INSTALLATION

How were we to believe what our blind eyes could see

A video installation by Lynn Kodeih
2024 - Montréal
Video installation, part of the exhibition  Tout ce qui rest, La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse. Montreal
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In "How were we to believe what our blind eyes could see," the artist revisits images taken a decade ago in Beirut, Lebanon. In 2015, the country was swept by a massive protest movement triggered by the state's inability to address the growing waste management crisis, along with widespread corruption and government inefficiency. Meanwhile, security forces intensified their violence against the protesters. 
The country’s history, marked by cycles of disasters since the delineation of its borders by colonial powers, serves as the backdrop for the video, while the artist moves the camera to capture an enchanting fauna inside an aquarium. The long descent through what appears to be a haunted city in the aftermath of an apocalypse confirms the prophetic nature of the image. The original music, created recently during the current war on Lebanon, evokes the imminent threat of a global war that could reconfigure the geopolitical landscape of the entire Levant.