Artist-run project space Takeover launched its June program earlier this past week, with the opening of “Les Hautes Sensibilites” or “High Sensitivies” by Karine Wehbe on Thursday, June 8.
The exhibition is a film project on a possible impossibility. In the words of the artist, “this film is a work-in-progress, a work which may or may not be carried out.”
Takeover launched in late 2022 as a former kitchen turned artist-run project space, and has since then, launched a series of temporary exhibitions, symposiums and workshops. The culmination is a shared space where experimentation, collaborations, and knowledge transmission through artist-given workshops is nurtured and celebrated.
Some of the past “takeovers” include an event by LAMSA, a community-based fashion brand from the Bekaa, a portrait photography workshop by Darkoom Amman, and an exhibition titled Bound Narravties: A Photobook Library.”
For “Les Hautes Sensibilites”, Takeover’s small space is transformed to resemble the artist’s head-space, taking you through a short journey where you explore the questions and thoughts clouding the artist’s mind, and sift through their visual material.
In Wehbe’s words, “through 25 years of personal archives of post-war Lebanon, I try to recount a linear development through a succession of events which never cease to interrupt the plot…GS, one of the first consultants, says that building a film is like having a certain desire, whence thoughts, images, places and actors flow, until the time comes to edit the images and sounds in order to make the actual film.”
Wehbe said that she would often work on one scene/one idea per day, “plotting a visual urban geography and associating dialogues with it through two fictional and constantly evolving characters, I try to have a feel for the city, which constitutes the main setting of the film. There will be 25 years; made up of different meetings, facts, stories, and departures.”
The exhibition will be running until June 21, Wednesday – Friday, from 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
Other upcoming exhibitions in the space included “Verses و Surfaces”, a collective exhibition by Gian Spina, Sally Kastoun, and Shatr Poetics. The exhibition will consist of text-based interventions that break out of traditional modes of language representation, and is set to open on June 23, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM.
On June 30, Takeover will be moving from its first space to a new one just 33 meters up on Abdul Wahab street. To inaugurate the new space, they have launched an open call for local artists and architects to submit a proposal for an installation or performance that would take place across the two spaces the night of the opening.
Applicants from all disciplines and ages are welcome to apply, on the condition that they are currently residing in Lebanon or identify as part of the Lebanese diaspora. The deadline to apply is midnight June 18, and more details can be found at their website.