‘Home Works: A Forum on Cultural Practices’ is an unprecedented platform in one of the first international cultural initiatives hosted in the Middle East. Home Works brings together artists, writers, intellectuals, filmmakers, architects, critical theorists and philosophers.
Home Works, in the face of the regular disruptions, did, eventually, take place for a third time in November 2005. The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan, organised 7 days of critical excahnge of cultural practices from literature, performance, theatre, film to the visual arts. Participants from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Croatia, and the United States were engaged in a stimulating mix of multidisciplinary presentations. Each Home Work event has revealed the strength of home-grown expression and the active cultural dynamic of practitioners both working across and/or originally from the region.
The term ‘Home Works’ suggests an intertwining of public and private spheres, the outside world of work and the inside space of home. In referring to the exercises, lessons and research problems worked out by students repetitively and in solitude, ‘Home Works’ implies a process of internal excavation, digging and burrowing deeper all the while constructing and accumulating new practices.
The 'homework' of involved participants and audiences during Home Works III came vividly alive through the jam-packed programme of public lectures, panel discussions, film and video screenings, exhibitions, performances, and installations during 17 - 24 November 2005.
Igor Dobricic, Ana Dzokic and Wietske Maas of the ALMOSTREAL team visited Beirut during Home Works III to find out about possible content, formats and context of artistic collaborations occurring in Beirut and the region which could be supported through ALMOSTREAL.
Nataša Ilić of the Zagreb based curatorial collective WHW also presented video works by artists from the Western Balkans.
