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Talaeen a Junuub (Up to the South)

Jayce Salloum

1993 01:00:00 Lebanon, United StatesEnglishColorMono4:3Video

Description

An oblique, albeit powerful documentary that examines the current conditions, politics, and economics of South Lebanon. The tape focuses on the social, intellectual, and popular resistance to the Israeli occupation, as well as conceptions of "the land" and culture, and the imperiled identities of the Lebanese people. Simultaneously, the tape self-consciously engages in a critique of the documentary genre and its traditions.

"This documentary represents a new trend in artistic creativity in the Arab World. It sets new standards for political documentaries covering political turmoil in the region. Not ones to use cliches and ideological dogmas, these young artists approach the subject of South Lebanon with sensitivity and political maturity. They avoid the heavy political propagation which is evident in movies of this kind. They let the people (refreshingly not only males, but men and women) speak and they let them speak in the diversity of their roles and lifestyles. This documentary is recommended for the experts and for the novices. Those who know and those who want to know about the subject matter will learn from this documentary."

—As’ad Abu Khalil, Assistant Professor Political Science, California State University, Stanislaus/Research Fellow, UC Berkeley

French subtitled version available.

About Jayce Salloum

Jayce Salloum has been working in installation, photography, mixed and new media and video since 1975, as well as curating exhibitions, conducting workshops and coordinating cultural events. After 22 years living and working in San Francisco, Banff, Toronto, San Diego, Beirut, and New York, he now lives/works out of Vancouver.  His work takes place in a variety of contexts critically engaging itself in the representation of cultural/social/political manifestations and other cultures. 

He received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1980, an MFA from the University of California, San Diego in 1988, and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art, Independent Studio program in 1988-89 and the PS1 International Studio Program in 1989-90.

Salloum has had numerous exhibitions throughout North and South America, Europe, Japan and the Middle East, including solo exhibitions at American Fine Arts, Artists Space, ABC No Rio, Collective for Living Cinema, Millennium Film Workshop (New York); New Langton Arts, Pacific Film Archives, SF Cinematheque, ATA (San Francisco); Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies; CEPA Gallery, Buffalo; YYZ, A Space, Music Gallery, The Photography Gallery (Toronto); Contemporary Art Gallery, Western Front, Pacific Cinematheque, Video In (Vancouver); Optica Gallery, Oboro, Articule, Cinéma Paralléle (Montréal); Plug-In (Winnipeg); Hamilton Art Gallery; Galerie 101 (Ottawa); Southern Alberta Art Gallery (Lethbridge); FAVA, NFB, Metro Cinema, Latitude 53 (Edmonton); The Photographers Gallery (Saskatoon); British Film Institute (London); Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Botschaft/Friseur, Shin-Shin Galerie (Berlin); The American Centre, and the Institute du Monde Arabe (Paris); and Théatre de Beyrouth (Beirut).  In 1998 he had a solo installation on exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada and in 2002 at the Museum of Civilization, Ottawa.

He has been in many group exhibitions at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, American Fine Arts, The Kitchen and P.S.1. (New York); Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume (Paris); Espace Lyonnais d'Art Contemporain; Rotterdam Film Festival, Kijkhuis World Wide Video Festival, The Milkyway (The Netherlands); Shedhalle, Rote Fabrik (Zurich); Viper (Lucerne); Semaine Int’l de Vidéo (Geneva); Filmladen-Kassel; Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna; Weltbekannt, Hamburg; Retina Festivál, Hungary; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia; Valencia; Institute of Modern Art, Filmoteca de Andalucía (Córdoba); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville; Filmhouse, Granada; Arab Screen Film Festival, Qatar; European Media Art Festival; Fotoptica Int’l Video Festival, Sao Paulo; Athens Int’l Film & Video Festival; Robert Flaherty Seminars; PhilaFilm; Louisville Film & Video Festival; ATA, Mill Valley Film Festival (San Francisco); LACE, Los Angeles; Long Beach Museum of Art; Santa Monica Museum of Art; Walker Arts Center; The Wexner Center, Ohio; Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester; Maryland Institute College of Art; Kansas City Art Institute; Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa; Dazibao, Montréal; YYZ and The National Film Board Theatre (Toronto).

His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography and Artbank, Ottawa;  Polaroid Europa International Collection, The Netherlands; International Polaroid Collection, Offenbach, Germany; Art Gallery of Windsor; Long Beach Museum of Art, California; The Banff Centre for the Arts; Everson Museum, Syracuse; and Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York

Some of the institutions he has received grants from are the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, British Columbia Media Arts Program, New York State Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Long Beach Museum of Art, Art Matters Inc., Banff Centre for the Arts and the Polaroid Corporation.