Van Abbemuseum and de Appel are thrilled to invite and host artist Tony Chakar, who will be in residence in The Netherlands upon invitation by Van Abbemuseum in May 2024.
Tony addresses you with the following about his lecture performance: “I haven’t travelled anywhere since the lockdown. During that time, in Beirut, we had a failed revolution, an economic collapse, and one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. Many people left, but I remained. I started repairing an old house in a remote village one hour and a half away from Beirut. The village is beautiful, almost idyllic, and so is the house. But then, the more I dug, physically and metaphorically, the more I remained there, the more secrets I discovered. I will come to Amsterdam to tell you the story of that house, because this is the only thing I know how to do, really. Besides, isn’t that what artists do, tell stories?”
Please rsvp for the event as there is limited capacity.
Tony Chakar is an architect and writer. He teaches history of art and architecture at the AcadĂ©mie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, University of Balamand, Beirut. His work incorporates literature, philosophy, and theory, and has been included in numerous exhibitions internationally, including the 31st Sao Paulo Biennial, Sao Paulo, 2014. Further selected exhibitions and performances include: One Hundred Thousand Solitudes, Sharjah Biennial 11, Sharjah, 2013; An Endless Quick Nightmare, MDE11, MedellĂn, 2011; The Sky Over Beirut, Beirut, 2009; and Four Cotton Underwear for Tony, exhibited at Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, TownHouse Gallery, Cairo, Tapies Foundation, Barcelona, and Witte de With, Rotterdam as part of Contemporary Arab Representations, curated by Catherine David, 2001–2002. He is a contributor to Al Mulhaq, the cultural supplement of the daily newspaper Annahar, and to several European art journals. Chakar lives and works in Beirut