Out of the Past

No matter our roots, we tend to feel incredible anguish when culture is erased, even if that culture is not our own. The loudest example that comes to mind is the occupation of Iraq and Syria by the so-called Islamic State, in which monuments, erected centuries or millennia ago, were destroyed in an instant. However, after militants ravaged nine-ton lamassu statues in Mosul, accurate copies were reconstructed and put on display in Rome’s Colosseum by l’Associazione Incontro di Civiltà. The originals may be lost, but the legacy of ancient civilizations persists.

Rayyane Tabet folds this idea into , a volume of more than 300 pages whose main text is a transcript of the artist’s reading performance (2016–), which has been staged at multiple venues and events around the world, including for Sharjah Biennial 13’s Act II in Beirut,—that the artist had noticed during these afternoons then leads the readers into a grand tale, kicking off what Tabet’s mother calls a “spy story” involving her grandfather, Faik Borcoche.