(Kan ya ma Kan) There was and there was not

Description:

(Kan ya ma Kan) There was and there was not was a multimedia installation by Jayce Salloum that centred a sprawling archive of images, objects, and ephemera related to the history and representation of Lebanon. Drawing largely from materials collected during Salloum’s travels to Lebanon in the early 1990s, the work examined how Lebanon is constructed and circulated within collective and individual imaginaries. 

The materials were presented as a working research studio and found archive, incorporating hundreds of archival materials—photographs, maps, light boxes, books, postcards, calendars, audio recordings, and personal files—alongside videos and photographs by Salloum. This dense accumulation of material juxtaposed popular imagery of Beirut (once known as the “Paris of the Middle East”) with representations shaped by civil war.

By foregrounding the subjective and fragmentary nature of archives, (Kan ya ma Kan) There was and there was not invited viewers to participate in the creation of meaning, while prompting them to address their own assumptions. 

Concurrent to the installation at Western Front, Salloum also exhibited a parallel series of color photographs and texts titled (sites+) demarcations at Fotobase Gallery, Vancouver.