Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige are Lebanese filmmakers and artists. Their work includes feature and documentary films, video and photographic installations, sculpture, performance lectures and texts.

Personal life

Joana Hadjithomas (born 10 August 1969, , ) and Khalil Joreige () were born in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

in 1969 to refugee families, one of them

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

and Lebanese, the other

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

and Lebanese. They spent their childhood in Beirut during the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...

. They both studied literature at the

Paris Nanterre University Paris Nanterre University (), formerly University of Paris West, Paris-X and commonly referred to as Nanterre, is a public research university based in Nanterre, Hauts-de-Seine, France, in the Paris metropolitan area. It is one of the most pres ...

and film in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. They are married. They have collaborated since the early 1990s on videos, films, photographs, and installations. They are known for their long-term research based on personal or political documents and their particular interest in the traces of the invisible and the absent, a forgotten space project from the 1960s, the strange consequences of Internet scams or the geological and archaeological undergrounds of cities. They occasionally use explicit life events as subjects for their work, such as the kidnapping and disappearance of Joreige's uncle, Alfred Junior Kettaneh, or Hadjithomas's paternal origins in the documentary ''ISMYRNA'', with the poet and painter

Etel Adnan Etel Adnan (; 24 February 1925 – 14 November 2021) was a Lebanese-American poet, essayist, and visual artist. In 2003, Adnan was named "arguably the most celebrated and accomplished Arab American author writing today" by the academic journal '' ...

Work

Hadjithomas and Joreige interweave formal, conceptual and thematic links through photographs, video installations and films. Their work in film often influences and leads to projects in the plastic arts, and vice versa. They are known to work over several years on a single project, and often revisit earlier works in retrospection. The importance of research in their work is such that they prefer to describe themselves not as artists but "chercheurs" – literally 'those that are looking for something' but also 'researchers'. Inspired by personal archives and found documents, they work and research in collaboration with other writers, philosophers, historians, archaeologists and illustrators, and have spoken about the importance of this aspect: 'We believe in encounter more than in influence and, beyond that, we cultivate admiration: so many photos, film sequences, conversations, meetings and exchanges have nurtured and enabled us, at some time, to admire someone or something.' Hadjithomas and Joreige are also university lecturers in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and the authors of numerous publications and performances. Joana Hadjithomas is a former member of the Curriculum Committee of the Ashkal Alwan Academy, Home Work Space. Both artists are co-founders of Abbout Productions, with

Georges Schoucair Georges Schoucair is a prominent Lebanese film producer. Considered as one of the most promising film producers in the Middle-East cinema, Schoucair has produced several critically acclaimed and award-winning independent movies. He has actively ...

and executive members of the board of Metropolis Art Cinema and the Cinemathèque in Beirut.

Film

As well as artists, Hadjithomas and Joreige are film directors. Their filmography includes documentaries such as ''Khiam 2000 – 2007 (2008)'', '' The Lebanese Rocket Society : The Strange Tale of the Lebanese Space Race (''2013), which received multiple awards such as Best Documentary Award in Doha Tribeca Festival,

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

, and ''ISMYRNA'' (2016) as well as feature films including '' Around the Pink House'', (1999)'', A Perfect Day'', (2005)'','' premiered at

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

and awarded, among many other prizes, the Fipresci Press Prize, ''Je Veux Voir'' (I Want to See) (2008), starring

Catherine Deneuve Catherine Fabienne Dorléac (born 22 October 1943), known professionally as Catherine Deneuve (, , ), is a French actress. She is considered one of the greatest European actresses on film. In 2020, ''The New York Times'' ranked her as one of th ...

and

Rabih Mroué Rabih Mroué (, born 1967) is a Lebanese stage and film actor, playwright, and visual artist. Rooted in theater, his work includes videos and installation art; the latter sometimes incorporates photography, text and sculpture. Biography Born in ...

, which premiered in the official selection of

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

in 2008, and was awarded Best Singular Film by the French Critics Guild and their latest feature film ''Memory Box'', released in 2021, which is based on Hadjithomas' notebooks and tapes made in Beirut as a teenager during the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s. and selected at the

Berlinale The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

and released in more than 40 countries. In their fiction films, they are known to borrow tropes from documentary filmmaking, and vice versa, blurring the lines between the real and the illusory. Several retrospectives of their films have been presented in renowned institutions such as Tate Modern (

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Cinematek The Royal Belgian Film Archive (; ) is a cinematheque located in the Centre for Fine Arts, in Brussels, Belgium. It is often referred to as CINEMATEK (a homophone of ). History The cinematheque was established in 1938 as a film archive by H ...

