Artist Talk | Simone Fattal

Thursday, January 18th, 2024 | 7:30pm at Ashkal Alwan space 

Ashkal Alwan is pleased to invite you to an artist talk by Simone Fattal on her exhibit Jack, 1971. 

This event is part of Home Works 9: A Forum on Cultural Practices.

Please reserve your seat by calling 01-560144 or emailing us at info@ashkalalwan.org, as seating capacity is limited. 

"On a certain evening, in 1971, Gaby Bustros and her husband John Haines were promenading across Martyrs Square. The Square then had cafés, old movie theaters, and a bustling array of people from all over the world. There, they met a band of young musicians on their way to India. As was the fashion in those days, Lebanon was a mandatory stop on that route, but this group was stranded in Beirut, lacking the financial means to go on with their journey. Gaby and John took them home, but after a while, they asked for our help. Each one of us took a musician, with Jack, the guitarist, staying with me. But the musicians also took us into an enchanted world filled with a valley with old trees, boulders, and a stream that all hippies knew but we, the Lebanese, did not. Together, we slept nights in the open air. 

Jack stayed a while, playing all day, while I made quite a lot of drawings of him playing, sometimes trying to convey the music. These drawings, like forgotten time, have been sleeping in my drawers since. This summer, Christine Tohme discovered them and decided to present them along with their memories of pop music, carefree times, the sixties, and starry nights.”

Simone Fattal

Simone Fattal (b. 1942, Syria) is an artist living in Paris. She studied philosophy at the École des Lettres in Beirut after which she continued her philosophical pursuits at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1969, she returned to Beirut before leaving again during the Lebanese Civil War. In 1980, Fattal settled in California, where she founded the Post-Apollo Press, a publishing house dedicated to innovative and experimental literary work. In 1988, she enrolled at the Art Institute of San Francisco, which prompted a return to her artistic practice and a newfound dedication to sculpture and ceramics.