After Images

Exhibition and book launch

Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Co-curated by Manal Khader
Poems by Yahya Amqassim
with the contribution of Yasmina Jraissati

Book launch by Kaph books 
Tuesday 1st March 2016 | 6- 9 pm

Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut Waterfront
The exhibition will be on view until March 15th, 2016

Ziad began working on this project in 2010, inspired by the work of Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi on the origins of the Bible, which guided Ziad's repetitive visits to the Arabian Peninsula, and the region of Asir in specific.

"After Images" is neither about documenting nor about proving Salibi's theories right or wrong. Instead, this work looks into the nature of the myth as a possible historical narrative and advocates the impossibility of documenting such narratives. 

In this project Ziad collaborated with Saudi writer Yahya Amqassim who wrote a series of poems derived from the basic myths of the Bible. Amqassim's poems seek to capture the evolving nature of the myths that can gain or lose details through space and time. By telling us his own version of the old myths Amqassim is proposing a perception and never a proof.

The exhibition was made possible with the generous contribution of Bank Al-Mawarid.