(

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

), Flaherty Seminar (New York), Institut Français and

Mori Art Museum The is a contemporary art museum founded by the real estate developer Minoru Mori. It is located in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in the Roppongi Hills complex, a commercial, cultural, and residential mega-complex in Tokyo, Japan. The museum's ...

(

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

), International Film Festival of Gijon (

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

), Harvard Film Archive (

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

(

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

) and

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

(New York).

Art

In 2017, Hadjithomas and Joreige won The Marcel Duchamp Prize for their presentation ''Unconformities'', shown at the Pompidou Center in Paris. The installation constituted of core samples that had been collected over the past three years, underneath the cities omnipresent in the artists' history and thinking:

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

. Hadjithomas and Joreige have described this project as an interrogation about the possible era of the

Anthropocene ''Anthropocene'' is a term that has been used to refer to the period of time during which human impact on the environment, humanity has become a planetary force of change. It appears in scientific and social discourse, especially with respect to ...

. Since 1999, the artists have collected over four thousand junk emails, digital scams intended to con their readers into sending financial aid. Over the course of many exhibitions and installations, Hadjithomas and Joreige created an itinerary around these modern day scams, and traced their history back to the literary tradition known as The Jerusalem Letter. As part of this project ''SCAMS'' (2014), Hadjithomas and Joreige created the sound and video installation ''The Rumor of the World'', where they asked 38 amateur actors to read and incarnate these scams. A monograph under this title was published in 2015, edited by Omar Kholeif. The project has been theorized as a kind of true crime in its narrative blending of documentation and re-enactment. In 2016, they presented works such as ''I stared at Beauty So Much'', a series of video and photographic works questioning: how can poetry be pitted against the chaos of today's world? The series focuses on the place where fiction and real modes intersect and blur; and in 2017, they started developing the art project ''Unconformities'' which unveils the geological and archaeological undergrounds of cities. ''Under The Cold River Bed'' (2020) is their latest installation, as part of ''Unconformities,'' and tells the story of the "Nahr el Bared" refugee camp in the North of Beirut which was destroyed in 2007, leaving more than 30,000 people homeless. During reconstruction works, major archaeological discoveries were made, going down to as early as the

Neolithic period The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wid ...

and up to the great Roman city of

Orthosia ''Orthosia'' is a genus of moths of the family Noctuidae erected by Ferdinand Ochsenheimer in 1816. As with the genus '' Egira'', moths in this genus are sometimes called early spring millers, as adults are on wing in winter and early spring. S ...

. Despite the important findings, the authorities were running out of time and refugee housing needed to be built. A decision was taken, with a lot of controversy, to backfill the entire camp and seal it as a sarcophagus, protecting the archeological discoveries with a gigantic geo-textile and covering it with a concrete screed. "The sculpture presented by the artists shows the thin membrane between the past and the future, an imprint of the sarcophagus of the camp, while documents tell its archeological, human and military history, its destruction, and its reconstruction.". In 2016 and 2017, Hadjithomas and Joreige presented a large selection of their work from the late 1990s to the present day in 'Two Suns in a Sunset', a traveling museum exhibition that was shown at the

Jeu de paume ''Jeu de paume'' (, ; originally spelled ; ), nowadays known as real tennis, (US) court tennis or (in France) ''courte paume'', is a ball-and-court game that originated in France. It was an indoor precursor of tennis played without racquets, ...

in Paris,

Sharjah Art Foundation The Sharjah Art Foundation () is a contemporary art and cultural foundation based in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern ...

in Sharjah,

Haus der Kunst The ''Haus der Kunst'' (, ''House of Art'') is a museum for modern and contemporary art in Munich, Bavaria. It is located at Prinzregentenstraße 1 at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, Munich's largest park. It was built between 1933 an ...

in Munich and IVAM in Valencia. Their artworks are part of major private and public collections including

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

(London),

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

(Paris),

Fond national d'art contemporain The Fonds national d'art contemporain (FNAC; National Foundation for Contemporary Art) is a public collection of contemporary art in France. It does not hold exhibitions but acquires and stores works of art that it loans to museums, cultural instit ...

(France), MCA Chicago,

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

(Paris),

(

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...

