STEREOSKOP
SHABAH EL RIH
by Mar Casteñado
About the author: Mar Casteñado is an Art Model, Poet, and activist. She studied french literature in Paris and lives and works in Mexico City.
MAY 1st, 2025
The opera singer Monà Hallab appears in a floating veil in the middle of "Le Grand Théâtre des Mille et Une Nuits". The theatre in the centre of Beirut embodied an iconic of contemporary Middle Eastern culture until it was eventually abondoned after the civil war in 1975 (1).
We are, in fact, in the presence of a ghost. In this case, it is not confined to the walls of the space, but rather, it is in full flight, constantly moving. The manifestation must be linked to one of the metaphors that inhabit the name of this installation; the movement of the veil is as ethereal as the name: "Shabah El Rih" or "Second Wind".
The concept was created by Whard Sleiman with regard to its stage design, and Nader Bahsoun being responsible for the cinematography (1). Both decided to personify the vestiges of the past in an ghostly apparition.
Do we sometimes forget that we often refer to "our past" as "our ghosts"? "Shabah El Rih" represents the possibility of using the past during the present, putting forward the social consciousness that new generations possess and that the past is an identity that dwells within oneself and in history.
The installation is a re-signification that proposes the possibility of conserving and transforming through artistic sublimation. The symbolic rehabilitation of space means granting it this second breath that revitalizes it.
"Liebestod" (death of love) is the Wagnerian act that Hallab sings (3): every creation is an act of love, even if there’s a wink of misfortune and possible destruction of something important. The love for creation attempts to rescue everything. There‘s a sense that we will never be alone because violence accompanies us, even the ghosts, the latent reminiscence.
(1) Sihaam Naik, Shelley Jones. (2021) "Shabah El Rih – NOWNESS EXPERIMENTS," NOWNESS ASIA. Available at: https://www.nowness.asia/series/nowness-experiments/nowness-experiments-shabah-el-rih (Accessed: February 26, 2024).
(2) Dorothée Werner. (2024) “Patricia Darré: Les médiums sont des gens comme vous... et moi!“. ELLE France. Available at: https://www.elle.fr/Societe/Les-enquetes/Patricia-Darre-Les-mediums-sont-des-gens-comme-vous-et-moi-2465568 (Accessed: February 26, 2024).
(3) Richard Wagner. Munich Court Theater (1865) “Synopsis: Tristan und Isolde”. Available at: https://www.metopera.org/user-information/synopses-archive/tristan-und-isolde (Accessed: February 26, 2024)