Laetitia El Hakim presents her first solo exhibition as part of CATAPULT.visual’arts In mud, rust, and blood draws a parallelism between the witch trials and contemporary femicide.
It aims to be a facilitator of conversations around a topic that we often assume happens elsewhere, to someone else, or in a previous time. The exhibition presents 38 photographs developed over three parts: the magical, the trials, and the sacrifice, presenting a cycle of violence that is long overdue we break.
It delves into the tale of the witch; a tale that was formed through fear to only present the villain, leaning on borrowed recipes stemming from my mother’s cookbook, to trigger reflection on dismantling limits – guidelines and rules set by instructions and ingredients.
Laetitia El Hakim: In mud, rust, and blood is the tenth and final exhibitions as part of this edition of CATAPULT.visual’arts, a partnership between British Council Lebanon and Artlab.
About Laetitia El Hakim
Laetitia El Hakim was born in Byblos, Lebanon in 1993. She is a multidisciplinary artist who studied Architecture (USEK, Lebanon, 2017), Photography (NDU, Lebanon,2020), and Dance (Al Sarab Dance School, Lebanon, 2009).
Laetitia explores socio-political dynamics that affect the way Lebanon and its culture are shaped through an anthropological perspective. She is interested in the cultural components that drive us as humans, more specifically through the notions of rituals, memories, and history. Her practice often takes performative and storytelling aspects in its execution, oscillating between reality, fiction, the occult and the fantastic.
She is part of a photographic duo with Tarek Haddad. Their work has been shown in the collective exhibitions “Togetherness” at Galerie Tanit, Lebanon (2021); and in” Au bord du monde vivent nos vertiges” at the Abbaye de Jumièges, France (2022).
In 2021, she had a residency at Diaphane pôle photographique x Frac-Picardie, France, as part of the program “NAFAS” launched by the French Institute. She took part of a residency at the Abbaye de Jumièges in July 2022. She was selected for the Catapult-Visual’Arts Residency program where she spent August 2022 at Hospitalfield and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in Scotland.
She was selected by the “Catapult-Visual Arts” program (ArtLab x and The British Council) to develop and present her first solo exhibition in October 2022. Her project “Domestica” (f.) received the Lebanese Grant Prize at the 5th edition of “Les femmes s’exposent”, Houlgate, France (2022) and will be presented in their 6th edition in 2023. Laetitia currently resides and works in Beirut, Lebanon.