), Solomon R Guggenheim Museum (New York), and

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

(London) and they regularly present their works in solo and group exhibitions in museums and art centers around the world. They participated in many biennials such as

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

Sharjah Sharjah (; ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is the capital of the Emirate of Sharjah and forms part of the D ...

Kochi Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...

Gwangju Gwangju (; ), formerly romanized as Kwangju, is South Korea's list of cities in South Korea, sixth-largest metropolis. It is a designated Special cities of South Korea, metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home ...

, and the Paris Triennale. They are represented by in Situ – fabienne leclerc in Paris (France), and The Third Line in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

(UAE).

Awards and prizes

2017 The Marcel Duchamp Prize: won 2012 Best Documentary Award for ''The Lebanese Rocket Society: The Strange Tale of the Lebanese Space Race'', Doha Tribeca Festival, Qatar. Abraaj Capital Art Prize, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 2008 Best Singular Film for ''Je veux voir'', Syndicat Français de la Critique de Cinéma et des Films de Télévision, Paris, France. Non-fiction and Documentary Award for ''Je veux voir'', Gijón International Film Festival, Spain. Prix Georges de Beauregard pour Khiam, FID Marseille 2005 Fipresci Prize and Don Quixote Award for ''A Perfect Day'', Locarno International Film Festival, Switzerland. Bayard d'Or for Best Actor and Special Jury Mention for ''A Perfect Day'', Namur Francophone International Film Festival, Belgium. Montgolfière d'Argent, Best Actor and SACEM Prize for Sound and Original Music for ''A Perfect Day'', Festival des 3 Continents,

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

, France. Best Film (with distribution assistance) for ''A Perfect Day'', Belfort Entrevues International Film Festival, France 2000 Best Film Award ''for Around the Pink House'', Beirut International Film Festival, Lebanon.

Filmography

· 2021: '' Memory Box,'' Fiction, 95min . 2016: ''ISMYRNA,'' in conversation with Etel Adnan'','' Documentary, 53 min · 2013: '' The Lebanese Rocket Society: The Strange Tale of the Lebanese Space Race,'' Documentary, 93 min · 2008: ''Khiam 2000–2007,'' Documentary, 103 min · 2008: ' (I want to see), fiction, 75 min · 2006'': Open the Door, Please,'' Fiction, 11 min · 2005: '' A Perfect Day'' (Yawmon Akhar)'','' Fiction, 88 min · 2003: ''Ashes'' (Ramad), fiction, 26 min . 2003: ''The Lost Film'' (Al Film Al Mafkoud), Documentary, 42 min · 2001: ''Barmeh'' (Rounds), fiction, 8 min 2000: ''Khiam,'' Documentary, 52 min · 1999'': Around the Pink House'' (Al Bayt Al Zaher), fiction, 92 min

Publications

Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, ''Two suns in a Sunset'', co-edition Jeu de Paume / Sharjah Art Foundation / Haus der Kunst / Institut Valencià d'Art Modern / Koenig Books, 2016. Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige. ''The Rumors of the World. Rethinking Trust in the Age of the Internet'', edited by Omar Kholeif, Berlin: Sternberg, 2015. 'Khalil Joreige & Joana Hadjithomas. Le centre d'art du 3bisf, Aix-en-Provence, et le Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur', Semaine, special issue 'Ulysses', no. 18, 2014. ''Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige'', edited by Clément Dirié., Zurich: JRP , Ringier, Montreal: Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, 2013. ''Le Cinéma de Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige. Entretiens avec Quentin Mével'', Paris: éditions Independencia, 2013. ''El Blanco de los Orígenes. Cuaderno de Textos e Imágenes sobre el Cine de Joana Hadjithomas y Khalil Joreige'', Gijón: Gijón International Film Festival, 2008. Joana Hadjithomas et Khalil Joreige. ''Je veux voir'', Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, coll. 'Carnets de cinéastes', 2007.

References

External links

* Artists' studio official website
Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige
* Abbout Productions
Abbout Productions
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hadjithomas, Joana, and Khalil Joreige Art duos 1969 births Living people Artists from Beirut Lebanese contemporary artists Lebanese filmmakers Lebanese film directors Lebanese photographers Lebanese screenwriters Filmmaking duos Married couples Paris Nanterre University alumni category:Lebanese people of Syrian descent Lebanese people of Palestinian descent Lebanese people of Greek descent Lebanese women film directors