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126
Mounira Al Solh, Sama'/Ma'as (Ba'ath), 2014

Chapter: Seelenfenster - Gesture, Movement, Cipher

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Language, violence, meaning
Mounira Al Solh’s work centers on two themes that are essential to her practice: the violent and sometimes absurd effects of political events on personal life, and the form, function, and construction of language. The Lebanese-Dutch artist, who lives in Beirut and Amsterdam, draws on hybrid linguistic forms that emerge from migration and relocation.

Places of transition
In light of growing refugee communities in the Middle East, Al Solh engages with language to explore potential pathways or transitional spaces between the mother tongue and the languages of immigration. Within this concept of the “in-between” or the non-binary, her own biography—shaped by flight—and the histories of her family and friends also play a central role. This is powerfully evident in her painting His Funeral, Our Funeral, Their Funeral, presented in this exhibition.

Protection from the sun and the gaze of neighbors
Her Sama'/Ma'as series was inspired by a lecture by sociologist and historian Ahmad Beydoun on the Arabic language and the diverse linguistic roots of letters written during the war in Lebanon in the 1980s. Beydoun’s research shows how reversing three-letter word stems in Arabic can produce contradictory meanings. For her patchwork word sculpture, Al Solh used plastic tarps and textiles commonly employed in Beirut to shield against the sun and the gaze of neighbors. Many of these materials have not been sold since the 1970s. In the 2000s, many residents began replacing openings that had been temporarily covered with tarps and curtains with glass—something Al Solh considers dangerous in a city continually affected by war and explosions.

The movement of language
In Sama'/Ma'as (Ba'ath), which hangs in the room, each side presents a three-letter word composed of the same Arabic letters arranged differently. This produces the words “Baʿath” on the side made of green fabric and “Abath/عبث” on the side made of plastic and colorful fabric, each formed from the letters A, B, and Th. The artist intentionally selects words whose meaning shifts with the arrangement of letters, as well as combinations that are contradictory, striking, or unusual. “Baʿath” has multiple meanings: to send or dispatch, resurrection on Judgment Day, to awaken from sleep, to provoke, or to incite. Crucially, it also refers to the political Baʿath Party, a connection the artist deliberately employs as critique. “Abath” signifies absurdity, forming a counterpoint that she conceived as a dialectical interplay between the two sides of the work. By keeping these multiple meanings in tension, Al Solh illuminates language as a space of constant and critical movement: processual, unstable, and always in a state of becoming.


Audio

Note: The audio transcription is voiced by an AI.

Mounira Al Solh, Sama'/Ma'as (Ba'ath), 2014
Double-sided patchwork textile curtain; Textile, plastic
© Mounira Al Solh
Written Art Collection

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