Universität zu Köln

Paci, Giacomo ORCID: 0000-0001-8915-2606 (2025). The Roles of Betweenness: Visual Narratives by Lebanese and Palestinian Contemporary Artists. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

This dissertation investigates the visual-narrative practices of six contemporary Lebanese and Palestinian artists whose works are shaped by and speak to conditions of "betweenness"—a lived and creative engagement between their countries of origin and their current lives in Europe. Central to this study is the interplay between the narrative dimension of their artworks—primarily developed through the medium of film within visual art contexts—and the transnational biographies of the artists themselves. The research delves into the term “visual narrative” to characterize works that not only belong to the field of visual arts but also construct and convey stories deeply intertwined with the histories, cultures, and political conditions of Lebanon and Palestine. These narratives are not merely representational; they function as interventions—they question dominant accounts, generate counter-narratives, and seek to complicate entrenched or hegemonic historical perspectives. The works examined do not simply reference national histories; they reflect on the modes through which those histories are told, preserved, or erased. The notion of "betweenness"—a concept developed in this dissertation as distinct from the postcolonial term "in-betweenness"—is introduced to describe the artists’ lived reality across multiple geographic and cultural contexts. Unlike the notion of hybridity that implies the synthesis of cultures into a “third space,” the term "betweenness" in this research underscores ongoing movement and cultural navigation between two poles: an “inside” (Lebanon or Palestine) and an “outside” (primarily European countries). This betweenness is not abstract or metaphorical; it shapes the artists’ production, informs the narratives they construct, and frames the reception of their works in the international art world. The dissertation’s central research question asks: How does the "between" position of an artist influence their visual narrative work about Lebanon or Palestine? This question guides a comparative analysis of six artworks by six artists: Lamia Joreige, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Marwa Arsanios (Lebanon); and Jumana Manna, Jumana Emil Abboud, and Inas Halabi (Palestine). All the works were produced between the 2010s and early 2020s and were exhibited primarily in European institutions. While not exhaustive, these case studies were selected for their thematic coherence and methodological richness. They exemplify how artists engage with their heritage and personal geographies through complex visual languages that traverse documentary, fiction, installation, and performance. Four key urgencies structure this inquiry: The proliferation of transnational artistic trajectories: The growing number of artists from the Arab world—particularly Lebanon and Palestine—who operate within European art circuits necessitates a critical examination of how their mobile identities shape and are shaped by their work. The artists in question inhabit positions of cultural negotiation that reflect broader dynamics of diaspora, displacement, and postcolonial memory. The documentary turn in contemporary visual art: Most of the selected works engage with documentary aesthetics while traversing disciplinary boundaries. They foreground material archives, testimonies, and site-specific practices, often recontextualized through film and installation. This dissertation interrogates how these practices reflect not only the histories they document but also the conditions of their own telling. The institutional framing of these narratives: A significant part of the analysis focuses on the art institutions that host and mediate these works. The research asks: What role do European art institutions play in either facilitating or constraining the artists’ narrative strategies? How do curatorial frameworks, funding mechanisms, and geopolitical alignments affect the visibility and reception of counter-narratives about Lebanon and Palestine? The present historical conjuncture: This study unfolds in the context of the 2023–2024 war on Gaza and the increasing precariousness of public discourse around Palestine in Europe—particularly in Germany, where the research was conducted. These conditions of censorship, solidarity, and ideological polarization form a critical backdrop to the dissertation. The urgency of engaging with Palestinian narratives, especially when they are produced from within European contexts, becomes not only a scholarly task but also an ethical imperative. The dissertation is structured in three parts. The first outlines the methodology, theoretical framework, and state of research, situating this study within broader debates on narrative, postcolonial theory, and contemporary visual art. It engages with notions of positionality, particularly from the perspective of the author as a European “outsider” to Lebanon and Palestine. This positioning is not viewed as a limitation but as an opportunity to reflect on the reception of these works within Western contexts and to interrogate the asymmetries that govern the circulation of cultural narratives. The second part comprises six case studies, each devoted to one artist and one artwork. These close readings unpack the narrative strategies, formal qualities, and political stakes of each piece, while also analyzing the conditions of its production and exhibition. The case studies foreground a variety of concerns: memory and trauma, ecological knowledge, archival recovery, oral storytelling, and gendered geographies—all explored through complex visual and spatial languages. The third and final section offers a comparative synthesis, identifying shared patterns and divergences across the case studies. It elaborates on how betweenness manifests as a condition not only of the artists’ biographies but also of their works’ form and reception. It argues that betweenness enables the construction of layered, situated, and multi-directional narratives—narratives that challenge the binaries of here/there, insider/outsider, past/present. Throughout the dissertation, particular attention is paid to the German context, where the research was carried out. The reception of Palestinian cultural production in Germany is deeply shaped by the country’s post-Holocaust identity politics and its official position toward Israel. As discussed in the final sections of the introduction, researching Palestine in the German academic and cultural field involves navigating a dense web of silences, taboos, and ideological constraints. The dissertation critically reflects on the German “frame” that shapes discourse around Palestine and, by extension, the circulation and censorship of Palestinian visual narratives. These reflections are not tangential but integral to the dissertation’s methodological commitment to situated knowledge. In sum, this research proposes that the intersection of visual narrative practices and conditions of betweenness constitutes a fertile ground for rethinking the role of art in shaping alternative histories. It offers a contribution to art history, Middle Eastern studies, and museum and exhibition studies by foregrounding how visual culture participates in global conversations about memory, identity, and representation. It suggests that narrative artworks by Lebanese and Palestinian artists in Europe do not merely reflect existing realities—they actively shape how we come to understand, remember, and imagine them.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Paci, Giacomo giacomopaci1@gmail.com orcid.org/0000-0001-8915-2606 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-786320
Date:	2025
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Fächergruppe 1: Kunstgeschichte, Musikwissenschaft, Medienkultur und Theater, Linguistik, IDH > Kunsthistorisches Institut
Subjects:	The arts
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Visual Narrative UNSPECIFIED Betweenness UNSPECIFIED Counter-Narratives UNSPECIFIED Contemporary Lebanese and Palestinian Art UNSPECIFIED
Date of oral exam:	22 January 2025
Referee:	Name Academic Title Müller, Gesine Professor Möntmann, Nina Professor Bexte, Peter Professor Köhler, Kristina Professor
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/78632