Past events
108 SUN SALUTATIONS
Saturday Sept 21, 6-8pm
Fundraiser for Anti-Racism Movement | One Om Yoga
As part of giving back to the community, One Om Yoga, for the second year in a row, is organizing a yoga event on our rooftop from which all proceeds will go to support the activities of the Anti-Racism Movement (ARM) and Koun, both NGOs working to support migrant workers in Lebanon.
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LEBANESE INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
Wed 11, 7pm: Opening Ceremony
Thur 12-Sun 15, 9am-11pm: Screenings & Workshops
Sun 15, 9pm: Closing Awards Ceremony & Party
LIFF's second edition presents 180 films screened indoors and on our starlit rooftop. Over four days and nights, the city’s film scene and movie lovers can watch local and international movies, attend workshops and panels, eat popcorn, mingle at the rooftop bar, meet the press and celebrate independent film together at the Closing Party.
Besides the films in competition, LIFF will also feature movies from the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), International Film Festival of Rotterdam, Venice Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Visions du Réel, and the Etats Généraux du Film Documentaire.
With Embrace NGO as a key partner this year, a selection of movies with stories on mental health will be presented throughout the program.
DISMANTLED – BEIRUT IMAGE FESTIVAL
Sept 10-29, 2019 | Opening Tuesday September 10, 6pm
Group photography exhibition
The Beirut Image Festival (BIF) launches its inaugural edition with a month-long series of exhibitions presenting photography in its various expressions. We participate with DISMANTLED, a group exhibition featuring ten young photographers selected for their conceptual approach to contemporary concerns.
Artists
Hussein Al Hashem, Youssef Al Hassan, Amira Alsharif, Nisrine El Khatib, Nadine El Koudsi, Ibrahim Ezzat, Farzin Foroutan, Hana Gamal, M’hammed Kilito, Roger Mokbel
In a decade that has brought the dislocation of whole nations, image-makers from Yemen to Morocco engage with the questions that are informing, shaping and transforming their generation. With studied aesthetics and visual poetry, their works respond to the existential affects of forced displacement, the quest for gender equality and the innocence of love. But through these images, they are also challenging generational limitations that have confined their development.
HYPE MARKET
August 24 + 25, 4-9pm
Station Beirut's signature pop-up Market returns just before the start of the Fall season with exclusive lifestyle and streetwear items so you can find the next big thing. In partnership with the SupLeb collective of fashion resellers, the STATION Hype Market presents limited edition gear from international buzz brands like Supreme, Yeezy and Off White.
Shop for that exclusive look from dozens of stands. Find ultra rare hoodies, collector sneakers, cult T-shirts and a range of far-out accessories. As with all our Markets, the social shopping experience extends to bar, street food and DJ sets (rooftop), and for this edition we’re setting up a special play area and a trading pitch to Buy-Sell-Trade your brand new + pre-owned hype apparel.
LIVE JAZZ - TAREK YAMANI
Thursday August 22, 9pm
A regular on New York’s jazz scene, critically-acclaimed pianist/composer Tarek Yamani visits Beirut for a unique evening to present his Afro-Tarab Pairings Project. Ever since the release of his debut album Ashur in 2012, Tarek's constantly evolving musical vision has been dubbed Afro-Tarab, a term to capture his distinct reinterpretations of classical Arabic maqams within the frameworks of African-American jazz and African polyrhythms.
For this piano solo concert, he pairs rearrangements of Arabic, Afro-Cuban and jazz tunes based on their musical spirit, themes and poetic inclinations, inviting mystery to emerge and new jazz sounds to flow.
Some of the paired pieces include Brazilian Chico Buarque’s “Com Açúcar, Com Afeto” x Egyptian Darwich Al Hariri’s “Muwashah Hubbi Zurni”, Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” x Alexandrian Sayed Darwich’s “Lahn Al Shayalan”, Harry Warren’s “You’re My Everything” x Lebanese Ziad Rahbani’s “Bala Wala Chi”, Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night In Tunisia” x Egyptian Kamel Al Khulai’s “Fi Hulal Al Afrah”.
We are pleased to present this evening in collaboration with the Beirut & Beyond International Music Festival.
ROOFTOP FILMS - MUSIC CYCLE
July 17- Aug 7, 2019 | Wednesdays 8pm
A series of four documentary films celebrating the creative energy of music. The selection takes us on the discovery of artists, musical scenes, cities and social movements, bringing down barriers and opening up horizons of genres.
Every Wednesday evening, enjoy an outdoor cinema experience on our starlit rooftop with drinks and bites from our bar.
BILDITS WORKSHOP FOR KIDS
July 17- Aug 16, 2019
Using building kits designed by professional architects, kids can dream, design and build their own house using real construction materials. The Bildits kit includes modular pieces and authentic miniature materials (ie bricks, wood, cement, steel), to learn and apply their knowledge through hands-on learning.
Participants build progressively over the four-week period and get to keep their construction at the end. It is therefore essential to sign-up and attend all classes.
DANCE LAB FOR KIDS
July 18- Aug 19, 2019
Dance theatre and self-expression lab
Mon & Thur, 4pm
Dance instructor Mireille Safar presents a series of workshops that focus on techniques of self-expression and dance theatre. Mireille is a certified instructor who combines various schools of body movement to teach dance along with techniques of concentration and relaxation, body awareness and resonance, using exercises inspired by Taijiquan and Quiqong.
FILM - LOYAC SHORTS SCREENING
Thursday July 16, 8pm
LOYAC presents six short films created this spring during a film camp where eighteen aspiring young filmmakers were trained by industry professionals to take their dreams from script to screen. Produced by LOYAC in partnership with Cutting Board Films & Solo Films, supervising producer Dima Al Ansari.
CHASING AFTER WATER
Sat July 20 + Sun July 21, 4pm
Puppet Theatre presented by Les Amis des Marionettes
The people are protesting in front of the King’s castle: there is no more water due to depletion and pollution. The King asks Malo for help, who takes it upon himself to find a solution. He discovers the cycle of water and meets the man who pours water. The latter tells Malo that because of man-made pollution, the fish in the sea have migrated, each carrying their own water drop. Only when everyone will have understood and applied the content of the song of water will the water return. But Malo doesn’t know everyone!
A fun tale that teaches about environmental conservation and water preservation.
Show is in Arabic.
DANCE - AFRODANCE WORKSHOP
Monday July 22, 7 + 8:45pm
Unity Moves and Afro by Sara bring Moto Dancers for a weekend of Afrobeat this July. One session is on the beach in Sour/Tyr, the other at STATION in Beirut for two-days of high energy African groove.
Moto Dancers will give an intro session and easy choreo at Resthouse Sour followed by a short video shoot for a little fun in the sun. The next day, the crew will give afrobeat and dancehall workshops at Station.
Workshops are open to all levels.
Afro Beach Day | Rest House, Sour | 21.07 | Starting 10:00am
Afrobeat Workshop | Station, Beirut | 22.07 | 7– 8:30pm
Dancehall Workshop | Station, Beirut | 22.07 | 8:45 – 10:15pm
LL50,000 / session
LL100,000 for Full Package - Afro Beach Day in Sour (Rest House Entrance, Intro Session & Party) + 2 Workshops at Station
FILM – GoT ROOFTOP SCREENINGS
April 15–May 20, 2019
The award-winning GoT fantasy drama series draws to its epic finale this spring after an excruciating two-year wait. For Beirut’s devoted fan base, we teamed up with a group of hardcore GoT fans to create an immersive viewing experience that plunges you into the sprawling world of Westeros and its beguiling cast of characters.
Join us on the STATION rooftop every Monday starting April 15 with friends, family and other fearless fans to discover the final denouement. Around our large outdoor screen, taste dragon-grilled Dornish foods and delect your buds with our Seven Kingdom ales and cocktails.
PENDING MESSAGES
May 16-18, 2019
Photography exhibition | Mosaic and the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund
Also part of this year's IDAHOT activities, we host Mosaic and the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund with a group exhibition of amateur photographers entitled "Pending Messages". The exhibition showcases the images created by participants in a workshop led by photographer Marwan Tahtah that equipped them over the span of several weeks with the technical and artistic notions to capture, express and share their own narratives.
Wednesday May 15, 8pm
CLIFFHANGERS STORYTELLING NIGHT
IDAHOT on the Roof
On the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT), we host Dima Matta’s Cliffhangers platform with a storytelling night that gives stage and shine to the LGBTQIA+ community and our beautiful diversity.
With warm memories of previous editions, the evening starts with a line up of brave and talented storytellers, followed by an open mic that invites audience members to come up and share their story. #YouAreNotAlone #WeAreWithTheLovers
THE NATURAL, THE (UN)CLEANSED & THE FOREIGN
May 10-19, 2019
Curated by Kaja Kraner and Lucija Smodiš
USEK, Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže + GuestRoomMaribor residency program (Slovenia), in collaboration with Miha Vipotnik
Maya Abi Semaan / Charbel Samuel Aoun / Elie Azzi / Nataša Berk / Perla Chaaya / Firas El Hallak / Enej Gala / Melissa Ghazale / Zuheir Helou / Magaly Jabbour / Elie Mouhanna / Joanne Nehme / Joy Sfeir / Tomo Stanič / Frederick Zreik
A group exhibition of Slovenian and Lebanese artists curated by Kaja Kraner and Lucija Smodiš explores the intersecting tensions between nature, technology and self-reflection through a variety of media – photography, kinetic and multimedia installations, green sculptures and fractal art. Produced by USEK and Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže (GuestRoomMaribor residency program), in collaboration with Miha Vipotnik and STATION.
AL HUDOOD – PUBLICATION LAUNCH
Sunday May 5, 6pm
The satirical Arabic news site Al Hudood (The Border) launches its print version with a special event featuring an exhibition of historic sociopolitical comedy publications from Tunis to Baghdad, a panel discussion with journalists Khaled Saghieh, Alia Ibrahim and Isam Uraiqat, comedy performance by Shaden Esperanza and live hip hop by the MSKH collective – El Rass, Mehrak and Al Darwich, visuals by Hamza Shams.
