9 documents
I Take Selfies Therefore I Am
Bilal Khbeiz
e-flux Notes
Posted: April 5, 2022
Category
War & Conflict
Subjects
Ukraine, Russia
# 57
The Dead Afghani before the Camera and before Death
Bilal Khbeiz
It seems that the pictures we watched on TV about the American war in Afghanistan are in great need of comment. These images needed the help of language in order to speak, and yet they also couldn’t create their own language. To understand these images, we had to go back to our most primal instincts to say: this is the corpse of a child younger than four years old; that is a destroyed house; these are villagers and farmers standing at the ruins of their clay houses. Without these comments,…
e-flux Journal
Posted: September 1, 2014
Category
War & Conflict, Image
Subjects
Media Critique, Violence, Middle East, Gulf War
# 38
In Praise of Books: When Authorities Close a Prison, They Foil a Revolution!
Bilal Khbeiz
People these days lament young people’s disdain for reading and, by extension, writing. Quite a few of today’s young people secretly indulge in writing poetry that will never be published, probably because they seek distraction elsewhere. It seems that in the West, and especially in America, all the best-selling authors are retired celebrities. The list of retirees who write is long, starting with politicians and continuing with businessmen, economists, and the wives of famous baseball…
e-flux Journal
Posted: October 1, 2012
Category
Literature
Subjects
Publishing, Revolution
# 35
Dubai: A City Manufactured by Curiosity
Bilal Khbeiz
It is hard to distinguish individuals in a crowd. Citizens of the Gulf states appear to the visitor as crowds, with their identities as individuals momentarily suspended. Such a crowd is slightly different from the kind described by Elias Canetti. This is a crowd perceived as such by a visitor conscious of his individuality against the multitude. The crowd exerts no control over this visitor, nor does it repress his personality. Rather, this visitor exerts a form of authority—engaging in an…
e-flux Journal
Posted: May 1, 2012
Category
Migration & Immigration
Subjects
Middle East, Wealth & Inequality, Citizenship, Oil
# 34
Escaping From Exile by Belonging to an Exiled Land
Bilal Khbeiz
A complicated chain of events landed me in Los Angeles, on the west coast of the USA. It is a wonderful city, fascinated by itself to the point of being oblivious to what occurs outside of it. This is not the ideal place to be exiled to.
When forced to leave one’s home, an exile’s continuing struggle shapes him into a soldier—and a soldier can do little more than survive while he waits for the next battle, as he is less than likely to win the war. Los Angeles is an ideal place for…
e-flux Journal
Posted: April 1, 2012
Category
Migration & Immigration, War & Conflict
Subjects
Middle East, USA, Lebanon, State & Government, Citizenship
# 16
Michael Jackson Died for No Reason (and the Vampire that is His Life)
Bilal Khbeiz
July 2009
Many American media outlets considered the possibility that the King of Pop’s death could have been a media stunt designed to promote the “comeback” concert scheduled for this summer in London. But what could have been a media stunt later became a possible homicide. In order to prevent further speculation, the media went to work correlating and double-checking the putative cause of death. Few went so far as to accuse Michael Jackson’s personal doctor of causing his patient’s…
e-flux Journal
Posted: May 1, 2010
Category
Image
Subjects
Pop Culture, Mass Media & Entertainment, Media Critique, Middle East
# 08
Modernity’s Obsession with Systems of Preservation
Bilal Khbeiz
The Products of Fragility
Modernity, the mother of many democracies, has given a great deal of attention to developing means of preservation and conservation. It has taught us to care for all that is frail and delicate. Charles Baudelaire, speaking about one of his contemporaries, the photographer Miron, said: “He photographed Paris because it is ephemeral.” 1 Perhaps then it should come as no surprise that such an image, itself made up of only smooth paper and some ink, outlasts the…
e-flux Journal
Posted: September 1, 2009
Category
Education, Image
Subjects
Modernity, Libraries & Archives, Childhood & Youth