Lebanon, usually known only from dramatic media coverage, is a place of art experiments that question the thought schemes, objectivity of media and historical records. Questioning of 'what is real and why' in historical as well as in artistic practices leads to a problem of falsification itself. The exhibition focuses on topics of fiction, the relationship between lies and truth. It investigates reasons for creating parallel realities both in Lebanese context and in general, in the context of media coverage, of flood of images, of artistic creation.

On one hand we want to show works that question reality itself as well as objectivity of a historic narration (Randa Mirza, "Without a title #2") or show ambiguity of any historical or media fact (Walid Raad, "Missing_Wars") that we usually consider to be true and valid. They use new media and tools of expression (digital photography, manipulation, internet) to undermine the objectivity and logic of media representation, the uniformity of truth (Randa Mirza, "Pigeon's rock"). They come back to the very fountain of artistic creation and look for a space to express more than the truth itself can. Lebanon, as a very diverse and divided country, is an extreme sight of these kinds of 'actions'. Its history and everyday life is in fact facing the emergence of competing versions of truth and reality all the time. On the other hand we want to look closer at fiction as a basic act of artistic creation; investigate the possibilities and obstacles of inventing a biography (Mounira al Solh, "As if I don't Fit There"), a basic act of self-description that is always entangled in all our realities (Ali Cherri, "A Circle Round The Sun").

Lee Smith, in his critical essay on the art of the Atlas Group/Walid Raad, says that the forged institution [The Atlas Group Archive] is part of the legacy of Conceptual art and literary modernism, kin to Broodthaers's Museum and Borges's library. (.) The Atlas Group should be seen in the context of Arab art redirecting its gaze inward, making its own work, its own audience, and its own institutions--like the Atlas Group. The fiction of the Atlas Group "creates a position that you can speak with authority about," Raad says, giving a very localized account here of authority. He believes that the official political histories of events in Lebanon could not account for much of what was experienced during the time of the civil war [1975-1990]. (.) This is from where the Atlas Group draws part of its energy--the obsessive attempts to manage and take seriously what Raad calls the "hysterical symptoms of the war." (.) Audiences typically associate this gesture with mourning or melancholia, but Raad's word for it, "missing," is kind of a play on poststructuralism's "presence." "Missing has this idea of longing for," Raad says, "yet the inability to arrive. It's as if you're always longing for that which you missed." The horse-race piece is the probably the best example of "missing." (Missing in action: the art of the Atlas Group/Walid Raad - Critical Essay by Lee Smith, ArtForum, Feb 2003)