LIVE – SIG, ERIK TRUFFAZ, ARTIS ORUBS
Thursday April 18, 2019 | Doors 9pm
The genre-bending electro-jazz trio drops into Beirut for an extended live gig that promises to bend and blow our minds. Swiss-French trumpet virtuoso Erik Truffaz is joined on stage by gentleman-vagabond Sig (cello, keys, electronics) and the phenomenal Artis Orubs on drums. The trio will perform their piece Elegia Session combining improvisational jazz, syncopated percussions, distorted synths, loops and effects over Erik Truffaz’ golden trumpet.
Music community partners Beirut & Beyond, Al Moharek, with support from the Embassy of Switzerland in Lebanon, Pro Helvetia Cairo – Swiss Arts Council, French Institute in Lebanon.
ON ECHOES OF INVISIBLE HEARTS – BEIRUT EDITION
April 17 – May 5, 2019 | Opening Wed April 17, 5-10pm
Image Making and Popular Archiving in Times of Unrest
Exhibition of contemporary Yemeni Artists + Parallel Events
On Echoes of Invisible Hearts is a series of location specific exhibitions, initiated by Sanaa-based Diwan Al Fan and curated by Lila Nazemian, each featuring a varying group of artists from Yemen and its Diaspora. The first edition, subtitled Narratives of Yemeni Displacements, was held last September in Berlin. The second, Image Making and Popular Archiving in Times of Unrest, takes place in Beirut to generate a dialogue between the historic and still unfolding havoc in both Lebanon and Yemen. Participating photographers, videographers, installation artists, filmmakers and poets mediate war trauma and forced displacement. They question collective memory and selective amnesia while inviting us to challenge dominant narratives and issues of future transmission.
Artists
Alia Ali, Yasmine Diaz, Arif Al Nomay, Thana Faroq, Ibn Seera and Rahman Taha
Parallel Events
April 17, 7pm – Opening Talk with curator + artists Rahman Taha & Yasmine Diaz
April 21, 9pm – A Night of Yemeni Cinema
April 24, 8pm – Yemen Literature & Poetry Night
An arts initiative by the Romooz Foundation, supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).
HIP HOP WORKSHOP WITH CHRISTIANA (GERMANY)
Saturday Apr 20, 2019
Riddim School
Two Hip Hop Sessions: 4-5:30, 6-7:30pm
The Unity Moves dance collective is back for a day of Hip Hop with professional dancer, choreographer and coach Christiana from the Riddim Danschool in Munich. Over an afternoon, she shares her groove-based hip-hop style that’s featured on music videos and influenced dance competitions from Big Bang Bern to the World of Dance Berlin.
Workshop open to all levels.
FILM | WHAT IS DANCEHALL?
February 24, 9pm
Unity Moves invites you to the first of what will be regular screenings that engage different movements in Urban Dance, Hip Hop and street styles. A selection of documentaries and documentary-like videos about the Jamaican roots and development of dancehall, a fast growing international in-studio phenomenon.
Unity Moves believes in movement. We organise events – including workshops with local and international artists in different styles – that bring the various Urban Dance and Hip Hop communities in Lebanon together for positive exchange, mutual growth and serious impact.
EXPO | REMAKE
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Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the European Film Festival in Lebanon, Metropolis Theatre partners with Samandal Comics for a special event about the importance of film poster design. Eight Lebanese illustrators will exhibit their interpretation of acclaimed European films: Tracy Chahwan, Ghadi Ghosn, Carla Habib, Nour Hifaoui, Joseph Kai, Karen Keyrouz, Mohamad Kraytem and Raphaelle Macaron
LIVE ARTS | LAUNCHING MOUSSEM CITIES: DAMASCUS FROM BEIRUT
January 14 + 15
The launching of Moussem Cities in Beirut is in collaboration with Ettijahat-Independent Culture. This two-day programme focuses on artists who live in Syria or Lebanon. Turning a spotlight on the political and social circumstances of Syrian artists and the difficulties that they experience due to their limited mobility, this two day event underlines the role played by Beirut as a link between Damascus and the world. Beirut is a city of vital importance to independent Syrian art production and as a space in which Syrian makers can express themselves, but also a city that is aware of its difficulties and limitations, and where working conditions for (Syrian) artists are far from comfortable. Please join us for a reception, encounters, theatre performance and concert.
In partnership with the Moussem Nomadic Arts Centre and with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation Middle East and Station.
LIVE | EXCERPT FROM A DREAM BY ANWAR BIZRI
Thursday Dec 27, 9pm
Singer/songwriter Anwar Bizri is currently recording his debut EP “Nightlights,” a conceptual rock album of original material recorded between New York and Beirut in collaboration with producer Raed El Khazen and Derek Nievergelt.
EXCERPT FROM A DREAM is the live performance of the upcoming EP interlinking sonic & visual sequences in a thematic progression. Starting from a space of introspection, the show builds up thematically throughout an unravelling journey based on the process of self-actualization.
In a performance that evolves through layers of ambient instrumentals, indie rock, progressive rock, and rock n' roll, "Excerpt from a Dream" brings to life a new sound fusing a dynamic spectrum of influences: from the timeless sounds of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, to the unique instrumentations of Dhafer Youssef and the contemporary indie sounds of Bon Iver, Ben Howard, and The Lumineers.
Featuring Alan Abi, Nayiry Ghazarian, Maher Mekhael, Mahmoud Ramadan
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SUGARCHILD
Sugarchild is an upcoming indie electro-pop duo bringing to the scene a freshly fused sound from backgrounds of classic funk and rhythmic R&B
CHRIS & ABE
Chris & Abe are an original country folk rock duo. The raspy two-man act blends blues, folk, and subtle infusions of character and cultural origin
INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS DAY
Sunday Dec 16
International Migrants Day is a full-day event with a musical performance by the Sudanese Band, interactive booths for henna tattoos, hair braiding, West African drum and dance, food from different countries, and an open mic session where you can share your stories and talents.
Full Program:
12:30 - 1:00: Welcoming and Traditional Ethiopian Coffee
1:00 - 1:30: Speeches and Presentations by Migrant Community Collectives
1:30 - 2:00: Music Concert by The Sudanese Band
2:00 - 3:00: Interactive booths for Henna, hair braiding, handmades, photo shooting, and other arts
3:00 - 3:30: West African Drum & Dance with Jebebara Unity Drum
3:30 - 4:30: Spoken word event featuring talented members from the migrant community and lineup of other great performers
It will be followed by an open mic where anyone can come up and share what they want!
4:30 - 6:30: Food from different countries (starting 5,000 L.L.)
Free Entrance
LIVE | BEIRUT & BEYOND OPENING NIGHT
Thursday Dec 6, 2018
STATION opens Beirut & Beyond with Tania Saleh (LB) and Imed Alibi (TN). The premier festival of independent music continues over four days in great venues around town. This year’s edition features live performances from international headliners to rising regional stars, from traditional Arabic sounds to fresh sonic experimentations, celebrating the breadth & depth of the MENA independent music scene.
Imed Alibi عماد عليبي – Frigya (Tunis / France / Burkina Faso)
Imed Alibi’s sounds are ambitious and courageous. Mixing techniques, cultures and openness to create a world of rhythms, beats, melodies, ideas, transformation, technology and passion far from typical entertainment.
Tania Saleh (Lebanon / Sweden)
Tania Saleh is a Lebanese singer/songwriter who has been paving her own way in the Arabic indie alternative music scene. Taking a new path, Tania Saleh has chosen to revisit great inspiring work of renowned poets of the Arab World, by creating ‘Intersection’, an audiovisual experiment, mixing Arabic poetry, classical Arabic melodies, street art, Arabic calligraphy and contemporary electronic sounds.
THEATRE | MEURSAULT’S LABYRINTH
Thur-Sun, Nov 29 - Dec 2, 8:30pm
The Battle of Algiers blows up Albert Camus’ l’Etranger with the Lebanese Civil War watching and waiting in the wings. A play of memory, time, time-bombs and other man-made earthquakes. A purifying wave of almost true stories about beautiful bombers, tortured torturers, fallen men and rising women.
Written and Directed by Doyle Avant
Produced by Sahar Assaf
Cast
Basma Baydoun, Doyle Avant, Elie Youssef, Jawad Rizkallah, Pascale Chnaiss, Sahar Assaf, Sany Abdul Baki
Crew
Production Manager: Sanaa Koujou
Sound Design Consultant: Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
Light Designer/Operator: Ahmed Hafez
Videographer/Video Operator/Photographer: Firas Haidar
Scenography Consultant: Ghida Hachicho
Graphic Designer: Aya Khalifeh
Algerian Dialect Coach: Said Rafik Lahmari
Presented by the American University of Beirut (AUB) Center for Arts and Humanities - Mellon Grant, Center for American Studies and Research - CASAR AUB the AUB Theater Initiative.
DANCEHALL WORKSHOP WITH MARTHE VANGEEL
November 19, 2018
Jamaican Dancehall culture is a way of expression that is mainly found in the inner cities of Jamaica. Marthe Vangeel attempts to introduce the movement to those that are ready to open their eyes and hearts to the very rich and diverse culture.
In her classes, you will learn about the various dances/steps, music and culture that you can then put together to create your own personal experience. In Beirut, she will give two sessions OPEN TO ALL LEVELS from absolute beginners and on...
Marthe Vangeel is a Belgian dancer living in Amsterdam (The Netherlands). She is an international instructor, teaching in camps and events around the world in: France, Portugal, Spain, Germany, The United Kingdom, Sweden, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Morocco, Chile, Reunion Island, Malta, Greece and New York, to name a few. to As a lover and supporter of Dancehall culture, she frequently travels to Jamaica to transmit her dedication to the form.
CATTITUDE AND THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF WOOFING
November 15-18, 2019
In "Cattitude and the Unbearable Lightness of Woofing" Michel focuses on cats and dogs in a studio environment portrayed as unique individuals with different personalities. Some are survivors who were abandoned and suffered at the hands of humans, others come from pet shops or breeders and were sold as commodities, yet despite their adversity they have all forgiven the cruelty of humans and continue to bring joy to our lives.
All profits from the book and photo sales will be donated to nonprofit Organizations, mainly Animals Lebanon in order to fund the effective implementation of the Animals Protection and Welfare Law.
ART | POUDRE DE SONGES – AUGUSTIN REBETEZ
October 18 - November 14, 2018
After his immersive installation during our Yalla Dada exhibition (2016) and his critically acclaimed show at this year’s Visual Arts Bienniale in Vevey, STATION welcomes back Swiss artist Augustin Rebetez for a residency and solo photography exhibition entitled Poudre de Songes/Dreampowder. Parallel to the exhibition, we present two artist talks, a photography workshop and a live concert.
