15. Rabih Mroué (Beirut, Libano, 1967)
Old House, 2006
Video a colori, suono. 1’32’’
Color video, sound. 1’32’’
Courtesy: l’artista,
LAVERONICA – Contemporary Art Gallery
Modica (RG)

16. Rabih Mroué (Beirut, Libano, 1967)
Practicing Acceptance,
#2, #3, #4, #5, #7, #8, #9, #10, #13, #15, #17, #18, #19, #20, #24, 2024
Tecnica mista su carta | Mixed media on paper
47 x 36 cm cd | each
Courtesy: l’artista,
Collezione Fondazione OELLE Catania
LAVERONICA – Contemporary Art Gallery
Modica (RG)

Rabih Mroué (Beirut, Libano, 1967) stands out within the realm of so-called “political” art for the way he addresses the relationship between image, memory, and the representation of conflict. In much of contemporary art over the past decades, the image has increasingly come to reflect the binary and oppositional logic of war—consequently losing its evocative power and, paradoxically, its ability to make a lasting imprint on memory.
While images possess enormous power, caught in the spiral of reality and representation they often risk producing rhetorical narratives—serving more to reinforce ideological identities or “alternative facts” than to offer critical insight. At best, they may remain sensitive records, but still mere chronicles.

15. In Old House (2006), , a house in Beirut suddenly collapses. The short video, edited in a looping reverse sequence, suspends the action in time, transforming it into an eternal, repetitive gesture. As the image unfolds, the voice of the artist—also an actor and theater director—reflects on memory as repetition: not only of what remains visible, but also of what has been erased, suppressed, or hidden.
For Mroué, exploring the image is not about representing conflict directly, but about addressing those who suffer its consequences. He speaks to the victims, offering alternative narratives that stimulate the imagination and expose the hypocrisy of official discourse. In this vision, art does not simply document—it becomes a means of escape from horror, and a critique of the spectacle-driven logic that also permeates the art world.

16. In the series Practicing Acceptance (2014), composed of gouache works, Mroué explores the theme of hospitality—now central to global discourse—shifting the focus from direct testimony to critical reflection. Instead of photography, which can be easily manipulated or misinterpreted, he chooses drawing.
Like an archaeologist uncovering what time has concealed, Mroué uses gouache to open spaces for meaning. His images allude to what remains unseen, yet is implicit in the dynamics of hospitality: those who endure and those who impose, isolated gestures and systemic practices, individuals and peoples, the weak and the powerful, flesh and spirit.