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Mounira al Solh and Bassam Ramlawi
Colaborators on Gas
Two Artists’ Statement:
We wonder at the same time why do artists
collaborate? Who owns the work in that case,
and would both parties be equally satisfied?
Not to be stuck with these questions before we
even start working together, we’d like to inform
you just for practical reasons that our work will
be performative, and simply related to daily life
practicalities instead of being philosophical or
ethical or historical or whatsoever. The result
however will not be a documentation of these
daily performances, rather a parallel feeling to
them. How can a feeling be parallel? Perhaps,
what we need is a hug, and that’s it…
Bassam Ramlawi and Mounira Al Solh
Bassam Ramlawi:
It was in the Netherlands that Al Solh and I met
for the first time, inside Westerpark in
Amsterdam, I was sketching a bunch of funny
homeless people, and she was reading a book.
We had seen each other somewhere in Beirut
and recognized each other automatically.
Since then we became close friends, and Al
Solh made a booklet about me, co-written by
Jacques Aswad and titled “In a Time Fleece”.
She also made a documentary titled “Seven
Reversed Scenes about Bassam Ramlawi”. I
am of course grateful to her efforts, but I think
I am more interested to collaborate with her,
rather then just being passively driven and
passively manipulated in her productions,
although I have to admit that it is flattering to
have someone wanting to document your life
and understand your work.
But this was so far not a real collaboration, and
I don’t really know why she got so enthusiastic
about such productions. I recently asked her if
I could in return make a booklet about her
work, and a documentary. Hoping she might
agree one day!
Mounira Al Solh to Bassam Ramlawi:
Just because I have some fascination for you,
you can use me… so please do!
Two Artists’ Work description:
For the Bucharest Biennial, Ramlawi proposed
to deliver for Mounira to her studio and for free
a bottle of apple or carrot juice that he had
squeezed at his father’s shop. In return, she
drunk the content, and filmed with her handycamera
these bottles and kept them at her studio.
Ramlawi has made drawings of things that
struck him on his way each time he delivered
the juice to her studio riding his scooter.
Mounira al Solh and Bassam Ramlawi, Collaborators on Gas, research photo, various dimensions, 2012
Courtesy of the artist
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