Ringvorlesung: Rabih Mroué/Lina Majdalanie – Hirāk – The Uprising in Lebanon 2019

Until the 1990s, words such as “uprisings”, “revolution”, “intifada”, “revolutionary movements”, and “movement of demands” were used widely in our daily life and in different fields – in the political or social discourse, as well as in media and everyday communication. With time, the use of these designations receded in favor of the word “hirāk” (meaning movement in at least a double sense), which had previously been almost absent from our daily vocabulary. Why, and what does this term refer to? In our lecture performance we explore the meanings of new term “hirāk”, taking the events in Lebanon in 2019 as a vivid example for its analysis and arguments. Written by Rabih Mroué, performed by Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué. Photos by Patrick Abi Salloum, with additional visual materials from the people of the revolution.

Rabih Mroué and Lina Majdalanie are among the most important contemporary artists on the international theatre and art scene. With their works, which oscillate between documentary theatre, video art and performance and deal with current and repressed political issues, the internationally renowned Lebanese artist duo have developed their very own form of expression in their many years of collaboration. In a deliberate blurring of the boundaries between the real and the fictional, between historical and contemporary tragedies and biographical constructions, their plays, lectures and installations repeatedly revolve around questions of representation. Majdalanie holds a doctorate in theatre studies (Paris III) and is an author who, in addition to her artistic work as a director and performer, also regularly takes on teaching assignments and guest professorships at universities in France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany and Lebanon. Mroué studied theatre studies in Beirut before moving to Berlin in the 1990s. He is an author, visual artist and photographer as well as editor and co-publisher of the international magazine ‘The Drama Review’ (NYC) and co-founder of the Beirut Art Centre. Mroué's and Majdalanie's joint works have been invited to numerous international festivals and co-produced by the largest production houses in France, Germany and Switzerland.