Ilse Frech

Fugacious Presence, as a collective performance, explores the theme of war and memory related to Lebanon’s history and the carriers of its trauma. Embodied by the city, part of the landscape, objects and the human body as such, the group acts as a collective body in a rhythmic concatenation of images, words and sound, in joint alliance either opposition to one another.

A vivid image of memory in transition emerges, yet awaiting to capture or grasp a voice, either a body, to be expressed in the present. Therefore Fugacious Presence is a poem brought to life and embodied by the group, their bodily expressions emerging whilst the live score was performed by Tony Elieh: An audiovisual composition, unique, being written and performed at the very moment.

Within a setting of video projections set in the open space of Ashkal Alwan, the public as well, was invited to step into the ‘grid’ and become part of the transitory landscape of Fugacious Presence. This ‘grid’ was a conceptual space meandering in between eight psychological definitions either states of mind, drawing an imaginary landscape for both the bodily movements of the performers – as well the music, to embody: Loss/Construction, Memory/Ritual, Desire/Violence and Future/Resistance.

The performance took place during my three-month artist-in-residency at Ashkal Alwan, The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts  in Beirut, on 27/05/2016.