Lebanese Archive of Diab Alkarssifi - Ania Dabrowska
© Archive of Diab Alkarssifi/Ania Dabrowska
Lebanese Archive of Diab Alkarssifi is a project inspired by a collection of over 27 000 photographs taken and collected by a former Lebanese photojournalist. Covering over 100 years of socio-political and cultural history of Lebanon and the Middle East (c.1889 – 1993), Diab Alkarssifi’s collection documents family and public life, cultural celebrations and politics, his student years in the 70s Moscow and Budapest, the Lebanese Civil Wars, and countless local events in his home city of Baalbeck. Part of the collection comes from several small photographic studios from various cities of the Middle East, including Beirut, Damascus, and Cairo. The collection was split up when Diab Alkarssifi immigrated to the UK in 1993, leaving majority of it in Lebanon, and bringing as much as he could carry with him to London.
The collection has been hidden for 17 years, until 2010, when Diab Alkarssifi brought it to Ania Dabrowska's studio at Arlington. Arlington is a landmark London hostel for homeless men and women, and as a resident at the time, Diab engaged in the Creative Space programme, which Ania was running as part of her SPACE artist residency.
The project explores impact that archives can have on contemporary art practice, expanding boundaries of photography through processes of engagement, collaboration, and use of multi platform outputs: an artist book and an online catalogue of a constructed archive. It is due to launch W 2013 / S 2014.
Ania Dabrowska works with photography, installation, text, sound, and video. Ania is interested in the impact that bringing together different registers of time and space and different cultural identities might have on each other when re-configured in a context of new work. Her projects are often socially engaged and use participatory and collaborative methodologies. For more information visit www.ania-dabrowska.co.uk
The collection has been hidden for 17 years, until 2010, when Diab Alkarssifi brought it to Ania Dabrowska's studio at Arlington. Arlington is a landmark London hostel for homeless men and women, and as a resident at the time, Diab engaged in the Creative Space programme, which Ania was running as part of her SPACE artist residency.
The project explores impact that archives can have on contemporary art practice, expanding boundaries of photography through processes of engagement, collaboration, and use of multi platform outputs: an artist book and an online catalogue of a constructed archive. It is due to launch W 2013 / S 2014.
Ania Dabrowska works with photography, installation, text, sound, and video. Ania is interested in the impact that bringing together different registers of time and space and different cultural identities might have on each other when re-configured in a context of new work. Her projects are often socially engaged and use participatory and collaborative methodologies. For more information visit www.ania-dabrowska.co.uk
photo © Archive of Diab Alkarssifi
60th Communist party conference delegate, Raite Village, Lebanon, Diab Alkarssifi, 1984
60th Communist party conference delegate, Raite Village, Lebanon, Diab Alkarssifi, 1984
