Filmmakers and artists, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige question the fabrication of images and representations, the construction of imaginaries, and the writing of history. Their works create thematic and formal links between photography, video, performance, installation, sculpture, and cinema, being documentary or fiction film.
Together, they have directed numerous films that have been shown and multi awarded in the most important international film festivals as Cannes film festival, Berlinale, Locarno or Toronto before having theatrical releases in many countries. Their films include Memory Box (2021); ISMYRNA (2016); The Lebanese Rocket Society: The Strange Tale of The Lebanese Space Race (2012), Khiam 2000-2007 (2008); Je Veux Voir (I Want To See) (2008), starring Catherine Deneuve and Rabih Mroué, A Perfect Day (2005), The Lost Film (2003); and Around the Pink House (1999). Several retrospectives of their films have been presented in renowned institutions such as MoMA (New York), Flaherty Seminar (New York), Torino Film Festival, Harvard Film Archive (Cambridge), Lincoln Center (New York), Locarno International Film Festival (Switzerland), Paris Cinema, Tate Modern (London), Visions du réel (Nyon), la Rochelle (France), Cinematek (Brussels), Seville Film Festival (Spain), Montpellier Film Festival (France), Cinema Akil (UAE), Institut Français and Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), International Film Festival of Gijon (Spain)…
The artists are known for their long-term research based on personal or political documents, with particular interests in the traces of the invisible and the absent, histories kept secret such as latencies of wars, a forgotten space project from the 1960s, the strange consequences of Internet scams and spams or the geological and archaeological undergrounds of cities. They also invoke poetry facing chaos in the project I stared at Beauty so much, with poems of Constantin Cavafy, Etel Adnan, Georges Seferis and others… Recently, they tackle the fragility of art and institutions through their body of works Museums Melancolia.
Among their major artworks, also are Circle of Confusion (1997), Lasting Images (2003), The Lebanese Rocket Society (2011), SCAMS (2014), and Unconformities (2017), centering on archeological and geological sediments and remains, what we leave behind. It showcased at the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris) and was awarded the prestigious Marcel Duchamp Prize.
Their artworks are part of major private and public collections including in London the British Museum, The Tate Modern (London) and Victoria & Albert Museum, The Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Fond national d’art contemporain, Museum of Modern Art (Paris), The Lyon Museum, the FRAC Bretagne, the MCA Chicago, The Hood Museum and the Solomon R Guggenheim, the Sharjah Art Foundation,The Mathaf (Doha), The Barjeel Foundation, The Jameel Art Collection. As well as, the MAMCO (Geneva), IVAM (Spain), Onassis Collection, and EMST in Athens and many others.
They presented their works in solo exhibitions at Haus der Kunst (Munich), Jeu de Paume (Paris), MIT List Visual Arts Center (Cambridge), Museum of Modern Art (Paris), HOME (Manchester), IVAM (Valencia), Powerplant (Toronto), Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE), and Villa Arson (Nice) or Beirut Exhibition Center (Beirut), as well as group exhibitions in museums and art centers around the world, such as Ashkal Alwan (Beirut), KW Berlin, MOMA (New York), the Guggenheim (New York), SFMOMA (San Francisco), Red Brick Art Museum (Beijing), Singapore Art Museum, Tate Modern (London), Whitechapel Gallery (London), and ZKM (Karlsruhe), Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin), Centre Pompidou (Paris)…. They participated in many biennials such as Taipei, Venice, Istanbul, Lyon, Sharjah, Kochi, Gwangju, and the Paris Triennale.
Hadjithomas and Joreige are the authors of numerous publications namely Two Suns in a Sunset, Koenig Books, 2016; The Rumors of The World: Rethinking Trust in the Age of the Internet edited by Omar Kholeif, Sternberg Press, 2015; Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, JRP | Ringier, 2013; and Le cinéma de Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Independencia, 2013; and artists books such as Latent images, Rosascape, 2010 and Beirut, Urban Fictions, Mind the Gap, 1997. They both regularly present lecture-performances including Aida Save Me, Latent Images and Under The Cold River Bed.
Together, they are often invited as university lecturers, more specifically at Ashkal Alwan (Beirut), HEAD (Geneve), Speap (Paris), IESAV (Beirut), Le Fresnoy Studio national des arts contemporains (France), Paris X Nanterre, RAW Academy (Dakar). Hadjithomas was previously a member of the Pedagogical Committee of the Home Works space Program at Ashkal Alwan. Both artists are co-founders of the production company Abbout Productions with Georges Schoucair, as well as members of Metropolis Art Cinema and the Cinemathèque in Beirut.
