❝ A beat of the heart

                                                                                                                                                                 Fixed sculpture

This is a Moviola.

This particular Moviola belonged to my grandfather and then to my father. It survived the bombing and the total destruction of its surroundings.

I didn’t know the exact date of this destruction, until I saw a newsreel entitled “Huge Explosion of Fuel Tanks in Dawra, North Beirut in 1989”, the content of which, according to the information engraved on the image, was dated March 30, 1989.

To move the Moviola, it had to be separated from its heavy engine.
This is an immobile, decorative Moviola Intercine.

In order to “save a film in editing”, you have to save the editing table.
This moviola won’t save anything in editing, because it’s dismantled.

Moviola that doesn’t hum.

On one of my notebooks I wrote down, I don’t remember under what circumstances, or who repeated these words: “Television images don’t allow you to construct a thought”.

Except perhaps: “Huge Explosion of Fuel Tanks in Dawra, North Beirut in 1989”.

The images for me were everywhere, right away, I’ve been immersed in them since childhood. But not this one, not the “Huge Explosion of Fuel Tanks in Dawra, North Beirut in 1989”.
I’d never seen footage of that explosion before. Thirty-five years passed with only one memory of the event. A father, mine, collapsing after answering the phone.

Knees bent,

deformed body,

pain unspeakable.

Transformed editing table,

subjugated object,

space of all temporalities.

Archive hurt

“Huge Explosion of Fuel Tanks in Dawra, North Beirut in 1989”

❞

Chantal Partamian

#MAINARTIST

Our organization is an artist-run center committed to supporting its community as a whole, without distinction.

Beyond the simple declarations of solidarity against racism following the events of the summer of 2020, but also against more recent racist acts and those that persist historically, it seemed essential to us to offer a place to our members so that they can express their feelings in the face of the discrimination they experience and which could be based on the color of their skin, their origins, their sexual orientation, their gender or a handicap.

We invite them to share their thoughts on this societal drama that constitutes all forms of rejection of the other.

Main Film is an artist-run center committed to supporting its community as a whole, without distinction, in the creation of independent film.

Our 29th contributing artist is Chantal Partamian.

#MainArtist #ArtisteImportant

Because it is artists who carry both the role of representing society and making it evolve.