Lebanese artist and Bard College professor Tania El Khoury discusses her multidisciplinary practice and her recent experience living through the escalation of conflict in Beirut. The interview highlights her interactive performance piece, "The Search for Power," which uses her own 2018 wedding blackout as a jumping-off point to investigate the colonial roots of Lebanon's systemic infrastructure failures. Originally set for a Beirut run in March, the production was postponed due to the outbreak of war.
El Khoury’s work exemplifies the intersection of archival research, live performance, and political activism. By documenting the history of Lebanese power outages back to the French Mandate, she challenges the narrative that the country's current instability is solely a product of the Civil War. Her perspective provides a vital look at how artists maintain their practice and academic roles while navigating displacement and the physical realities of conflict.