- 2021 Memory Box, Fiction 95 min
- 2016 ISMYRNA, Documentary 53 min
- 2012 The Lebanese Rocket Society, The strange tale of the Lebanese space race, Documentary 93 min
- 2008 Je veux voir (I want to see), Fiction 75 min
- 2008 Khiam 2000-2007, Documentary 103 min
- 2006 Open the door, please, Fiction 11 min, part of the film Childhoods, Fiction 80 min
- 2005 A Perfect Day (Yawmon Akhar), Fiction 88 min
- 2003 Ramad (Ashes), Fiction 26 min
- 2003 Al Film Al mafkoud (The Lost Film), Documentary 42 min
- 2001 Barmeh (Rounds), Fiction 8 min
- 2000 Khiam, Documentary 52 min
- 1999 Al Bayt al Zaher (Around the Pink House), Fiction 92 min
2025
- Remembering The Light, Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
2024
- Comme la nuit se fait, lorsque le jour s’en va, In Situ – fabienne leclerc, Paris, France
2022
- Messages with(out) a code, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE
2021
- Rewind Fast Forward, In Situ – fabienne leclerc, Paris, France
- L’Histoire ajournée d’Orthosia, In Situ – fabienne leclerc, Paris, France
2020
- J’ai regardé si fixement la beauté, FRAC Corse, Corte, France
- Festival Travelling, Musée des Beaux Arts de Rennes, France
2019
- On scams, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada
2018
- Unconformities, Onassis Cultural Center, Fast Forward Festival, Athens, Greece
- I Stared At Beauty So Much, The Model, Sligo, Ireland
- Film Retrospective, Oslo Kunstforening in partnership with the Cinemateket, Oslo, Norway
2017
- Se Souvenir de la lumière, Musée National Pablo Picasso, La guerre et la paix, Vallauris, France
- Two Suns in a Sunset, IVAM, Spain
- Still In Need To Apologize, Tranzitdisplay, Prague, Czech Republic
2016
- Two Suns in a Sunset, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany.
- Se souvenir de la lumière, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France.
- Two Suns in a Sunset, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE.
- I Must First Apologize…, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, United States.
2015
- I Must First Apologize…, HOME, Manchester, United Kingdom.
2014
- Je dois tout d’abord m’excuser…, Villa Arson, Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Nice, France.
- The Lebanese Rocket Society, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Australia.
2013
- Lebanese Rocket Society: Part III, IV, V & VI . In Situ – fabienne leclerc, Paris, France
- KHIAM, l’emploi du temps. 3 bis F, Lieux d’art contemporain, Aix en Provence, France.
- Lebanese Rocket Society: Part II, III, IV & V. CRG Gallery, New York, USA
2012
- Lebanese Rocket Society: Part III, IV & V. The Third Line Dubai, UAE
- How soon is now : a tribute to dreamers, Beirut Exhibition Center, Lebanon
2010
- Histoire du vent », Commande publique du ministère de la culture, Festival d’Avignon, France
- Is there anybody out of there? », In Situ – fabienne leclerc, Paris, France
- I want to see, Gazworks, Triangle Arts Trust, London, U.K
2009
- Wonder Beirut, Centre de la photographie de Genève, Switzerland.
