NESRINE KHODR & GHASSAN SALHAB
Lebanon
Nesrine Khodr is a video artist who lives and works in Beirut.
She has participated in the Rijksakademie residency program between 2003 and 2004. Her works include: Of seduction, 32’ (1998), Ain ‘al Hamra (Red is the colour of my eye), 23’ (2000), and more recently Enclosures, 22’ (2004) and L'avancée, 14’ (2006).
More recent festivals and exhibtion spaces where her work has been shown include:
• Transmediale, Berlin, Feb 2006
• Ellen de Bruijne gallery, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Dec-Jan 2006
• Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany, Oct-Nov 2005
• Les instants videos, Marseilles, France, Nov 2005
• Videolisboa, Lisboa, Portugal, Sep 2005
• Videobrasil, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sep 2005
She was nominated in 2004 and 2005 respectively for the Uriot prize (The Netherlands) and the Gilles Dusein award (France).
GHASSAN SALHAB
In addition to making his own films, Salhab collaborates on various scenarios in Lebanon and in France, and teaches film at the ALBA, Lebanese School of Fine Arts. He has directed three films : Beyrouth Fantôme (selected by Trois Continents/Nantes 1998 and various international film festivals), Terra Incognita (selected by Sélection Officielle/"Un Certain Regard" - Cannes 2002, and also selected by several other international film festivals), The Last Man (selected by "Cinéastes du Présent" - Locarno 2006, Montpellier, Torino…), in addition to numerous short films and "videos", including Narcisse Perdu, My dead body, my living body, La Rose de personne, Baalbeck (co-directed with A. Zaatari and M. Soueid), Afrique Fantôme, Après la Mort… which have all been screened on many international festivals.
He has also published his texts and articles in various magazines.
NESRINE KHODR & GHASSAN SALHAB
Of seduction, 32min, 1998
Courtesy of the artists
This work evokes the meanderings of desire, of seduction and of love by giving voice to women of different generations. We see Soraya, a young woman who has chosen the one on whom she is to exert her seductive powers, a man of which we will hardly see more than his silhouette, his back, his hands. There are as well the testimonies of other women who expose their fantasies, speak in detail of their attraction for men, of their choices, and explain how seduction exists also as a means of communication, as a mark of respect; they also share painful moments when seduction ceases to operate. This is a documentary constructed of fragments in an attempt to reappropriate reality rather than to re-construct it.