Takashima Megumi | KYOTO EXPERIMENT Kyoto International Performing Arts Festival 2025 ② Tania El Khoury & Ziad Abu-Rish "In Search of Electricity and Power" [Performance] (Part 1)
This performance explores the mystery of Lebanon's chronic electricity shortage through an interactive lecture and archival investigation, framed as a story of love and revenge.Summary
This is a review of the first part of the interactive lecture-performance, "In Search of Electricity and Power," by Tania El Khoury and Ziad Abu-Rish, presented at KYOTO EXPERIMENT 2025. The audience first undergoes an "immigration procedure" before entering a party-like space furnished with archive boxes, where they listen to a lecture unraveling the mystery of Lebanon's chronic electricity shortage while physically "opening" documents. The investigation, conducted by the artists across international archives, reveals that the root cause is not just the civil war but a complex history involving colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism related to power infrastructure hegemony. The electricity supply began through collusion between former colonial powers, the new empire (US), and local Lebanese businessmen seeking profit. The driving force behind this obsessive research is the artists' anger over state power interfering during their wedding, leading El Khoury to declare the work a "project of love and revenge," concluding with a celebratory dance.
(Source：artscape)