- Wish we could tell, A Space Gallery, Toronto, Canada
- Wish we could tell, Centro de Mémoria, Museum of Vila Do Conde, Portugal
- I am here even if you don’t see me, Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Tel des oasis dans le désert, Eglise des Célestins, Festival d’Avignon, France
- Faces, Art première, Art Basel, Bâle, Switzerland
- We could be heroes just for one day Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris, France
2008
- Circulo de confusion, Musée de Gigon, Spain
- We could be heroes just for one day, Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris, France
- Histoires tenues secrètes, Fort du Bruissin, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Francheville, France
- Back to the présent, Homeworks IV, Ashkal Alwan, in AGIAL Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
- Oú sommes-nous? », Festival d’Automne, Espace Topographique de l’art, Paris, France
- Circle of Confusion », CRG Gallery, New York, USA
2000
- Wonder Beirut, Ecole régionale des Beaux Arts, Rennes, France
1998
- Wonder Beirut, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beyrouth, Lebanon
1997
- Beyrouth: Fictions urbaines, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
2025
- Ce que l’horizon promet, Fondation EDF, Paris, France
- And All That Is In Between, Islamic Arts Biennale, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- Rire sur un volcan, POUSH, Paris, France
- SOIL, Somerset House, London, UK
- Même les soleils sont ivres, Collection Lambert, Avignon, France
- Becoming Icons, Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
2024
- Dans la Seine, Crypte archéologique de l’ile de la Cité, Paris, France
- The Circle Was a Point, Foundry, Dubai, UAE
- Guest Relations, Jameel Art Center, Dubai, UAE
- Your Ghosts are mine,Qatar Museums at ACP-Palazzo Franchetti, Venise, Italy
- Sous l’Azur, Art Explora, Touring exhibition
- EXILS, Louvre Lens, Lens, France
2023
- The Memory Place, Art Safari, Bucharest, Romania
- Sharjah Biennale 15: Thinking Historically in the Present, Sharjah, UAE
- Dans l’air, les machines volantes, Hangar Y – Art Explora, Paris, France
- Brand New Ancients, Misk Art Institute, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- Fake News 2, La Condition Publique, Roubaix, France
- Beirut and the Golden Sixties, Mathaf, Doha, Qatar
- La photographie document en action, entre expérience(s) et histoire(s), Galerie Art & Essai, Rennes, France
- Return of the Sun, Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon
- In the Heart of Another Country, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE
- Disappearances, fotografisk center, Copenhagen, Denmark
- HomeWorks 9, Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
- Formes de la ruine, Musée des Beaux Arts, Lyon, France
2022
- Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany
- Ruins and Fragments, Gagosian, Athens, Greece
- Belonging, MIC, Limerick, Ireland
- Habiter les interstices. Beyrouth, les artistes et la ville, Galerie Michel Journiac, Paris, France
- Lucid Knowledge, Currency: 8th Triennial of Photography Hamburg 2022, Hamburg, Germany
- ordo naturalis, ordo artificialis, ZACentrale Fondazione Palermo, Palermo, Italy
- Downfalls – From Dystopia to Disruption, Kunsthalle Trier, Trier, Germany
- The Distance from Here, Hayy Jameel, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- manifesto of fragility, 16th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France
- Au bord du monde vivent nos vertiges, Abbaye de Jumièges, France
- Etel Adnan, Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany
- In the Heart of Another Country, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany
- Perpetual Inventory, Volume 1: An Exercise in Looking, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE
2021
- Prix Pictet: Fire, Luma Westbau, Zurich, Switzerland
- How will it end?, Fondation Boghossian, Brussels, Belgium
- Inquiétances des temps, Cnap, Abbaye de Maubuisson, Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, France
- Mirroir du Ciel, Espace de l’art concret, 20th anniversary Marcel Duchamp Prize, Mouans, France
- Reflections: contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa, The British Museum, London, UK
- Scratching the Surface, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany
- The Distance from Here, Jameel Art Centre, Dubai, UAE
- Fake News, Espace Fondation EDF, Paris, France
- Unsettled Objects, Jameel Art Center, Dubai, UAE
- Permanent collection, Mamco, Geneva, Switzerland
- Prix de la Fondation Choi pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France
- Permanent collection, The British Museum, London, UK
2020
- Under the Cold River Bed, 12th Taipei Biennial, Taiwan
- Trembling Landscapes, Between Reality and Fictions, Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Potential World 2 : Eco-Fictions, Migros Museum, Zurich, Switzerland
- Le vent se lève, MAC VAL (Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val de Marne), Vitry, France
- Libres, Centre d’Art Contemporain Yverdon-les Bains, Switzerland
- The Time Complex, 1st Yerevan Biennial, Armenia
2019
- Cartes postales: nouvelles d’un monde rêvé, Les rencontres de la photographie, Arles, France
- Time, Forward!, V-A-C Foundation, Venice, Italy
- Toi qui chemines, il n’y a pas de chemin, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China
- C’est Beyrouth, Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris, France
- A Stitch in Time, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
- Connectivités, Mucem, Marseille, France
- Collecting Photography: From Daguerreotype to Digital, V&A Photography Center, London, UK
- Climbing through the tide, B7L9, La Marsa, Tunis
