From February 5 to March 5, 2025, Christine Kettaneh’s Currency of Decay will be exhibited at Galerie Janine Rubeiz, shedding light on the fragility of life's essentials – bread, money and home – amid crises.
Through her interdisciplinary solo exhibition at Galerie Janine Rubeiz, starting February 5, Christine Kettaneh examines how systemic decay impacts the symbolic and practical value of life staples, inviting us to rethink our relationship with stability and worth in turbulent times.
“What happens when the essentials of life – our bread, our currency, our homes – begin to erode under the weight of crisis? The works in this exhibition are born from a context of economic collapse, corruption, conflict and war, where the staples of existence become casualties of systemic decay.
Bread and home, like money, hold both symbolic and practical value. When they decay – through devaluation, inflation, infestation, displacement or destruction – their currency diminishes, and they lose their ability to serve their intended purposes: bread as sustenance, money as value, and home as security.
This exhibition is not merely about loss or decay. It is about value or currency: how we assign it, protect it and lose it. Through economic and existential devaluation, it challenges us to reexamine our dependence on symbols of stability, revealing the profound connections that persist even when our foundations crumble.”
About the Artist
With a background as an economist, Christine Kettaneh’s work embodies the metaphoric languages of liquidity and viscosity – qualities tied to capital and flexibility. Her interdisciplinary artistic practice blends economic theory with material exploration, creating sculptural works that oscillate between structure and chaos.
Kettaneh’s collaborative projects reflect her dynamic approach to art. She was a guest artist in Global Climate Lab 2 (2023), where she worked with climate researchers to explore the emotional dimensions of ecological crises. She also contributed to Nanocosmic Investigations (2021-2022) during her residency at the European Spallation Source in Sweden, engaging with scientists building the world’s largest neutron source. Additionally, Kettaneh participated in the Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century Conferences (2020 and 2022), working alongside computer scientists and linguists.
Her notable residencies include La Sughereta in Sicily (2018) and BeMA Residency/Jezzine in Lebanon (2017). She has exhibited solo at Galerie Janine Rubeiz (Beirut, 2017) and Gagliardi e Domke (Turin, 2017) and received numerous awards, including the Arte Laguna Prize in Venice (2015), the Premio Ora (2017) and the Art Rights Prize in Milan (2021). Her experimental film works have also won accolades, such as the Audience Award at the Berlin Revolution Film Festival (2020).
Christine Kettaneh’s body of work continues to blur the lines between art, science and economics, offering a powerful critique of systemic structures and a reexamination of value in times of decay.
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