We Died and Here We Are - 2016

“Set upon a bleak landscape bereft of greenery, the camera [in “We Died and Here We Are”] looks on while a young man hurriedly assaults the clay underfoot with a pickax and shovel. His frantic efforts make little progress and the scene eventually cuts to a backhoe, clawing a hole from the same patch of dirt…After a moment the heavy machinery can be seen performing the labor – yanking the husk of an automobile into the hole…The artist describes his work as an expression of grief for a deceased relative. That probably explains Kanaan’s decision to stage a performance of burial, but the work is intriguing by his deflating juxtaposition of fictive pretense with, well, a backhoe.” -Jim Quilty for Lebanon’s The Daily Star

“‘We Died and Here We Are’ is one reaction among many I’ve had to my uncle’s death. Now that I’m nearing his age when he died, I’m fighting to reconnect with what he left behind. Though my family has always compared me to him, they won’t speak about the circumstances that took his life. I can only scour his photographs, his poetry, and his collection of 50 luxury automobiles for clues.” -Mohamad Kanaan

– produced and edited by Isidore Bethel / directed by Mohamad Kanaan

– 9 minutes

– presented at the Beirut Art Center, recipient of Ashkal Alwan (Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts) Video Works grant