Born in the Jura mountains in 1986, Augustin Rebetez creates total art installations that burst with vivacious poetry, humor and youthful rebellion. The contrasts that he stages – with images, drawings, installations, sculptures or stopmotion videos – depict a tragicomic reality that is visually moving, playful, sometimes dizzying and always enchanting. Instead of documenting his world, Augustin would rather build a world he can share, a world we can dream.
His universe is populated by strange beings wearing masks and costumes, hybrids of humans, animals, trees and machines. Referencing legends and rituals, using found or built objects, his images have their own language, full of recurring signs and pictograms that are deliberately rudimentary. There is a bit of primitivism in his work, an artist who prefers art brut and outsider art to contemporary art, more interested in ethics than aesthetics. Augustin’s work is characterized by spontaneity and sincerity, an intermediary to myths and symbols that bring different worlds into contact with one another so that the beauty of his world transforms ours.
With the support of Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council and the Embassy of Switzerland in Lebanon.
FNF BERLIN, BEIRUT AND BEYOND
Thursday, November 8, 2018 at 7 PM – 3 AM
FNF Lebanon and Syria is celebrating 60 years of ideas for freedom and you are all invited to this unforgettable celebration!
• A Berlin style exhibition of our work
• Virtual Reality Stations
• A hologram VIP Guest
• DJ Marc Pick (Berlin)
• German Beer
• And the chance to win A BERLIN TRIP
THE STORY OF THE MAN WHO INHABITED HIS SHADOW - PERFORMANCE
November 2,3,4,9 +11, 2018
‘The Story of The Man Who Inhabited His Shadow’ is a theatre performance that shares the same space with an art exhibition to alternatively and each at a time, construct and tell the story of Kevork Kasarian and his unfinished works. They work together to tell the story of a filmmaker and artist who spent many years experimenting and moving between many artistic mediums working on several projects between 1975 and 1993 in Beirut. Projects that never ceased to come to life, one after the other, but which were never completed.
This project has been made possible thanks to a grant from AFAC - The Arab Fund for Arts & Culture, and a grant from The Culture Resource.
THE UNFINISHED WORKS OF KEVORK KASSARIAN - EXHIBITION
November 1-11, 2018
In the early years of the civil war—long idle years without work—a vigilant reader of Beirut’s Hawadeth magazine read through several tragic stories about a number of writers and poets who had lost their novels or their collected verses amongst the rubble of the buildings destroyed during the fighting. And there were other, similar stories, where the war was always the central event in the plot. Stories, for example, about a theater actress who was killed by a sniper two days before the opening of the show in which she played the starring role, and about a film director whose house had been occupied by militiamen, who, when they grew cold, thought nothing of piling all the rolls of his unfinished films into a heap in the middle of the room and making a fire out of them in order to keep warm. In his perusals, this same vigilant reader might have come across an article written by the literary critic Shawki Bleibel about the filmmaker Kevork Kassarian on the occasion of the third anniversary of Kassarian’s disappearance from the realms of both journalism and culture, as Bleibel wrote in the first paragraph of his article, published in the Al-Anwar newspaper in 1978.
Kassarian remained in Beirut, never even once setting foot outside it during the course of the entire war, and yet despite this, journalists lost track of him entirely. This becomes eminently clear in an article that was published in Hawadeth magazine in the summer of 1981, listing all the Lebanese creatives and artists who had fled the country during the preceding years. Among them was the name of Kevork Kassarian. When Kassarian spotted his name on the list, he laughed. He thought of sending a correction to the magazine, but then changed his mind. He was intrigued by the idea that people would think he had left, and that he could now begin anew from scratch.
This article would be the last one written in Beirut about Kevork Kassarian. Afterward, he will be swallowed up by forgetfulness entirely, just as so many others had been forgotten, and even a thorough search of Beirut’s various newspapers and periodicals will reveal no mention of him.
This project has been made possible thanks to a grant from AFAC-The Arab Fund for Arts & Culture, and a grant from The Cultural Resource.
NEXTSTOPDAMASCUS AT OSLO WORLD
Exhibition: October 30 – November 4
Oslo World is pleased to invite Station Beirut art platform to present a special edition of their traveling cultural project, NextStop.
NextStop is a capsule experience initiated by Station Beirut (Lebanon) that features a curated program of visual and live arts from a city’s contemporary art scene. NextStop pops up, takes over and transforms a partner venue with a rich cultural program including exhibitions, music, screenings, talks, market, workshops, and tasty cuisine. Alongside the artistic content, the focus is on cultural exchange, social practice and good times.
For Oslo World’s 2018 theme of Freedom, Station Beirut presents NextStopDamascus, featuring a program that seeks to capture the vital energy and cultural richness of Syria at a time when its artists are most fragile, perceptions are most clouded and the need for alternative perspectives most pressing. The art exhibition Oslo World Exhibition: Relentless Images features Syrian and international visual artists, co-curated with Studio Khaled Barakeh in Berlin, in collaboration with the online platform SYRIA Cultural Index. The exhibition runs all week at Kulturhuset in Oslo, with a special full-day takeover program on Saturday Nov 3rd. We wrap NextStopDamascus in Oslo with a live electro set by Shkoon at Jaeger.
SAT NOV 3 – DAY PROGRAM
11:00-03:00 Oslo World Exhibition: Relentless Images
(Opening 16.30, Tue October 30)
11:00-18:30 Video Art @LAB
12:00-14:00 Oslo World: Lunch | Syrian Recipes from Exile @DRIVHUSET
11:00-16:00 ★ TFA Special Oslo World Souk Edition ★ @BIBLIOTEKET
14:00-16:00 Oslo World Seminars: Freedom to Remember/Create @BOKSEN
16:00-16:50 Oslo World Workshop: Mapping home @DRIVHUSET
17:00-18:00 Jungeltelegrafen NRK P2 - Live Radio @HOVEDROMMET
18:00-20:00 Oslo World Film Screenings: Taste of Cement & Street Music @LAB
19:00 - 20:00 Oslo World & NextStopDamascus: Dansekollektivet @BOKSEN
01:00 - 02:30 Concert Oslo World & Jæger pres: Shkoon
In collaboration with Oslo Dokumentarkino (The Oslo Documentary Cinema), SPACE, Dansekollektivet, The Fashion Archives, Kulturhuset and Jaeger Oslo.
LIVE | CYRIL CYRIL & HYPERCULTE
Saturday Oct 13, 9pm
This month we launch LABEL NIGHTS, a live music event where we partner with independent record labels to showcase contemporary music from around the world. This first edition welcomes the spearheading Bongo Joe Records who present two bands from their sweeping repertoire.
CYRIL CYRIL – Folk-Trance duo consisting of Swiss-Lebanese Cyril Yeterian and Cyril Bondi. As one of them hammers on a strange set of drums, the other alternates playing a banjo, a guitar and a melodeon while singing in different languages. Disguised as a ghost band, the duo barges onto the dance floor using poetry filled with vagrant rumours and whisperings of uncertain times.
HYPERCULTE – Behind the post-punk krautrock tandem Hyperculte lie Simone Aubert (Massicot) and Vincent Bertholet (Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp). The former whacks her drums with pinpoint precision while the latter tames his double bass in a continuously throbbing loop. Together, they hum repetitive and inspired litanies. The result is a hypnotic ball of fire that is extraordinarily powerful, ethereal and incantatory, from the depths of the breeding grounds of existence. Rien que ça.
BONGO JOE RECORDS draws on the roots of recorded music from around the world, releasing re-editions and crate-digger rarities. Their record store carries obscure and forgotten gems, from Trinidadian calypso and East African rock‘n’roll to Turkish psychedelic folk music, with a sharp eye to spot some of the most promising sounds across the musical spectrum.
In partnership with Bongo Joe Records in Geneva, Pro Helvetia-Swiss Arts Council and the Embassy of Switzerland in Lebanon
LEARN | NIGHT TIME STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
Wednesday Oct 17, 7–8:30pm
Workshop with Laetitia Gessler
Learn how to photograph outdoor street images in low light conditions. Participants will be taught to use the settings of a digital reflex camera in complete manual mode by Laetitia Gessler, an instructor at the Vevey School of Photography. She will share a mix of practical and theoretical approaches to night time photography, using handheld and tripod techniques. The workshop will also cover how to capture moving lights, clouds and people.
Graduate of the Vevey School of Photography and HEAD (Haute Ecole d'Arts et Design - Geneva), Laetitia Gessler is an artist, curator and also teaches photography. As a professional photographer, she has worked for and exhibited at numerous arts and cultural institutions, including Festival Rencontres entre les Mondes, Dance Festival Vevey and Festival Tous Ecrans.
With the support of Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council and the Embassy of Switzerland in Lebanon.
TALK | YALA YALA WITH AUGUSTIN REBETEZ
Wednesday Oct 24, 7pm
With the Poudres de Songes exhibition as a backdrop, visual artist Augustin Rebetez presents his art out of the dark Swiss forests. Join us for an informal moment to discover more of this artist’s dreamworld where myths and rituals, punks and goths intertwine in a fanstastic dreamworld.
Exchanges, discussions, appetizers and a little something more.
Augustin has participated in exhibitions across Europe and North America, as well as South Korea, Japan, China, Nigeria, Mexico and Lebanon. He was awarded by the PhotoFolio Review at the Rencontres d’Arles in France (2010), the Swiss Photo Award (2012), the Kiefer Hablitzel Prize (2012) and the Vevey International Photo Award (2013-2014). In 2014 his work was exhibited at the Biennale of Sydney, and in 2015 he produced his first work for the stage at the Théâtre de Vidy in Lausanne.
With the support of Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council and the Embassy of Switzerland in Lebanon
LIVE | THE GRAIN SHOW
Saturday Oct 27, 9pm
Music by Louis Jucker, Visuals by Augustin Rebetez
Two friends, a musician and a visual artist, team up to create images and sounds in a unique audiovisual show.
One is a visual artist, Augustin, the other, Louis, is a self-styled musician and performer who plays lo-fi folk, almost occult, made of odds and ends - shouting, singing and playing on his self-invented instruments. Together, they combine dark poetry, sincere energy and raw projections of grainy black & white videos in a super charismatic live performance stuffed with heart, and black liquor.
