Pixelated Revolution A video footage taken on mobile phones by Syrian civilians during the ongoing revolution. In what has been described as a ‘double shooting’, civilians shoot at army snipers with their phone cameras in an attempt to bear witness and hold the snipers to account by posting their actions on the web. Rabih Mroué has culled images from You Tube, then zooms in to scrutinise snipers features, only to see them pixelate into abstraction the closer he searches for their identity. Alongside film footage and photography, Mroué gives a lecture that delves into the many issues surrounding the Syrian protestors’ recording of their own reality for the rest of the world to see. Rabih Mroué plays out the role of selector, interpreter and commentator as he attempts to further understand these double shootings.
Rabih Mroué (b. 1967) — actor, director, and playwright. Contributing editor of the Lebanese quarterly Kalamon and The Drama Review. One of the founders and on the executive board of the Beirut Art Center association (BAC).
His works include The Pixelated Revolution (2012), Photo-Romance (2009), The Inhabitants of Images (2008), and How Nancy Wished That Everything Was an April Fools Joke (2007).
Continuously searching for new and contemporary relations among all the different elements and languages of the theatre art forms, Mroué questions the definitions of theatre and the relationship between space and form of the performance and, consequently, questions how the performer relates with the audience.
His works deal with the issues that have been swept under the table in the current political climate of Lebanon. He draws much-needed attention to the broader political and economic contexts by means of a semi-documentary theatre.
He lives in Beirut.
