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Janine Rubeiz Gallery presents ‘Stay or Leave,’ an exhibition by Lebanese artist Sara Abou Mrad, which explores themes of uprooting and the metamorphosis of exile, from July 24 to August 23, 2024.
The Janine Rubeiz Gallery, a prominent venue for contemporary art in Beirut, is hosting the new exhibition by Sara Abou Mrad, a multidisciplinary Lebanese artist. From July 24 to August 23, 2024, the public will have the opportunity to discover Stay or Leave, a series of dreamlike works exploring the themes of uprooting, exile, and metamorphosis.
“I created my world to escape reality. I drew a world that suits me, a reality that resembles me,” confides Sara Abou Mrad. Over time, she has developed a dreamlike universe, rich in symbols, joyful, flamboyant with colors, populated by her diverse and amusing creatures, a magical and dynamic world, animated, full of energy, an open space for imagination.
However, this world is the opposite of her deepest feelings, of what she feels about the reality around her, of the world’s vibrations she perceives daily. At the heart of the exhibition, the table, a symbol of reunion and family unity, becomes the witness to the artist’s dislocation of landmarks. “My landmarks are dislocating. The table, a symbol of reunion and family unity, becomes the ferocious animal inside me,” she explains.
“Stay or leave? That is the dilemma. Escape or plant roots?” This series on the table questions the subject of migrations, the acceleration of individuals’ geographic mobility, the collective and individual repercussions that a displacement can have on a society, the dissociation and disunity of families.
The artist explores the feeling of uprooting that translates the feeling of exile, the transformation from a collective way of life to an individualistic one. She questions the exiled person’s way of life, their aspirations, and their confrontation with mysterious otherness. “Discovering elsewhere is not so easy. Suffering, disarray, fear, instability settle in for the one who has left their home, their village, their country. A psychological and sociological insecurity replaces a life made of comfortable routine,” emphasizes Sara Abou Mrad.
This is what she has been experiencing since her departure from Lebanon in September 2020. Feelings that constantly place her face-to-face with the primal dilemma of staying or leaving, the dilemma of her own metamorphosis in exile. “If I leave, do I still remain the same? Will exile force me to change? What can I keep from this other world I abandon?” she wonders.
At the center of her works, the table, a symbol of communion, blessing, sharing, union, pleasure, and sociability, becomes an unstable creature with clawed legs. Although set and decorated, it awaits its guests, struggling to gather, strengthen ties, and prevent the dissociation of families. “This is the situation my family, yours, or so many others are facing. Members dispersed across continents, emotionally unstable… a table, a meal, a roof bring us together and make us feel safe,” confides the artist.
“Stay or leave? This idea carries within it a conflict of emotions and decisions. Amidst fear, instability, and insecurity, exile confronts potential failure. Yet, with courage, perseverance, boldness, and adventure, exile can also serve as a springboard to a new life,” affirms Sara Abou Mrad.
Oil on canvas 22×27 cm
" Nature morte I " 2024
Huile sur toile 22×27 cm
Born in 1988 in Lebanon, Sara Abou Mrad is a multidisciplinary artist based in Paris. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts at the Lebanese University, she is a laureate of several international awards such as the “Call for Young Artists of Lebanon” contest launched by Jack Lang and Claude Lemand in 2020, the Beirut Design Week drawing prize in 2015, and the German Cultural Institute-Goethe prize for translating Classical Music into painting in 2011 and 2013. In 2020, she was a fellow of the French Institute of Lebanon at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.
Oil on canvas 22×27 cm
" Nature morte I " 2024
Huile sur toile 22×27 cm
Her dreamlike work is nourished by symbols drawn from the collective memory of Lebanon, from the cultural and religious heritage of this country that the Lebanese pass down from generation to generation despite contemporary changes. She tackles sensitive subjects that mix collective and personal stories to describe the breakdown of ties, to stigmatize the brutalization of human relationships characterized by a return of political violence and war that undermine and destroy societies, their structures, and their cultures.
Beauty and dreams remain the core of the artist’s aesthetic; she imagines metamorphoses and creates chimeras that intrigue and question the living, pushing them to sublimation to better accept the disfigured reality of everyday life.
Sara Abou Mrad has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions at Beirut Art Fair (Beirut), Luxembourg Art Fair (Luxembourg), FIAC (Paris), 508 Gallery (London), Art Box Project (Zurich), Qatar International Art Fair (Doha), The Hub Kuwait (Kuwait), and Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna (Bologna). Her works are part of several collections, including the Claude and France Lemand collection at the Museum of the Arab World Institute and the Dalloul Art Foundation—DAF. They have been auctioned at Bonhams (France) in 2021 and 2023, Ans Azura (Romania) in 2023, and ArtScoops (Lebanon) in 2021 and 2023.
The exhibition Stay or Leave by Sara Abou Mrad will be held at the Janine Rubeiz Gallery in Beirut from July 24 to August 23, 2024, Tuesday to Friday from 10 am to 6 pm in July, and from 10 am to 3 pm in August, as well as Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm in July. A unique opportunity to discover the captivating and poetic universe of this accomplished artist in one of Lebanon’s most renowned galleries.
