Rabih Mroué

Rabih Mroué
Native name ربيع مروة
Born Rabih Mroué
1967 (age 48–49)
Beirut, Lebanon
Residence Hazmieh, Lebanon
Nationality Lebanese
Alma mater Lebanese University (1989)
Occupation Actor, playwright, visual artist
Spouse(s) Lina Saneh

Rabih Mroué (Arabic: ربيع مروة‎, born 1967)[1] is a Lebanese stage and film actor, playwright, and visual artist. Rooted in theater, his work includes videos and installation art; the latter sometimes incorporates photography, text and sculpture.[1]

Biography

Born in Beirut, Mroué lives in Hazmieh, Lebanon.[2] He graduated in theater in 1989 from Lebanese University,[2] where he met his wife, Lina Saneh.[1][2]

He has been creating theater pieces since 1990.[2] Theater in Beirut revived in the years after the Lebanese Civil War, but Mroué and Saneh, who frequently collaborate, were among the first to push into avant-garde territory (and away from European influences), using venues such as the Russian Cultural Center, makeshift halls, and private homes.[3] His works since the late 1990s "blur and confound the boundaries between theater and the visual arts", often using screens and projected images.[3] Writing in the New York Times about Mroué's theater group, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie commented that "they are to Beirut what the Wooster Group is to New York: a blend of avant-garde innovation, conceptual complexity and political urgency, all grounded in earthy humor."[1]

Mroué's performances, although scripted, are designed to appear more like improvised works in progress, reflecting his continuing theme of inquiry, focused more on provoking thought than presenting spectacle.[3] Mroué has written of his own work, "My works deal with issues that have been swept under the table in the current political climate of Lebanon,"[2] and broadwayworld.com writes, "His work draws attention to the broader political and economic climate in Lebanon through semi-documentary theater."[4]

Mroué's 2007 piece about the Lebanese Civil War, How Nancy Wished That Everything Was an April Fool's Joke, toured internationally. Banned domestically by the Lebanese Interior Ministry,[1] it premiered in Tokyo.[2] The ban was eventually lifted.[4]

Reviewing "Riding on a Cloud" at On the Boards in Seattle in 2016, critic Thomas May wrote that "Mroué wields a beguiling mixture of provocation and poetry, using his medium to pose fundamentally human questions about the identities we invent and the stories we fabricate to make sense of our past and present reality." [5]

Mroué is a board member of the Beirut Art Center.[6]

In 2012 a series of photographs made with mobile phones at Homs, Syria showed persons killed during the fights of 2011/2012. Copies of the photographs were shown at dOCUMENTA (13) at Kassel, Germany with the title Pixelated Revolution.

Awards

Works (selected)

Theater pieces

Video

Installations

Film roles

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, "Lebanon Bans Tale Of Fighters In Militias", The New York Times, 2007-08-18 p. B7. Also online, accessed 23 January 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rabih Mroué, Foundation for Contemporary Arts (grant recipient page). Accessed 22 January 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, Rabih Mroué: Forms of Engagement, Nafas (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations of Germany / Universes in Universe), July 2010. Accessed 22 January 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 Renegade Lebanese Artist Rabih Mroué Makes US Debut, broadwayworld.com, 2011-12-06. Accessed 22 January 2012.
  5. ↑ May, Thomas (January 29, 2016). ""Before … and After … and Now: Rabih Mroué’s 'Riding on a Cloud'"". Memeteria. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Who we are". Beirut Art Center. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  7. 1 2 Off the Wall 2012 – Rabih Mroué: Looking for a Missing Employee, The Andy Warhol Museum (calendar). Accessed 22 January 2012.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Rabih Mroue's The Inhabitants of Images, e-flux. Listing for installation at the Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada. Accessed 22 January 2012.
  9. ↑ Face A / Face B commented at MACBA's website
  10. ↑ Laura Allsop, Rabih Mroue, the Lebanese artist starting a creative rebellion, CNN, 2011-04-05. Accessed 22 January 2012.

External links


http://www.ibraaz.org/interviews/11 - Interview with Rabih Mroué and Anthony Downey (01/2012)

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