2018
- Scenario for a Museum, Cycle of Collapsing Progress, Tripoli, Lebanon
- I Stared At Beauty So Much, 30th Anniversary of the Darat al Funun Arts and Cultural Center, Amman, Jordan
- Bridging the Gap, Tsinghua University Art Museum, China
- Divided We Stand, Busan Biennale, South Korea
- But A Storm Is Blowing From Paradise, Gam Milano, Italy
- Electronic Superhighway, MAAT, Lisbon, Portugal
- A journey to Freedom, Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart, Australia
2017
- Unconformities, winner of Marcel Duchamp Award, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
- Keimena Project, Documenta 14, Athens, Greece
- Bahar, 13rd biennale of Sharjah in Istanbul, Turkey
- Home Beirut, Sounding the neighbours, Maxxi, Rome, Italy
- The Human Condition, The Haunted House, Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, Moscow
2016
- But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise, Guggenheim Museum, New York, US
- Electronic Superhighway, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
- Politics of Form, GfZK– Kyiv Biennial and Galerie für Zetgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany
2015
- All the World’s Futures, 56th Venice Biennale, Italy
- Streamlines, Deichtorhallen, Hambourg, Germany
- Lest the Two Seas Meet, Museum of Modern Art in Varsovie, Poland
- Territoire d’affects, Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut, Lebanon
- Common Grounds, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany
2014
- Notre Histoire, Centre Pompidou/musée national d’Art moderne, Paris, France
- View From Inside, Fotofest, 15e International Biennial of Photography, Houston, US
- Visual Dialogues 2013, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece
- Lasting Images, Guggenheim Museum, New York, US
2013
- Terms & Conditions, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
- Vue d’en haut, Centre Pompidou-Metz, France
- Shifting Sands, CACSA Contemporary Art Center for South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
- Ici, ailleurs, Marseille-Provence 2013, France
- Sweet Sixties: Stories and Morals, Gallery Nova, WHW, Zagreb, Croatie
2012
- Biennial from the Global South, Kochi-Muziris Biennial, India
- Light from the Middle East, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
- Six Lines of Flight: Shifting Geographies in Contempory Art, SFMoma, San Francisco, US
- Round Table, 9th Gwangju Biennial, South Korea
- Utopia/Dystopia, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, US
- Arab Express, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
- Intense proximité, La Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
- Spectral Imprints, Abraaj Capital Art Prize 2012, Dubai, UAE
2011
- Due to Unforeseen Events, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, US
- Seeing Is Believing, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
- Image in the Aftermath, Beirut Art Center, Lebanon
- Untitled, 12th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey
- Locus Logistics, Meeting Point 6, Berlin; Brussels, Athens, Beirut
- Une terrible beauté est née, 11th Lyon Biennial, La Sucrière, Lyon, France
- Plot for a Biennial, 10th Sharjah Biennial, UAE
2008
- Zones of conflict, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, US
- Roads were opened/roads were closed, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE
- Art now in Lebanon, Darat al Funun, The Khalid Shoman foundation, Amman, Jordan
- Forum Home works 4, organised by Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebanon
- Conspire, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
- Orients Sans Frontières, Espace Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
- Stratégies de l’histoire, Stratégie de l’art, 6th Biennale de Goumri, Armenia
2007
- Ah les belles images ! …, In Situ fabienne leclerc, Paris, France
- Ah les belles images ! …, La Tolerie, Clermont Ferrand, France
- Distorted Fabric, De Apple Arts Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Whenever it starts, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
2006
- Cercle de confusion, Côté court, Pantin, France
- Taking place, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Out of Beirut, Modern Art, Oxford, UK
- Blickdicht. Fotografien aus der arabischen Welt, Ifa-Galerie Berlin, Germany
- Coding : Decoding, Kunsthallen Nikolaj, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Coding : Decoding, Museet for Samtidskunst / Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark
2005
- Sequence of tense, Altpool, South Korea
- HOME WORKS III, Beirut, Lebanon
- Videokunstwoche, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
2004
- Present Absent, Gallery Tanit, Munich, Germany
- Love it or leave it, Montenegro Biennale, Montenegro
- Appel à témoin, Le Quartier, Centre d’art contemporain de Quimper, France
- Mediterraneans, Macro, Rome, Italy
- Laughter, Bargehouse LIFT, London, UK
- Nazar, Nooderlich Photofestival, Akerkhof, Netherlands
2003
- The Eccho Show, curator Lars Bang Larsen, Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
- Deslocamentos, VideoBrazil, Sao Paolo, Brazil
- FORUM HOME WORKS 2, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebanon
2002
- Iconoclash, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
- Fundamentalism of the new order, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark
2001
- Missing links, Gallery Townhouse, Cairo, Egypt
- Gaba, Marzouk, Sooja, Bonde, Kusolwong , Hadjithomas And Joreige – INOVA – Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee, WI, US
2000
- Espace vital, La Criée, Centre d’Art contemporain de Rennes, France
- Visages de rencontres, Espace Mira Phalaina, Montreuil, France