The Pixelated Revolution

In 2011, during the early stages of the Syrian revolution, Lebanese artist Rabih Mroué began collecting videos circulated on social media shot by civilians protesting against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. In The Pixelated Revolution, Mroué retrieves these images filmed by the protesters, for whom such videos represent, in some cases, the last testimony before being fatally struck by the regime. Many years later, with a civil war still ongoing, this non-academic lecture analyzes the role that our cell phone photos and videos play in documenting contemporary history. Mroué questions the relationship between the act of documenting the “here and now” and death, and how it is perceived by the rest of the world observing. Operating at the intersection of visual arts, theater, and history, the Lebanese artist offers alternative perspectives on events sometimes too distant to be understood or too close to be considered, providing the audience with a reflection on the aesthetics of violence.