The show was originally produced by L’Echandole for the Theatre de Vidy in Lausanne.
With the support of Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council and the Embassy of Switzerland in Lebanon
LEARN | HIP HOP URBAN STYLE W/ OMAR DILATI
Nov 6 - Dec 11, 2018 | Tuesdays from 7–8:30pm
Hip Hop and You Don't Stop! Professional dancer and instructor Omar Dilati returns to STATION for a series of dance classes on Urban Dance Basics. Bringing together hip hop/street culture and various urban dance communities, Dilati and guest dancers will teach weekly classes that give you in-depth, step-by-step instructions to get you hoppin & poppin on the dance floor. Students will learn various techniques and styles including Pop & Lock, Old Skool, Dance Hall, Reggaeton, Heels, Voguing and Breaking.
Omar Dilati began his studies as a dancer with classical ballet and traditional dabke. He discovered a passion for hip hop and urban dance, and has since traveled to train with international dancers, deepen his knowledge of urban dance styles and to give his own workshops. As a dancer, he is interested in the fusion of different dance elements, and is actively involved in the urban dance community in Lebanon.
Limited places
Register info@stationbeirut.com or text +961 71 684 218
// Early bird until Nov 1 – six classes $75
// After Nov 1 – six classes $90
// Walk-ins – LL25,000
FILM | I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
Tuesday Oct 9, Reception 7pm | Screening 7:30pm
By Raoul Peck, USA/France/Belgium/Switzerland, 2016, 93’, in English
Movie followed by Panel with guests Nizar Saghieh (Legal Agenda), Ramy Shukr (Anti-Racism Movement), Carole Mansour (film director), moderated by Haytham Chamass (Karama Beirut Human Rights Film Festival)
Told entirely in the words of novelist and social critic James Baldwin, through both personal appearances and the text of his unfinished book project, this documentary touches on the tragic deaths of civil rights leaders Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evans to bring powerful clarity to how the image, and reality, of Blacks in America today is fabricated and enforced. The film is anchored by Baldwin's images and words that are beautifully read by Samuel L. Jackson in hushed, burning tones.
In celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we’re pleased to once again collaborate with our Geneva-based partner FIFDH (Festival Internationale de Film et Forum sur les Droits Humains) to present the Human Rights Film Tour, organized with Swiss embassies around the world, screenings followed by debates with local NGOs, journalists, students and activists. Collaboration with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Free Entrance
UN MONDE OUVERT ET SOLIDAIRE
Monday Oct 8, 7pm
Organised by France Volontaires, an international platform for citizen engagement, this year's edition of French Volunteer Day celebrates the idea of an open and united world. In a youthful spirit, the evening program revolves around hip hop culture, with music, street art and the screening of Salim Saab’s latest documentary, Forte. An occasion to find out more about volunteer initiatives in Lebanon and how to participate in solidarity with international civic projects.
6pm | DJ Set – Beatlalipos
7pm | Live Graffiti – SPAZ & EXIST
9pm | Screening – FORTE By Salim Saab, France, 2017, 30”, AR/FR/EN
EXPO | It is Preferable Not to Travel with a Dead Man
Sept 25-30, 2018
Collective Drawing Exhibition
Opening Tue Sept 25, 7pm
Tracy Chahwan, Ghadi Ghosn, Nour Hifaoui Fakhoury, Joseph Kai, Karen Keyrouz and Georges Torbey are taking Adrien Weber on a tour of Lebanon. They visit ruins, nature, highways, alternative spaces, beaches, swimming pools and decadent resorts looking for a lost postcard.
Samandal Comics Magazine is a volunteer-based non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the art of comics in Lebanon and the rest of the world.
WORD | BEIRUT POETRY SLAM
Saturday Sept 15, 8pm
The second edition of the Beirut Poetry Slam raises the stakes with more poets from more countries competing to be the first Arab poet to participate in the World Slam in Paris. The poetry competition, largest of its kind in the Middle East, presents ten poets performing in Arabic and English. Three judges will select the winner to represent Lebanon and the Middle East in the 2019 World Poetry Slam in Paris.
THEATRE | TA’SAKENA
Wednesday Sept 12, 8pm
Cast: Abeer Soliman, Carol Ackad, Mona Soliman
Director: Nada Sabet
Ta’ Sakena (The Dormant Feminine) is a theatrical performance that takes audiences on a journey of motherhood interrupted by depression, mental health and femininity.
It tells the stories of 12 brave women who are caregivers of children with various mental and physical illnesses and disabilities. The women participated in workshops held at the children's clinic at Abassia Mental Health Hospital in Cairo, Egypt. Coming together weekly over a period of a year, empowered through storytelling, they were able to create Ta'Sakena, a performance for three actresses. The performance is a carefully woven collage of all the stories intertwined, an ode to vulnerability and the vulnerable.
Presented by Noor Creative Enterprise, supported by the Kamynu Trust, in association with Astharté - Arts Expressifs, Thérapies et Changement Social.
EXPO | The FURSA Project
Thursday June 28, 6-10pm
We collaborate with Search for Common Ground Lebanon to present The FURSA Project, an initiative that seeks through the arts and social enterprise to improve the social and economic inclusion of youth in refugee and host communities in Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey.
FURSA builds on the arts-based approach of the previous Search initiative, Better Together, by expanding to include leadership and media skills as well as social entrepreneurship and livelihood opportunities. Search hosted open days in Akkar and West Bekaa in which young people participated in theatre, drawing, photography and video workshops that they then developed into original creations.
The Fursa Project is supported by the Madad Trust Fund of the European Union to provide access to livelihood opportunities, training on basic economic skills, support for the participants’ psychosocial well-being and occasions to build understanding and empathy between the two communities
EXPO | EN MAL D'ARCHIVE - MEMORY REVISITED
June 21 – July 8, 2018
Participating Artists | Behjat Omer Abdullah, Heba Y. Amin, Anna Banout, Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Fadi F Jabour, Randa Maddah, Mohammad Omran, Jayce Salloum & Elia Suleiman
Curated and organized by Studio Khaled Barakeh, the exhibition is a cooperation between Dawlaty and Syria Cultural Index as part of the Syrian Oral History Archive (SOHA) initiative.
The En mal d’archive – Memory Revisited project seeks to connect the undeniable force of organized structures of archives with creations that could aim in almost every direction, from the boldly researched to the completely surreal. Studio Khaled Barakeh in Berlin and Dawlaty Institute in Beirut launched an open call for Syrian artists, offering grants for the production of an archive-based artwork. The four selected artists were granted access to archived stories from Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and have produced original artworks to be presented for the first time at the exhibition En mal d’archive - Memory Visited. The exhibition also presents the works of four international artists engaged with similar topics in their practice. Parallel to the exhibition, a two-day workshop with special guests will focus on the topic of archival art.
DESIGN | ALBA MODE PERFORMANCE
Wednesday June 13, 7pm
The students from the Fashion School of Alba present their final projects in a performative fashion show, their clothes expressing their limitless imagination in a subtle play of light and shadow.
Started in September 2016, the Alba Fashion School is a three-year fashion design program under the mentorship of Rabih Kayrouz and in partnership with La Cambre Fashion School in Belgium. The courses emphasize collaboration between fashion design and the arts, with students learning textiles, volumes, colors and pattern making, as well as freely exploring combinations with photography, illustration and video techniques.
ALBA Mode Performance is the first public presentation of their creations.
PHOTO | Portraits of Resilience
May 24-27, 2018
Commissioned by DRC Middle East, photojournalist Sam Tarling captures striking portraits of resilience manifested by Syrian and Lebanese communities residing side-by-side in a country with the highest per capita concentration of refugees worldwide.
As the Syrian crisis enters its eighth year, DRC Middle East presents a series of twenty five photographs that bring to life the resilience of refugee and host communities in Lebanon. The statistics on displacement are familiar to many, but the stories behind the numbers are not. Misconceptions about Syrian refugees competing for the same resources and services as the Lebanese communities hosting them have often fuelled negativity and social divides. This photo exhibition highlights stories from both communities who have displayed exceptional resilience, proving that their shared struggles and aspirations are greater than their differences.
As a part of this project, Tarling photographed children, men and women living in informal tented settlements and DRC’s areas of operation throughout Lebanon. These Syrian and Lebanese individuals are a testament to the fact that people have maintained dignity and hope in spite of the protracted crisis and the difficult circumstances they have been thrown into.
This exhibition is possible thanks to European Union support. EU Regional Trust Fund - MADAD. The European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO). Danish Refugee Council - drc.ngo
WORD | CLIFFHANGERS STORYTELLING NIGHT
Thursday May 17, 8pm
This month, Cliffhangers is celebrating IDAHOT, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia under the umbrella of Beirut Pride.
As an open and ever-supportive platform, Cliffhangers invites you all to a night of storytelling from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Let's celebrate fluidity, our wide spectrum and wherever we are on them! Let's stand against judgment, stereotyping and violence. Let's share and get to know each other.
This storytelling night will take place on Station's beautiful rooftop terrace, so come early, grab a drink, grab a bite, and mingle!
The line-up is nothing short of magical, and then we will open the mic for everyone to tell their stories :)
TALK | IDAHOT CONFERENCE
Wednesday May 16, 7pm
The LGBTQI+ Community: In between violations and recommendations
The conference will host interventions and presentations by several NGOs.
*Helem / Joseph Aoun: International shadow reports and community based work
*AFE, Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality / Myra Abdallah: Between the viewership rates and the respect of personal freedoms in the media
*Marsa, Sexual Health Center / Miled Abou Jaoudeh: Challenges facing people living with HIV
*Lebmash, Lebanese Medical Association for Sexual Health / Maher Sleiman: Heath Violations and Recommendations:
on Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE)
*Legal Agenda / Karim Nammour: How do Lebanese Judges Read Article 534 Today?
*Mosaic / Charbel Mayda:
*Transgender community / Naya: Violations and needs of the Trans community
LIVE | ALSARAH & THE NUBATONES + KHANSA
Saturday May 12, 9pm
Brooklyn-based Alsarah & The Nubatones return to STATION after their acclaimed concert in 2016 to open the second edition of Beirut Pride alongside Lebanese performer Khansa.
