Charbel-joseph H. Boutros
Five consecutive dreams, five suns, and a garden
November 14 – January 11, 2025
On a summer day, a foreign daily worker, a mason, is hired for one day's work.
In lieu of his daily labor, which entails constructing concrete structures, he is offered a day of rest in an orchard garden belonging to the artist, situated in the Lebanese mountains.
He is simply requested to enjoy his time in the garden, alone, liberated from labor, with the freedom to engage in any activity he chooses during the designated working hours and to consume the fruits he desires from the existing trees.
Lunch is provided, along with water, and a portable charger for his cell phone.
He is encouraged to take a nap after lunch.
He is given a white bed sheet to cover himself during his nap and to protect himself from the sun.
At the end of the day, after being remunerated, he returns the white bed sheet to the artist.
The dreams and hopes impregnated in the white bed sheet are then covered with a fluid mixture of cement, water from a local source, and ashes from the news of that day.
The same experience is repeated five consecutive working days with five different workers.
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About the artist
Charbel-joseph H. Boutros born in Lebanon / Lives and works between Beirut and Paris.
In his work invisibility is charged with intimate, geographical and historical layers; finding poetic lines that extend beyond the realm of existing speculations and realities.
For H. Boutros, each exhibition is a new geography that reformulates reality.
H. Boutros was a resident at Le Pavillon, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (France) and a researcher at Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (The Netherlands). In 2020, the S.M.A.K. in Belgium hosted his first institutional exhibition in Europe, “The Sun Is My Only Ally”, later presented at the Contemporary Art Center La Criée (2022) in France. His first monograph, jointly prepared by S.M.A.K Ghent and La Criée centre for contemporary art, published by Mousse Publishing was released in 2022.
Previously shown at: The 12th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey / Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France / Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy / Centre Pompidou - Metz, France / S.M.A.K. Museum, Gent, Belgium / Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, France / Home Works 8 and 9, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebnanon / CCS Bard College, New York, USA / 3rd Bahia Biennial, Salvador, Brazil / 1st Yinchuan Biennale, Yinchuan, China / CCA, Warsaw, Poland / More Konzeption Conception Now, Morsbroich Museum, Leverkusen, Germany / Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE / Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon / La Criée Centre for Contemporary Art, France Marres, Maastricht, The Netherlands. A permanent installation ‘Sueur d’étoile’, that he realized with the French étoile dancer Marie-Agnes Gillot, inaugurated in 2016 remains on view at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France.
Charbel-joseph H. Boutros’ works are in the collections of S.M.A.K. Museum, Ghent / CNAP, Paris, France / Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE / SAMoCA Saudi Ministry of Culture.