Abstract
This presentation will explore philosophically the concept of “energy” in several artworks by contemporary Lebanese artist Marwa Arsanios that engage with ideas around land, women’s activism, and the commons. Through video, sculpture, installation, and research-based projects, Arsanios examines the complex notions of collective ownership, resource usage, and access to public goods. The presentation will focus on specific works including projects such as "Have You Ever Killed a Bear? Or Becoming Jamila" (2014), "Who Is Afraid of Ideology?" (2017), and installations which highlight issues of natural resource control, land privatization, and the exclusion of certain groups from public spaces or utilities. Through an ecofeminist framework, this presentation will more specifically explore the ways in which the concept of “energy” is mobilized in Arsanios’ work. Energy will be conceived of as a natural resource, a shared inheritance, and the figurative "energies" of politics, activism, and change. Projects such as "Have You Ever Killed a Bear? Or Becoming Jamila" examines the importance of collectively shared energy resources. Through the story of an Arab-Druze woman protecting her land from enclosure, installations like "Who's Afraid of Ideology?" nod to the energies of activism, protest, and campaigning at a grassroots level, and underline the struggle over electricity access and fuel sources in rural communities. This presentation will finally question the ways in which the struggles over natural resources and raw materials for power – be they oil or gas, for instance – can be articulated conceptually to the political and social energy of activism.
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