Under the leadership of Sudanese-born Alsarah, the band have built a rich musical repertoire of East-African Retro-Pop, featuring an electro-charged oud, ancestral bass and incisive percussions that add modern breaks and new breath to millennial rhythms. Since 2011, the band have released two full-length albums, remixes with producers like Nickodemus and The Spy From Cairo, performed on the world’s most prestigious stages and have been featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk and PBS’ Beats of the Antonov documentary. Inspired by the golden age of 1970s East African pop and the vibrancy of multicultural New York, Alsarah and her sister Nahid share their common love for the richness of pentatonic sounds and borderless cultural heritage. Together, they bring their engaged social justice positions and powerful stage presence to electrify this first evening of Beirut Pride 2018.
Khansa is a Lebanese multidisciplinary performing artist based in Beirut whose performances have been recognized for their intense vocals, vibrant imagery, physical poetry and themes that experiment with gender, intimacy and redefining masculinity.

EXPO | LOVE LETTERS TO MEEM
May 2-10, 2018
Featured Artists: Madonna Adib, Rita Adib, Bshara Atallah, Giorgio Bassil, Marta Bogdanska, Rawand Issa, Ilat Knayzeh, Elie Mouhanna, Mirella Salemeh, Lara Tabet, Tanya Traboulsi, Tanja Van Deer
Performances by Yara Bou Nassar, Elie Mouhanna, Alexandre Paulikevitch, Leen el Hashem, Paed Conca
Love Letters to Meem is an interdisciplinary art project that gives voice to the LGBTQIA+ community (Meem in Arabic) and opens a conversation with the art world and wider public. The project started with a creative writing workshop led by Dima Mikhayel Matta with participants from the Meem community in Lebanon. It culminated with them writing love letters to themselves, a technique used by psychologists with people recovering from trauma. These love letters were then given to select artists to interpret the sentiments into works of visual and performance art that transcend the written form.
The group exhibition is the outcome of this participative effort, featuring photography, video art, installations, music, film, dance and performances. It is an exercise in self-love and self-care, facilitating the expression of a positive self-image to become more accepting of who we are. Love Letters to Meem invites dialogue between writers and artists, the Meem community and allies, texts and visuals.
Love Letters to Meem is a Cliffhangers project funded by a Fulbright Alumni Community Action Grant.
LIVE | PIANO DAY 2018 - Beirut
Wednesday Apr 4, 7pm
Started by German composer and piano virtuoso Nils Frahm, PIANO DAY grew out of an online playlist collaboration into an annual worldwide celebration of the piano. The event comes to Beirut for the first time this year, showcasing the magic of 88 keys with an all-star line-up of local musicians playing across the spectrum, from classical solo to electro duo and jazz funk trio.
“Why does the world need a Piano Day? For many reasons. But mostly to celebrate the piano and everything around it: performers, composers, piano builders, tuners, movers and most importantly, the listener.” – Nils Frahm
www.pianoday.org
PROGRAM
7:00pm | NORD KEYBOARDS | Live Demo by Arthur Satyan
8:00pm | DANIEL KAROUT | Classical
8:45pm | ARTHUR SATYAN TRIO | Jazz
10:00pm | JAD TALEB & VLADIMIR KURUMILIAN | Electronica
DANCE | Hip Hop Workshop w/ Omar Dilati
Monday, Apr 2, 7:30pm –10pm
The workshop focuses on the basics of urban dance, covering different styles from Jamaica, parts of Africa and, if there's time, Dancehall steps. The class will move through footwork, strengthening and body conditioning. Steps will be practiced solo, with partners or in groups.Omar Dilati began his studies as a dancer with classical ballet and traditional dabke. He discovered a passion for hip hop and urban dance, and has since traveled to train with international dancers, diversify and deepen his knowledge of urban dance styles and to give his own workshops. As a dancer, he's interested in the fusion of different dance elements, and is actively involved in the urban dance community in Lebanon.
LIVE | FAREEQ EL ATRASH X LAZZY LUNG
Thursday Mar 29, 2018
From the far flung edges of the stereo sonic universe, two legendary motherships of Lebanese underground return for an epic funk rock reunion. Double bill/double trouble with hip hop pioneers Fareeq el Atrash and indie rockers Lazzy Lung.
Fareeq el Atrash is an Arabic hip hop band and Beirut underground cornerstone, with a pioneering sound distinguished by its true-school style, topical flows and live instrumentation. Featuring a rotating cast of the scene's finest musicians, at the band's core are two of the Arab world's finest rappers/producers, Edd Abbas and Chyno, and the unmistakable beatboxer extraordinaire, FZ.
Lazzy Lung sail into town with a live set featuring new songs, new line-up and an even bolder sound. After two self-released albums soaked with stories of Beirut’s streets, bars and boudoirs, Lazzy have nursed their hangovers, licked their wounds and are promising fresh delights for all you hungry sailors.
LIVE | THE ARENA RAP BATTLE: MAKHZAN MALAN
Sunday March 18, 6:30pm
Launched in 2015, THE ARENA is the first official Rap Battle League of the Middle East. For its fifth edition, Makhzan Malan, the League collaborates with STATION to present the very best in Hip Hop entertainment and lyrical artistry from across the region. The evening kicks off with The Arena Bootcamp, followed by an all-star line-up of regional rappers facing off in a series of three round battles, releasing rhymes with respect and competitive attitude in good jest.
THE ARENA (Starts at 8:30pm)
- Muhandas (Lebanon) VS Kalash (Lebanon) *Main Event*
- Edd Abbas (Lebanon) VS Kazz Al Omam (Jordan)
- Deeb (Egypt) VS BeatLaLipos (Lebanon)
- Synaptik (Jordan) VS AL Darwish (Syria)
- Brother Bull (Lebanon) VS XZE (Lebanon) *English*
EXPO | Decent Work, Decent Living for All
Friday Mar 23-27, 2018
LEADERS a consortium of six NGOs presents Decent Work, Decent Living for All: A forum on socio-economic inequalities and working conditions in Lebanon. This interactive platform aims to stir the discussion and present evidence that contributes to challenging mainstream discourse and narratives behind socio-economic and labour policies. Through various media, including photographs, video testimonials, and interactive installations, visitors will get a sensory experience of the realities of socioeconomic inequalities in Lebanon through firsthand stories as well as research findings.

LEARN | ACTING LAB FOR KIDS & TEENAGERS
March - April 2018
Acting Lab for Kids & Teenagers is a weekly workshop for participants to develop their communication skills, assert their identity, explore their emotions and an imaginary world through acting. Taught in a fun and friendly environment by professional actress Marwa Khalil, it is designed specifically for young age groups over a duration of two months.
Limited seats, please reserve: +961 3 77 60 80
LEARN | CLIFFHANGERS CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP
March 6 & 7, 5-7:30pm
In this workshop by the Cliffhangers Storytelling platform, founder, writer and English literature instructor Dima Matta will engage participants from the LGBTQIA+ community with writing exercises in order to produce a final text that will be given (anonymously) to artists for interpretion into interdisciplinary works of art.
The workshop is part of a larger project funded by a Fulbright Alumni Community Action grant that will result in an exhibition at STATION in the early summer.
This free workshop will be held mostly in English. Participants can choose to write in English or Arabic. Places are very limited and based on a selection process. Please write to cliffhangersbeirut@gmail.com for further information.
WORD | SHADEN ESPERANZA & LISA LUXX
Sunday Feb 25, 8pm
Comedian Shaden Esperanza and poet Lisa Luxx share a stage for one-night only. Their performance will make you question all the things we’re meant to just accept. Using their different mediums, they reveal how a room full of people can be tethered together through the hilarious and the sublime.
FILM | WE SPEAK DANCE
Thursday Feb 15, 9pm
We Speak Dance is a global series on dance cultures around the world. The show follows creator, former UN Advisor and Alvin Ailey-trained dancer Vandana Hart across the world to explore how dance connects people, places and culture.
The series was launched on Netflix in January including the Beirut episode featuring Lebanese dancers Alexandre Paulikevitch, Randa Makhoul, Naima Yazbek and Omar Dilati. We will screen three episodes (22” each) which will be followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Jackson Allers discussing dance as a weapon for social change.
LIVE | BUGGE WESSELTOFT & CHRISTIAN PROMMER
Saturday Feb 10, 9pm
Bugge Wesseltoft (Norway) and Christian Prommer (USA) are electrifying pioneers at the vanguard of jazz and electronic music, composing, producing and playing with some of the biggest names in the business. The legends visit Beirut with a unique artistic project of jazz improvisation and club sounds that will open your mind, warm you up and get you dancing. Based on intuitive listening, call & response and spontaneous reactions to audience feedback, their performance generates rhythms and grooves, both primeval and modern, that are looped, distorted and remixed on the fly, live on stage.
LIVE | ALSARAH & THE NUBATONES
Wednesday Jan 17, 7:30pm
After their memorable gig at STATION in 2016, we’re pleased to collaborate with Ginger Sounds to present Alsarah & The Nubatones in Geneva (CH), part of our international program*.
Inspired by the golden age of 1970s Sudanese pop and the vibrancy of multicultural New York, Alsarah and The Nubatones have built a repertoire where an electro-charged oud overflows with melodies, bass lines deliver refined soul jazz and incisive percussions add modern breaks and new breath to millennial rhythms. Their influences range from the charismatic Zanzibar tarab legend, Bi Ki Dude, to the iconoclastic Grace Jones, giving Alsarah and her sister Nahid an incredible vocal richness in this East African retro-pop band.
*This concert takes place at the Centre des Arts, Geneva, Switzerland in the frame of STATION's international satellite programming.
LIVE | AL ASLI & EL RASS
Friday Jan 12, 9:30pm
Mawred Al Thaqafy presents the new hip-hop album “Fa’el” by Yazen Al Asli featuring El Rass (Mazen El Sayed), in a free concert followed by a set by DJ Samer.
In "Fa'el", the narrator addresses his existential self and explores the memories that have continued to haunt him as he moves from place to place. This idea inspired Syrian rapper/musician Al Asli to search for that common self that challenges the ways individuals are induced to violence and obedience, aspiring to liberation and seeking to soar beyond all borders. The lyrics combine sensations, perceptions and narratives into a carefully constructed oral flow. Al Asli is a Mawred 2017 grantee and produced his album in the frame of the Production Awards program. Lebanese rapper and producer El Rass worked closely with Al Asli on the musical production of "Fa'el".
