Tania El Khoury and Ziad Abu-Rish: The Search for Power

On a night with a sudden electricity outage in Beirut, artist Tania El Khoury and her husband, historian Ziad Abu-Rish, promised each other to research the history of power outages in Lebanon. Born during the Lebanese Civil War, the artist had grown up with the understanding that the problem with electricity in Lebanon began during the war. The historian, however, recalled finding ███████████████ that announced scheduled electricity outages across Beirut. The two decided to research the history of power outages in Lebanon. The Search for Power, a performance that places the audience in an intimate gathering, delves into the intersection between public utilities infrastructure, people’s relationship to the state, and various popular mobilizations to shape both. In time, they reach as far back as the introduction of electricity in Beirut before █████████████████████.