Salon d’Automne has returned for its 33rd edition at Sursock Museum, showing a varied assortment of artworks from Lebanese artists, amateur and professional alike.
Launched in 1961, the Salon’s open call format is intended to promote the exhibition of a mix of fresh practices and changes in the artistic scene year by year, while offering artists a chance to be part of a large exhibition.
A jury of artists, curators and writers Tarek Abou El Fetouh, Nizar Daher, Rania Stephan, Christine Tohme and Jalal Toufic has selected pieces by 31 artists working in a wide range of media.
“This year there is a big selection of videos and it’s an important part of contemporary art, so it has to have its place alongside painting, ceramics, photos, installations, textiles, prints and even a virtual reality piece,” Stephan told The Daily Star.
“We had 358 entries and ... It’s a very thorough selection process. We evaluate every single application [twice] ... before making the final selection,” she added.
The 2017 edition of Salon d’Automne showed works by 52 artists.
Stephan says that though this year features fewer artists, the works on show are more coherent as an exhibition. “It’s a good [sample of] what is happening in Lebanon,” she said, “not just in the art scene, because it’s broader.
“There was a clear [shared perspective among] the artists.
“The feeling that the political horizon is broad and that there is a political stalemate in the region made many artists concerned about what’s happening.
“A lot of them dealt with pollution and [the] bleak future, which are reflected in the works selected through paintings with dripping paint or [images that] went through transformation and hybridization,” she added.
“There is also a return to the self-portrait. When there is a serious political situation, there is a kind of introversion and ... in these [faces’] expressions you can feel the anxiety.
“Even the photos [are] linked to the degradation of nature and biological deterioration of nature,” Stephan said. “It was interesting to link all these works and find an underlying theme.”
Highlights of the show include a 32-page comic book by Mohamad Kraytem, depicting a man who experiences a panic attack, gets drunk, and revisits the last few hours in his head.
Some trippy drawings result.
Marie Saliba’s 12-painting portrait series “Anonymi” seeks to provoke discussions of memory by recreating faces from vintage photos founds at Souk al-Ahad.
A more experimental piece, “The River” by Lara Tabet, is a long piece of cloth hung from the ceiling and trailing across the floor.
The material is brightly colored due to the application of bacteria cultures taken from multiple locations along Beirut River. Tabet’s work serves as a chemi-gram of the river.
Salon d’Automne is a competitive show and its 31 works are eligible for both the Sursock Museum Prize for the most innovative work, and the Emerging Artist Prize for the most promising early career artist.
An Audience Choice Award, introduced in 2016, will also be presented as will a Jury Prize.
Stephan says the jury is looking for works that are thorough, by artists committed to their projects.
The Salon d’Automne prizes will be presented during a ceremony on Dec. 31 at Sursock Museum.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