CLUB | NICK DEVON GOES ANALOG
Thursday Dec 28, 10pm
Analog Beirut presents Nick Devon, Anthøn, Gunther, Kaa, Moontech
Beirut goes Analog as techno icon Nick Devon brings his mesmerizing soundscapes to our last Club Night of the year. An Athens-based DJ/producer, Nick Devon has been playing electronic music for over two decades. From early experimentation with drum n bass (and toy pianos), his sound has evolved into dark trippy melodies, distinctively forged through a combination of digital, analogue and physical instruments sourced within his own studio.
After releasing two huge EPs titled “The Poem” and “Cosmos”, his remix of Innellea - Colante followed in 2016, with all three EPs released on Steyoyoke Recordings, confirming Nick Devon as a core member of the hip Berlin-based dance collective.
LIVE | Jammit the band - One Blood Concert
Thursday Dec 21, 8pm
Jammit the Band cook up a storm with their reggae & ska tinted Mediterranean soul! African-Jamaican roots n riddim from their "Kings & Queens" EP mix with newer tracks by this party band that's been on the local circuit for close to ten years.
Post-gig party with DJ Alias behind the decks
Proceeds help Donner Sang Compter (DSC) carry its life-saving mission of providing blood for patients in need.
THE HAVEN CHRISTMAS FAIR
Dec16 + 17 | 2-10pm
STATION hosts Haven for Artists for the annual not-to-be-missed Christmas Fair. This year we present novelties, fancy and vintage items from local artisans and designers - your chance to find original gifts for your loved ones (and yourself).
Browse at your leisure while sipping on gluhwein, and grab a bite from the street food vendors of homemade fusion and international cuisine.
The STATION cocktail bar will be open all day, with a live music and poetry corner to chill and dance.
LIVE | ADONIS
Thursday Dec 14, 8pm
ADONIS play their new album 'Nour' alongside brand new editions of both their debut and sophomore albums, “Daw El Baladiyyi” and “Men Shou Bteshki Beirut”, including remixes and unreleased tracks.
This rising Lebanese four-member pop/rock band is a must-see, with catchy tunes and smart lyrics that seek to express (the madness?) of urban life in Beirut.
Film | DADA Transmission Cabaret Voltaire
Tuesdays Nov 21 - Dec 12 at 9pm
A year after the landmark Yalla Dada exhibition, STATION invites Adrian Notz, director of Cabaret Voltaire, to curate a film series that takes us from the beginnings and early works of Dada to contemporary art activists who are direct descendants of the revolutionary art movement.
In addition to being a film series, «Dada Transmission Cabaret Voltaire» is also a direct transmission from Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich to STATION in Beirut – a constant mediation of the history of Dada as well as its actualization by the self-asserted heirs of Dada: the creative activists.
Tue 21/11 VIVA DADA
Tue 28/11 DADA CINEMA
Tue 05/12 THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD
Tue 12/12 WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?
LIVE | TANIA SALEH - INTERSECTION
Saturday Dec 9, 4-7:30pm
Tania Saleh launches her new album "Intersection", an audiovisual project that marks a new path in her artistic career.
The album draws on Arabic poetry, instruments and melodies, fusing them with electronic sounds to give rise to a contemporary reinterpretation where edgy post-pop electronica flirts with Oriental melodies and powerful Arabic poetry.
Intersection is an artistic collaboration with Tunisian sound artist and electronic music producer Khalil Judran, known for his underground experimental music projects and bold stance against injustice, censorship and dogmatism. Tania composed music to the words of Arab poets, among them Mahmoud Darwish (Palestine), Khalil Gibran (Lebanon), Bayram Tunsi (Tunisia/ Egypt), Nizar Kabbani (Syria), Abdallah Al Bardawni (Yemen). She traveled the region during the making of the album, recording music and creating street art murals to express the timeless poetry and turmoil but also the common ground we all share.
Album produced by Kirkelig Kulturverksted, Oslo, Norway with the support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
CLUB | MAD X MASS
Saturday Dec 2, 9:30-3am
Nawaya Network Annual Fundraising Party & Exhibition
Nawaya's Annual Fundraiser presents a great line-up of local DJs along with a showcase exhibition of youth projects they’ve supported over the past year. DJ Sets by maDJam, MASS, Cynthia M and a special performance by YAM. The Nawaya Network identifies promising youth from low-income backgrounds in Lebanon and connects them with mentors, trainers, classes, funding, internship and employment opportunities. All proceeds from this event go towards supporting our youth in Lebanon.
LIVE JAZZ | Marc Perrenoud Trio
Saturday Nov 11, 2017
“With a fiery vengeance grounded in groove and the ability to play together as easily as others breathe” – Downbeat jazz magazine
Born in Berlin, Marc Perrenoud studied piano at the Conservatoire de Genève, graduated from the Lausanne Jazz School and is the recipient of many awards, incl the Chrysler Award from the Montreux Jazz Festival and Best Soloist from the International Bern Festival. Along with drummer Cyril Regamey and bassist Marco Müller, Marc has released four albums and played clubs and festivals around the world including Ronnie Scott’s in London, Moods in Zurich, Montreux Jazz Festival, Buenos Aires International Jazz Festival, London, Syria and Amman Jazz Festivals.
Passionate about the Levant, Marc released a solo album in 2016 called “Hamra”. He returns to Lebanon for an original jazz set of devastating power, lyrical intensity and melodic imagination.
With the support of Pro Helvetia and the Embassy of Switzerland in Lebanon.
PERFORMANCE | Astroturf + One Day & One Night - Beirut
Friday October 20, 8:30pm
Astroturf | Choreography, dance, costumes and sound effects: Yara Lucia Afram Boustany Percussions: Mustafa Said
Reflective of the digital age of falsified information through the media and Internet, this piece is inspired by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Similarly to Plato’s prisoners, who are unable to see beyond the shadows passing in front of their faces, modern humans do not tear their eyes away from the screens, manipulated reports and captivating advertisements given to them.
One Day & One Night – Beirut | Choreography, dance, costumes and sound effects: Yara Lucia Afram Boustany / Music: Frédéric Chopin
Premiered at the Internationales Solo Tanz Festival Stuttgart, this piece reflects everyday life in Beirut, depicting 24 hours from sleep to wake – a journey from dreaming to reality. When asleep, the unconscious blends thoughts and memories to create shapes and images.
When awake, the clatter and noise of the city streets confuse and overwhelm in a tormenting orchestra.
PERFORMANCE | Dying on Stage
Tuesday Oct 17 + Wednesday Oct 18 | 8:30-10:30pm
Curated by Christine Tohme, organized by Ashkal Alwan
SHARJAH BIENNIAL 13, TAMAWUJ / ACT II BEIRUT
Lecture Performance by Christodoulos Panayiotou, with dancer Jean Capeille
Dying on Stage (2015) is a meditation on the impossibility of theatrical representations of death, taking as starting point Rudolf Nureyev’s 1991 staging of the classical ballet, La Bayadère, which was choreographed while his health was critically deteriorating. Examining metaphorical, symbolic and actual theatrical deaths, Panayiotou explores the vicious relationship between the spectator, the actors and their characters, who are subject both to performative and actual death.
Image credit: The Parting Discourse, Performance at Teatro Goldoni, Venice, 2015. Photo by Aurelien Mole/The Cyprus Pavilion.
PERFORMANCE | Destroyed Documents
Sunday October 15, 2017 | 2:30-4pm
Culinary performance by Candice Lin
Curated by Christine Tohme, organized by Ashkal Alwan
SHARJAH BIENNIAL 13, TAMAWUJ / ACT II BEIRUT
We often hold on to various documents, be they governmental issuances, bills or receipts. We keep these “just in case”: letters from ex-lovers and family, personal notes or banal office material that we would perhaps like to dispose of – if only we knew how. Lin’s culinary experiment invites audience members to bring their own superfluous and unwanted documents, to be sprinkled with aromatic herbs and then burned. The smoke from this ritual will infuse snacks the artist prepares for communal consumption. As the carbon from the contents of the smoked food blends with the carbon of our bodies, we might feel less burdened by paperwork.
Image credit: Candice Lin, sketch for Destroyed Documents, 2017. Watercolour and ink on paper. Courtesy of the artist
PERFORMANCE | Eating into the Future-Past Cosmologies
October 12-14, 2017
Curated by Christine Tohme, organized by Ashkal Alwan
SHARJAH BIENNIAL 13, TAMAWUJ / ACT II BEIRUT
EATING INTO FUTURE-PAST COSMOLOGIES
Gathering, preparing and eating food has been our most prominent everyday activity since the birth of humanity, and as such, has played a profound role in the historical shaping of every aspect of our being. Through a series of foraging walks in search of unique plants in Beirut, the SPURSE collective invites participants to experiment, cook and dine together. Every aspect of this act will be considered from the perspective of how we are fundamentally shaped by the methods of gathering and eating, as we attempt to develop new techniques of transforming our metabolic cosmologies.
Foraging Time
October 12 and 13 | 11am (duration 2-3hrs)
About two million years ago, our pre-human ancestors joined the migrations of species that moved in and out of Africa via the Levantine corridor. We left Africa as an entangled system of habits, tools, conceptual schema and species – including bacteria and viruses, plants and animals. Join SPURSE on a walk through Beirut as we collect and taste edible plants and discuss the complex ways in which migratory species and diverse eating practices have shaped our path along the Levantine corridor.
Cooking Towards the Cosmological
Saturday Oct 14 | 10am (duration 3hrs)
The culinary is not simply a symbolic or metaphorical space to investigate, but a fundamental practice that influences how various ecosystems and cultures come into being. The goal in this experimental cooking exercise is to utilize several techniques and ingredients in order to investigate the emergence of different modes of being through the sensation of taste.
Tasting The Future
Culinary performance by SPURSE
Saturday Oct 14 | 2:30-4pm
Join SPURSE for a meal comprised of small courses, each offering a distinct experimental encounter with our entangled multi-species and cosmological histories. The meal will attempt to reconcile the culinary eco-history of the region with its present transformations and ecological demands, as we imagine a new system of pleasures and politics of food, beyond species.
Image credit: Eat Your Sidewalk Cookbook, 2015. Photo by Iain Kerr. Courtesy of the artists.
