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Wonder Beirut #13, Modern Beirut, International Center of Water-Skiing

Photograph
1997-2006 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Joana Hadjithomas (photographer)
Khalil Joreige (photographer)
Place of origin
Beirut (photographed)

Vivid colour photograph with a broad black boarder. Depicting a commercial picture-postcard which combines images of two girls water-skiing, a cityscape and a coastal view, and bears the words 'Beirut Souvenir'. The image shows damage to the negative from which it is printed.


Object details

Category
Photographs
Object type
Photograph
Titles
  • Wonder Beirut #13, Modern Beirut, International Center of Water-Skiing (assigned by artist)
  • Wonder Beruit: The Story of a Pyromaniac Photographer, 1997-2006 (series title)
Materials and techniques
C-type print mounted on aluminium with face mounting
Photographic Paper
C-Type Colour Photography
Photography
Brief description
Photograph, 'Wonder Beirut #13, Modern Beirut, International Center of Water-Skiing' from the series 'Wonder Beruit: The Story of a Pyromaniac Photographer', by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Lebanon, 1997-2006
Physical description
Vivid colour photograph with a broad black boarder. Depicting a commercial picture-postcard which combines images of two girls water-skiing, a cityscape and a coastal view, and bears the words 'Beirut Souvenir'. The image shows damage to the negative from which it is printed.
Dimensions
  • Image height: 70.5cm
  • Image width: 105.5cm
  • Mount height: 70.5cm
  • Mount width: 105.5cm
Gallery label
  • Photography Centre, 2018-20: Joana Hadjithomas (born 1969) and Khalil Joreige (born 1969) Wonder Beirut #13, Modern Beirut, International Center of Water-Skiing 1997–2006 After the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90), Hadjithomas and Joreige noticed that tourist postcards of pre-conflict Beirut were still for sale. They invented a fictional photographer of postcard views of Beirut's attractions, who burnt his negatives during the war to reflect the surrounding destruction. The artists present the works in the Wonder Beirut series as prints from the fictional photographer's damaged negatives. C-type print Museum no. E.1124-2012
  • In this series Hadjithomas and Joreige use photography to blur fact and fiction. The artists noticed that tourist postcards of pre-civil war Beirut were still for sale after the war ended in 1990. They invented a fictional photographer named Abdallah Farrah who, in 1968, was commissioned by the tourist board to make postcard views of Beirut's attractions. When the civil war broke out in 1975, he began to burn his negatives to reflect the surrounding destruction. The artists present these works as prints from the fictional photographer's damaged negatives. (Marta Weiss)(September 2012)
Credit line
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum
Production
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige have collaborated since the 1990s.
Place depicted
Beirut
Associated objects
Bibliographic reference
Light from the Middle East: New Photography
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.1124-2012

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Record createdSeptember 1, 2012
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1254229/wonder-beirut-13-modern-beirut-photograph-joana-hadjithomas/
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