DRAWING LINES

Description

As citizens of a country that holds many secrets and stories, we are unable to define who we are. We exist in a mélange of cultures, ideologies and backgrounds. For Tamara Zantout, author and producer of Drawing Lines, having lived in London for most of her childhood, she sought to understand her own identity and attachment to Lebanese culture or that which has been idealized in a romanticized notion of nationalism as opposed to the experience of re-entering the Lebanese sphere. The challenge was to adopt a voyeuristic approach to street art whilst maintaining the duality of the detached observer. It was an attempt to understand how different and diverse local and foreign artists communicate Lebanese identity.

“I saw identity through their eyes, and ultimately discovered that there are many lenses of observation, and through that lens I saw many circles of identity, one encompassing the other, as the circle expands so does people’s tolerance towards one another. In a country driven by many external forces; its people pulled at all ends by too much strife, we must all broaden our circle of vision and behold through the eyes of the other. Ultimately, it was a search for unity over discord and a call for an internal revolt against the internalized dogmas that have plagued our society,” says Zantout.