ART | WHITE WALL 2017 – MEETING OF ALPHABETS
October 5 - 6, 2017
Workshop | Digital Calligraffiti
After a first iteration in 2012, the White Wall street art festival returns to Beirut supported by Fransabank, Institut Français, Goethe Institute, Future DiverCities and From Here To Fame. Join German street artist Schriftzug and Lebanese artist MOE for a two-day digital calligraffiti workshop. The last time this crew turned up, they covered the Jisr El Wati neighborhood with some of the city’s most genuine public street art. Let’s see what new surprises emerge this time.
Curated by Don Karl (From Here To Fame Publishing).
EXPO | 10's of 1000's : An exhibition on Syria's Missing & Disappeared
August 30 – September 6, 2017
“Tens of Thousands” is an exhibition curated by Amnesty International’s Beirut Regional Office marking the International Day of the Disappeared on 30 August.This exhibition aims to shed light on the issue of the disappeared and the missing inside Syria through emblematic cases of Syrian individuals arbitrarily detained and abducted for exercising peaceful human rights activities. The individuals whose stories are featured are peaceful activists, human rights defenders, lawyers and humanitarian workers.The exhibition features items left behind by these disappeared individuals and are now a token of remembrance for their families.In addition, the exhibition features installations that present poems written by Syrian poets who were formerly detained, and a collection of portraits of women detainees painted in prison by Syrian artist Azza Abou Rebieh.
EXPO | Déjà Vu – Recycling Strategies in Poster Design
July 25 - August 7, 2017
The exhibition DEJA VU presents three poster series from the collection of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Switzerland’s leading design and visual communication museum. The projects feature experimental explorations in sustainable design by Swiss artists through the recycling and upcycling of cultural posters.Ephemeral products par excellence, posters are made for temporary display in the public space. As mass media, they are used to promote new goods, services and ideas (that will have already lost their edge the day after) or to announce cultural events (that will soon be yesterday’s news). Sustainability would therefore seem to be incompatible with poster design. Yet some graphic designers are reflecting in their work a more environmentally conscious use of posters, while still lending to an institution or event a recognizable identity. Featured projects in “Déjà Vu” invite reflection on poster art in the public space, on strategies for institutional image building and on smart, sustainable design solutions.
FILM | Beirut Street, Hip-Hop in Lebanon
Thursday June 29, 2017
A new independent documentary chronicles Beirut’s thriving hip-hop movement via interviews, live footage and cameo appearances from the scene's past and present. The film captures the urban sounds of a city in flux, with artists reacting to their surroundings, from early mid-90s pioneers like AKS'SER, Kitaa Beirut and DJ Lethal Skillz to the current wave of hip-hop artists like FareeQ el Atrash فريق الاطرش, Chyno and الراس El Rass - The Head.In “Beirut Street”, Franco-Lebanese journalist, radio host and rapper Salim Saab, aka Royal S., presents a documentary portrayal of the local hip-hop scene, where performing and visual arts blend with musical experimentation and social critique. At a time when airwaves and dance floors offer a limiting and shallow stream of techno/pop acts, Lebanese (and Arab) hip-hop artists are among the few who experiment with new musical vocabularies, blur confessional and racial lines, draw attention to pressing social issues and dare to critique the dysfunctional status quo.Music is the message and the message is in the music.
CLUB | Assault on Structure
Saturday May 20, 2017
Founded by longtime STATION contributors, musician Jad Taleb and visual artist Maria Kassab, Assault On Structure is a hybrid, trans-disciplinary platform that manifests around handpicked locations in Beirut, aiming to perch ephemeral audiovisual damage as a symbolic demonstration of Lebanon’s ongoing regime(s) of corruption. The platform integrates live electronic music in order to dominate the sound spectrum of the space being assaulted.
Live Electronic Acts Jad Taleb, Stress Distress (Fadi Tabbal & Madame Chandelier), Saul Default and Liar
DJ Sets Ziad Nawfal & Tamira Soufic
Visuals & Installations AoS team & Nadim Saoma/Beirut Visuals
BEIRUT PRIDE Fashion Exhibition, Talks, Workshops, Screenings
May 14-26, 2017
Beirut Pride is a collaborative platform that takes a positive stance against hate and discrimination. It denounces violence and hate speech, especially when directed at gender and sexual diversity. With contributions from the creative sector and local human rights NGOs, Beirut Pride proposes a comprehensive program of exhibitions, talks, workshops, screenings and, of course, parties.
STATION activities below. Full program: www.beirutpride.org
DESIGN | Gender Fluidity in Fashion
Featuring designs from Bashar Assaf x Marwan Kaabour, La Terre Est Folle, Men Just Wanna Have Fun and the Perverse label.
Local designers present fashion lines that liberate from mainstream approaches to masculinity, femininity and everything between and beyond. They experiment with fluid fashion that reaches outside rigid structures of gender and identity. Fluidity in fashion denounces the dominant industry model that labels, stigmatizes and exploits insecurities; instead it celebrates fresh voices and free choices.
WORKSHOP | Drag Makeover 101
In this workshop with local celebrity Hans Harling, you will learn the drag persona development process through presentation, group work, role-playing exercises and mini-drag makeovers with makeup and wig stylists. Learn how to sashay down a runway and believe it!
LIVE | Lip Sync For Life
Get a song ready and get on stage for a mini-drag performance complete with lip sync
FILM | The Bird Cage
A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée's right-wing moralistic parents. What ensues is pure comic chaos.
TALK | Cliffhangers Storytelling Night | LGBTQIA
Monday May 15, 8:30-11-30pm
This month, Cliffhangers celebrates IDAHOT, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.
Cliffhangers is a storytelling platform created out of a need to share, revive and keep alive Lebanon’s oral tradition of hakawatis/telling stories. For this edition, Cliffhangers in partnership with Beirut Pride, invite you to a night of storytelling from the LGBTQ community and its friends. Let's celebrate fluidity, our wide spectrums and wherever we are on them. Let's stand against judgment, stereotyping and violence. Let's share, encourage and get to know each other.
On STATION’s beautiful rooftop terrace, so come early, grab a bite, enjoy a drink and mingle. The line-up promises magical moments, and then it’s open mic for you to share a story.
Free entrance
LIVE | Ana Bahlam Bik by Vladimir Kurumilian
Saturday May 4, 8pm
"Ana Bahlam Bik" is a piano improvisation concert inspired by Warda's famous song "Batwannes Bik". It was first performed by Vladimir Kurumilian in Paris at Studio +30, known for recording the likes of Sting, David Bowie and Pink Floyd.
First performance in Beirut in four years!
Kurumilian (b.1988) was first introduced to music by his father and began playing piano at a young age before studying at the Lebanese National Conservatory. His work focuses on transmuting experiences into improvised pieces that hold a specific emotional state. He's a multidisciplinary artist in video, photography and illustration with a degree in interior architecture from ALBA. Kurumilian's passion for visual worlds is evident in his performances, with many soundtracks recorded for feature films.
Doors 8pm
Tickets LL20,000
www.vladimirkurumilian.com
Artwork by Nader Tfayli | Photo by Aly Saab
CLUB | DJ Lethal Skillz, Rami O, Caesar K
Saturday April 29, 9pm
We’re bringing back the FUNK with a DJ line-up to tear the roof off!
DJ LETHAL SKILLZ is the oldest and most established turntablist in the Arab hip-hop movement. A world-class DJ, he's also distinguished himself as a prolific producer and long-running ambassador for Arab hip-hop.
His seminal albums, New World Disorder (2008) and Karmageddon (2012), feature a who’s who of the Lebanese hip-hop scene, past & present, and many of Arab hip-hop stalwarts from the region & Diaspora. Starting out with pioneers Arabian Knightz and Aksser, Skillz has collaborated and performed with major historical hip-hop figures including Grand Master Flash, DJ Jazzy Jeff, De La Soul, DJ Q-bert, Rob Swift, DJ Akakabe, Co-ma, DJ Tony Touch, M-1 of Dead Prez...
Skillz is crowning off his recent tour of the region with a massive tear-the-roof-off-the-sucker farewell party, featuring local funkateers Rami O & Caesar K/César Kahwagi on decks, with a host of special guests.
$20 +1 drink
9pm | 21+
LIVE | REK | Jazz
Friday April 28, 9:30pm
Raed El Khazen’s debut album Ghosts and Shadows captures the duality of a global world, merging cultural roots with modern expression. REK merge their passion for Afro-American musical styles with the rich heritage of Arabic music. The result is a combination of sound universes from two worlds, creating a multidimensional experience.The album depicts a period of exploration and discovery for principal writer/guitar virtuoso Raed El Khazen. It highlights his versatility as a conceptual artist, writer and musician.
An evening of improvised jazz and world sounds, beyond clichés and conventional boundaries.
For this concert, Raed is joined by accomplished musicians -Walid Sadek (trumpet), Didi Gutman* (synths), Khaled Omran (bass), Fouad Afra (drums)
*Didi, musician & producer for Brazilian Girls supergroup, drops in from New York City for this special Live Session.
LL 20,000
9:30pm | 18+
WORKSHOP | Constrained Comics Fanzine
Tuesday April 25, 7pm
Comics artist Alex Baladi leads participants in a collaborative fanzine creation workshop. The group will be given certain guidelines in format and process, they create together and the finished fanzines will present the creativity of the collective body. Fanzines will then be photocopied for everyone to take home.
Born in Switzerland in 1969, Alex Baladi studied literature in Geneva and cinema in Paris. He cooperated on magazines such as Psikopat, Lapin, Samandal, Turkey Comix and Bile Noire, and provided illustrations and comics to several journals.
His first graphic album, 'Monsieur Cru et le Désespoir Euphorique', was released in 1992, and this was followed by 60 albums, mini-comics and smaller books. He's a founding member of La Fabrique de Fanzines (on tour since 2003) and a member of l'Oubapo since 2005. The filmmaker Isabelle Nouzha and Alex Baladi made two animated films "Frankenstein encore", 2009 and "Don Quijote de la Mancha, capitulo primero", 2011.
Entrance Fee: LL15,000 | Limited seats
Register: info@stationbeirut.com
Journeys Into Sound: Turntablism 101
Sat Apr 22, 12-7pm
DJ Lethal Skillz (961 Underground), Co Hosted by DJ EF (Berlin)
This intensive day will cover various turntable techniques and scratching foundations. DJ Lethal Skillz (aka Phonosapien Monk) will also share the fundamentals of beat matching and mixing with a few tricks for beat juggling and advanced mixing techniques
DJ LETHAL SKILLZ is the oldest and most established turntablist in the Arab hip-hop movement. A world-class DJ, he's also distinguished himself as a prolific producer and long-running ambassador for the Arab hip-hop massive.
