rana haddad . pascal hachem . Curated show . Portmanteau | Play with the Rules . Milwaukee art museum . 10 / 2018

  rana haddad . pascal hachem . installation / performance . beirut . 10 / 2018 . 12:45pm

shot for the milwaukee art museum exhibition | credits . philippe hage boutros

There is an intimate relation between a piece of luggage and its owner. When carried, the luggage intermittently caresses the body of its holder. The heavier the luggage, the closer the relation. It is an act that carries with it an unsolicited pleasure – a body forced into a sensation of painful joy.

Here, the power play shifts. The luggage now contains within it the body that once held it. This body is limited to push backward, blindly moving against the flow of the passersby who must now themselves, in an alienated experience, respond to the demands of an object they once presumed they could control.

“piiiiissssst” is a 55 minutes’ performance/installation. the performance took place at the milwaukee art museum during the opening ceremony. the installation consisted of a video playing in a loop of piiiisssst by beirut river bed along with a 32.4 linear meters by 0.335-meter width - folded posters, revealing body parts coming out from a suitcase, suitcase part or simply limbs that meet each other in a non-orthodox manner. it is a reflection on the actual gesture of being carried in a suitcase as a necessity that one should have while moving from a place to another unexpectedly. knowing that one might not get a chance to cross borders, the suitcase becomes a camouflage of bare necessity.

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