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La vertigineuse histoire d'Orthosia, J. Hadjithomas & K. Joreige
Sold-out (by our network)The filmmakers and artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige work between photography, installations, video and cinema to question the construction of imaginaries and the writing of forgotten stories. Through this performance, they draw us into a palimpsest of constant cycles of construction and destruction, uncovering possible narratives of the underground worlds.
This story unfolds in the north of Lebanon, at Nahr el Bared, in a refugee camp hastily set up to shelter Palestinian families fleeing the Nakba of 1948. Years later, in 2007, war broke out between the Lebanese army and an infiltrated Islamist group, leading to the destruction of part of the camp. It was at that moment that the first traces appeared of Orthosia, an ancient Roman city, which vanished after being overwhelmed by a tsunami in 551 and which, despite 15 centuries of vain attempts to find it, no-one could ever have imagined it there.
But how to deal with this major discovery, as excavations would mean a ‘second displacement’ for the refugee families? A dizzying performance, full of (dis)continuities, upheavals and regeneration, which plunges us into a past that feels particularly close to the present.
In partnership with le Festival d’Automne.