Limited places. To register: info@stationbeirut.com
Fee: 20,000LL
TALK | Emergence of Comics in Geneva & Arab Graphics Movement
Thu Apr 20, 8pm
Panel: Raphael Oesterlé (lead Geneva curator), Michelle Standjofski (ALBA), Lena Merhej (Samandal), Karma Tohme (Plan Bey), David Habchy (Waraq), Alex Baladi (artist), Massimo Di Ricco (moderator)
Presentation of BANG! exhibition and dialogue about dynamics and parallels between Geneva / Beirut comics communities and trajectories.
Explore the emergence of Lebanese comics, the nascent transnational Arab graphics movement, its potential and the commitment of many artists to bring the medium directly to the public sphere during significant historical moments.
DANCE | Kitchen # Beirut
Wed Apr 19, 8:30pm
Kitchen # Beirut, a one month residency project by Overseas Cultural Interchange, showcasing their work over three days at Station Beirut, Zico House and Mansion. The choreographed pieces are "We met to discuss the value of birds" and "One One One" while a featured mediation project/ installation is composed of collected dances from the residents of Hamra is entitled "B-Cut"
Station Beirut
April 19
8:30 "B-Cut"
9:00 "We met to discuss the value of birds"
9:30 "One One One" - Ioannis Mandafounis and Emilia Giudicelli
EXHIBITION | Bang! Evolution of Graphic Novels in Geneva
April 18-30, 2017 | Opening Tue April 18, 7pm
Curated by Thomas Bonny, Gregory Hug and Raphael Oesterlé
BANG! celebrates twenty years of the Rodolphe Töpffer Prize that awards annually the best Swiss graphic novels and international comics publications in French. We seize the occasion to present the rich microcosm of the Beirut comics scene, with its individual authors, publishing houses, dedicated collectives and specialized stores.
BANG! features a cross section of contemporary authors who developed their art in Geneva from the 1980s onwards, including names like Chappatte, ZEP, Alex Baladi, Nadia Raviscioni and Tom Tirabosco, who all went on to develop successful international careers. The exhibition focuses less on individual artists than on the strong graphic styles and narrative universes developed within the Geneva comics community. It invites visitors to discover the range of possibilities within this 9th art form, from autobiographies, personal diaries, minimalism and experimentations to reportage, science fiction, fantasy, humor and manga.
BANG! was presented this winter at the Batiment d'Art Contemporain-Geneva, in collaboration with HEAD - Genève (for scenography & graphic design). Conceived as a traveling exhibition, we’re pleased that its first destination will be Lebanon.
> Featured Swiss Artists
Peggy Adam | Albertine | Alex Baladi | Hugo Baud | Ben | Matthieu Berthod | Buche | Ceppi | Chappatte | Elvis Studio | Exem | Sacha Goerg | Ibn al Rabin | JP Kalonji | Philippe Lardy | Guillaume Long | Patrick Mallet | Yannis la Macchia | Pascal Matthey | Barbara Meuli | Frederik Peeters | Thomas Perrodin | Isabelle Pralong | Nadia Raviscioni | Helge Reumann | Nicolas Robel | Xavier Robel | Willy Tenia | Tom Tirabosco | Valp | Walder | Wazem | Buster Yanez | Zep
> Lebanese artists, collectives & publishers include
Daronboz Daronboz, David Habchy, Joseph Kai, Mazen Kerbaj, Raphaelle Macaron, Lena Merhej, Plan BEY, Barrack Rima, Jana Traboulsi, Samandal Comics Magazine, Michelle Standjofski, Tosh Fesh, Waraq
STATION wishes to thank its partners in Switzerland and Lebanon - City of Geneva, Pro Helvetia Cairo, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Fondation Leenaards, Fondation Jan Michalski, Migros Pour-Cent Culturel, Loterie Romande, République et Canton de Genève, Embassy of Switzerland in Lebanon, une fondation privée genevoise.
WORKSHOP | Shifting Gaze: Writing Films with a Global Theme
Sat Apr 15, 3-6:30pm
Led by Tamuira M. Reid, Professor of Writing, NYU Global Liberal Studies Program, this screenwriting workshop aims to dispel the myth that films dealing with a social justice theme need to be overtly political, transparent in their agenda or “preachy”. Instead of taking a traditional approach, we will explore the idea that a script can have real, believable and multi-dimensional characters living every day lives and still carry a strong social justice message.
Participants should come with an idea for a film they wish to write, and 2-5 pages of the script to share with the group. Each participant will receive feedback on their work.
Tamuira Reid is a writer and educator from New York City. Her first feature-length screenplay, Luna’s Highway earned her a 2012 Finalist placement in both the Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope Screenwriting Competition, and in The Nicholls Screenwriting Fellowship Competition.
Registration fee: 10,000LL
Spaces are limited
For registration: info@stationbeirut.com
PHOTOGRAPHY | Three Films & Three Lebanese Photojournalists
Tue April 11, 7:30pm
An evening of documentary films exploring the lives and work of three of Lebanon’s most prominent photojournalists. The panel discussion afterwards with the filmmakers and photographers is moderated by Nadine Mazloum.
7:30 - 'Beirut Photographer'
An internationally acclaimed documentary that explores issues of heritage, politics, memory and the journalist George Azar’s relationship to the subjects in his photographs.
8:45 - 'Under my Skin' and 'Recollections'
Christina Foerch’s short documentary films 'Under My Skin' and 'Recollections' feature two photographers, Patrick Baz and Aline Manoukian and the human impact of documenting war on the photographers and their families.
9: 30 Discussion moderated by Nadine Mazloum
Journeys into Sound: Evolution of Hip Hop Workshop
Sat Mar 25, 4-6pm
Featuring DJ One Up | From Scratch
Globetrotting DJ One Up is sharing his scratch and beat juggling techniques in a workshop that gives participants historical and practical knowledge into mixing.
Based in France, DJ One Up has a long history with soul, funk & hip hop music. Spinning on the radio, recording projects and playing at events around the world, he's known for rare and original sound. He has opened for the likes of Grand Master Flash, Deenasty and Assassin. In 2009, he founded the association From Scratch - a cultural and educational project around the practice of DJing.
Journeys into Sound is a new series of events at STATION related to sound and music.
Spaces are limited.
Register here: info@stationbeirut.com
$15
www.facebook.com/djoneup/
www.fromscratch-asso.fr/
DIGITAL ARTS EXPO | Journée internationale de la Francophonie
Mon Mar 20, 6-11pm
Journée internationale de la Francophonie 2017 presents an evening of digital discovery showcasing how artists and entrepreneurs are harnessing the latest new media technologies for storytelling, education, entertainment, culture and commerce.Digital Art Exhibition | Dance Performance | Live Concert | Speaker Panels | Workshops | Virtual Reality Hackathon | Lebanese Digital Start-Ups
In collaboration with the AUF-Middle East, French Institute, francophone embassies in Lebanon, Ministry of Culture, SGBL and partners from the Lebanese digital ecosystem: Berytech, SmartESA, Labné&Facts
Foam Photography Open Call 2017
Deadline: March 19, 2017
STATION is pleased to announce the Foam Talent 2017 Open Call for photographers aged 18-35 from Lebanon and the region.
In its 11th edition, the Foam Talent Call functions as a springboard for photographers giving them international exposure and recognition within the photography industry through a number of career-building opportunities offered by the award, including publication in Foam Magazine, participation in a traveling group exhibition, and more.
Foam, a leading photography institution based in Amsterdam, organizes a range of activities, from exhibitions and publications to debates and educational projects. Discovering, presenting and encouraging international photographers is key to Foam's activities.
Stay tuned for more collaborations with STATION and Foam, coming soon!
LIVE | KINEMATIK – Ala’ album release
Sat Mar 11, 9pm
In collaboration with Tunefork Recording Studios and the Ruptured label, STATION presents the debut album of rising Lebanese rock band Kinematik. Their sonic universe draws you in slowly, layers of atmospheric melodies and experimental electronica that build steadily into a state of heightened electric tension, only to shatter explosively with the unrestrained intensity of raw guitar power. Ala’ – it’s been a long time coming.
Ala’ Music Videos | Local visual & animation artists | Watch Here
LIVE | Vector Glitch: KOZO / OVID / ILVY
March 4, 2017
Doors 9pm
Entrance 20,000LL
KŌZŌ 構造 (Post Rock): Georgy Flouty, Andrew Georges, Elie Elkhoury Charbel Abou Chakra Joseph Abou Antoun
Ovīd (Space Rock): Antnio Hjj, Claudius Jrd, Ayman Zebdawi
Ilvy (Post Rock) Paul Toubia, Anthony Hakim, Joe Kareh, Gabriel Sarkissian
TALK | NYTimes Writer Tim Murphy & Guests on LGBTQ Activism
Wednesday March 1, 8pm
Join NY Times writer and activist Tim Murphy with special guests George Azzi (AFE), Cynthia El Khoury (SRHR) and Hamed Sinno (Mashrou Leila) for this special night to discuss LGBTQ activism in the US and MENA region.
Murphy will read from his acclaimed 2016 novel "Christodora" about the long legacy and aftermath of AIDS activism in 1980s and 1990s NYC. Besides his longstanding activism for the gay community, Murphy has most recently been involved in the Trump resistance movement via the groups Gays Against Guns, Rise & Resist and Indivisible.
DESIGN | COMMAND: COMMANDLINE
February 21 - 28, 2017
Design Exhibition | Feb 21-28 | extended thru Wed Mar 1
Opening | Tue Feb 21, 6pm
BeirutMakers present their third design exhibition under the title Command: Commandline, showcasing a variety of locally-developed know-how's for authoring, editing and hybridizing digital and physical media as a mode of design.
Featuring the latest designs by four members of the BeirutMakers collective: Ahmad S Khouja, Guillaume Credoz, Karim Edgard Chaya and Stephanie Bashir (Bachir). Additionally, world-renowned designer, Janne Kyttanen, as special guest.
Set around organizing two exhibitions a year, this winter BeirutMakers invited two independent curators Adham S