english text 175 not the names of the winners of the races but the margin of error of the photo-finish of the races printed in the newspapers the following day. This work focuses on the professional activity of historians and the decisive role of the media in the manipulation of photographic images. The Atlas Group is very interested in the mechanisms of transformation of news reports in historical narrative, in reflecting on how, on numerous occasions, what is called history is a narrative fabricated for the interests of certain sectors that do not hesitate to falsify many written or visual documents or to make others disappear, empowering oblivion or collective amnesia about certain events. The artist Akram Zaatari (1966) also explores documentary practices in order to see how they show their reliability in the field of history and memory. However, unlike other contemporary Lebanese artists such as Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige or Walid Raad in the Atlas Group, Zaatari does not invent fictitious characters for his projects; on the contrary, his works are products of a long process of documentation and conversation with real witnesses of various events, who offer solid personal testimony. Without ever showing direct pictures of the war but instead the accounts of those who experienced it, Zaatari becomes an eloquent narrator who challenges the notions of representation and memory in order to review the contemporary history of Lebanon and express both personal and collective memory, providing alternative readings or experiences different from the common ones, by means of subjective views of the people involved together with more objective facts. Thus, in his video Letter to Samir, 2008, he shows us the communication that was established between various Palestinian political prisoners imprisoned in Israel and their families. They are letters written in tiny writing on very thin sheets of paper and wrapped up in layers of plastic or cellophane so that they are pillshaped and can be transported outside the prisons. The capsules were often exchanged by means of kisses on the mouth between the prisoners and their relatives, which enabled them to pass them from one to another hidden beneath the tongue. In his projects Akram Zaatari poses the fundamental question of who writes history and how its various “truths” are disseminated by the production and circulation of images, especially in a country such as Lebanon that is seeking its identity after a truly convulsive period. And in that search he encourages us to become directly involved in the series of problematic contradictions bound up in the violence, wars and hatred that are devastating the country. In his video Nature morte (Still Life), 2008, we find a contrast between two people of different ages (one older and the other younger) who have different attitudes to the war and the occupation of part of their country. It is a silent film that does not try to explain or give easy solutions, but rather to describe the grave crisis in Lebanon and, specifically, the present occupation of the area known as the Shebaa farms, a very narrow strip of territory situated between Lebanon, the Golan Heights and Israel. A place occupied by the Israeli army in the 1967–73 war which still remains under its control. The video focuses on the two people, who look at each other, interact and “talk” silently about what should be done with regard to resistance to the shameful occupation. However, as we can see, there are no clear or simple answers, and at the end of the video we are left no with certainties but rather with a series of unanswered questions. Should arms be used in these circumstances? What relationship is there between the two men? Why does it seem to be so affectionate? Complex questions, contradictory sensations, hopes cut short, heated attitudes, convulsive times … these are the aspects that now, at the start of the twenty-first century, preside over the relationships between the various peoples and countries that surround us, and that give life to the Mediterranean Sea. However, this is no time to remain indifferent and on the edge, nor is it a time to avoid taking part or acting one way or another. As Akram Zaatari explains, “I learned from Godard that we are not commentators on conflicts but also part of them”. Summer of 2015, on the shores of the Mediterranean
Entre el mite i l'espant
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