Two leather harnesses that came in through the Port of Beirut (one from a sex shop on AliExpress and the other from Conwell, a South Korean medical supplier) are modeled by two embracing figures on a rooftop facing the Port. It is overcast and the humidity is 72%.
From The Future Conditional, a series of interactive tactile sound installations, this work centers a series of conversations about black feminist futures and the future conditional. The works ask: What are the things, often forgotten, that we need to carry with us? What can we now allow to fray and break, and be ok with the brokenness?
Bassem Saad is an artist and writer born on September 11. His work explores objects and economies that distribute violence, pleasure, welfare, and waste. Through time-based media, sculpture, and writing, he locates space and time for maneuvering within and beyond governance systems. Bassem’s solo and collaborative work has been screened and exhibited in different cities, and presented at Architectural Association (London), Harvard University VES (MA), Alserkal Avenue (Dubai), and through various online channels. His writing appears in Jadaliyya, Unbag, and The Funambulist, and he is a junior editor at FailedArchitecture. He was a web resident at Akademie Schloss Solitude and a resident fellow at Ashkal Alwan’s Home Workspace Program in Beirut. He was most recently a resident at Eyebeam in New York.
