces are expanding the ways we tell stories and who gets to tell them. They allow for access, experimentation, and archiving - which is especially important in unstable contexts like ours. But they also come with their politics and challenges. For Embodied Realities, the hybrid format allowed us to extend the conversation beyond geography while also interrogating what it means to "embody" something in a virtual realm. It's not just about translation, and it's about transformation.
**The exhibition touches on a wide range of themes, from the impact of war on the body to the intersection of technology and identity. Which of these conversations feel particularly urgent today?
They are all urgent, but perhaps the question of how technology is reshaping our sense of self feels especially pressing. From surveillance to digital avatars, our bodies are increasingly mediated and manipulated through screens. At the same time, technology offers tools for self-expression and connection that weren't possible before. That tension - between empowerment and control - is something we are all navigating right now.
At the same time, the exhibition's engagement with the impact of war on the body feels equally urgent. In many parts of the world, and especially in ours, people are being forced to adapt to conditions of prolonged conflict, where survival itself becomes a radical act, and thriving can take on new, defiant meanings. These bodies carry trauma, yes, but also incredible resilience, imagination, and resistance. In a world where war is often abstracted or sanitized through media, bringing attention to the lived, embodied experience of those caught in its wake is crucial. It reminds us that bodies are not just passive sites of suffering; they are also agents of endurance and transformation."
