The Return by Rayyane Tabet at the Sfeir-Semler Gallery
The Return is an immersive installation that completely transforms the vast exhibition space of Sfeir-Semler Beirut, turning it into a foreign stratosphere. Stepping into the gallery, visitors are immediately bathed in a blue haze that engulfs objects and people alike and magically transforms their appearances. After the eyesight has adjusted to the dimmed setting, one distinguishes awe-inspiring, larger-than-life images of a bull’s head, that look like reliefs on a series of 8 symmetrically built free-standing walls.
The exhibition investigates the journey of a marble sculpture, dated ca. 360 B.C. that was unearthed during the excavation of the temple of Eshmun in Saida in July 1967. A month earlier, in June of that same year, the Arab-Israeli war had impacted the whole Middle East, and its reverberations are still felt today.
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