LAURE AND MAZEN
Laure & Mazen – Retrospective exhibition at the Sursock Museum – 2019 (photo by c. baaklini)
Laure & Mazen – Retrospective exhibition at the Sursock Museum – 2019 (photo by c. baaklini)
Laure & Mazen – Retrospective exhibition at the Sursock Museum – 2019 (photo by c. baaklini)
Laure & Mazen – Retrospective exhibition at the Sursock Museum – 2019 (photo by c. baaklini)
Laure & Mazen – Retrospective exhibition at the Sursock Museum – 2019 (photo by c. baaklini)
Laure & Mazen – Retrospective exhibition at the Sursock Museum – 2019 (photo by c. baaklini)
Laure & Mazen – Retrospective exhibition at the Sursock Museum – 2019 (photo by c. baaklini)
Laure & Mazen – Retrospective exhibition at the Sursock Museum – 2019 (photo by c. baaklini)
Laure & Mazen – Retrospective exhibition at the Sursock Museum – 2019 (photo by c. baaklini)
Laure & Mazen – Retrospective exhibition at the Sursock Museum – 2019 (photo by c. baaklini)
Laure & Mazen – Retrospective exhibition at the Sursock Museum – 2019 (photo by c. baaklini)
DESCRIPTION
Laure Ghorayeb, the mother, is a poet, artist, and art critic. Mazen Kerbaj, her son, is an artist, illustrator, and musician. Together, they form one of the most touching artist duos. Their mediums of choice are technical pens, India ink, and paper. Sheets, sketchbooks, scraps, and rolls: paper in all its forms falls prey to the two accomplices.
Since 2006, and in parallel to their individual practice, they have developed a four-handed practice and unique style, where the minutiae of Laure’s strokes merge with Mazen's big-nosed silhouettes. There is no need to recognize who does what in the flurry and entanglement of their drawings and correspondence: one need simply keep up with their frenzy and their limitless ambition.
CHRONOLOGY
Laure Ghorayeb and Mazen’s Kerbaj’s first attempt to work together was during the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon. During this summer, and in parallel to their respective blogs where they posted daily drawings documenting the madness happening around them, they started exchanging two notebooks where one of them would start a drawing and let the other finish it. This first experience was not shown or published, but the idea of working on the same paper, in continuation and on top of each other, stayed with them. In 2008, they put it in practice again, in a more relaxed environment and without the inherent emergency of the works produced under the bombs. The resulting double self-portrait, simply titled Toi et moi (You and Me), was exhibited during the Sursock Museum’s 30th Salon d’Automne where it was awarded the Jury’s prize.
Since then, Ghorayeb and Kerbaj worked together on a regular basis, producing two full exhibitions, Toi et Moi et le Papier Peint in 2011 and L’Abécédaire in 2014, and many other projects like the 16 pages comics story Tomorrow Will Never Come (2014) and the gigantic 10 meters long roll Les amoureux (The Lovers) that they drew in one week of residency in Rennes in 2018. Each of their new works pushes a little bit further the idea of an ongoing double-autobiography and brings their four-hand practice to new heights. This is especially visible in their latest work in progress Correspondence(s).
In 2015, Mazen moved to Berlin, and the question of how to continue the collaboration with Laure arose. The only thing that was remotely related to it was the letters they exchanged and that incorporated texts and drawings, albeit on separate papers. In 2017 the two artists started corresponding on a continuous roll of paper that they send back and forth between Berlin and Beirut and where they overlap their drawings and writings to form a single work. This new collaboration is an eternal work in progress; it will never be completed but rather will come to a stop when the first of them dies.
In 2023, Laure died at age 91. She left behind enough work in progress for Mazen to continue in a dialogue beyond the grave.
YOU AND ME – DOUBLE SELF-PORTRAIT (2008)
YOU AND ME (DETAIL)
YOU AND ME (DETAIL)
working on "You and Me"
Cyclops (2010)
Looking for a Mask (2010)
Framed Lives (2010)
Mom, Can You Sew Me Please? (2010)
In Beirut There Are Ugly Buildings and Beautiful Girls (2010)
Between Sun and Moon (2010)
Working on "between sun and moon"
The Man (2010)
Mazen, Laure, Two beers and the man
Antoine – from L'Abécédaire series (2014)
Voyage – from L'Abécédaire series (2014)
Naissance – from L'Abécédaire series (2014)
icones – from L'Abécédaire series (2014)
Kangourou – from L'Abécédaire series (2014)
working on l'abécédaire series
done with l'abécédaire series
The Lovers (2018)
The Lovers (detail)
The Lovers (detail)
The Lovers (detail)
at renne's train station, ready for a one week residency to draw the "Lovers" roll
working on "the lovers"
one week later!
Excerpt from "tomorrow will never come" (2015)
Excerpt from "tomorrow will never come" (2015)
Correspondence(s) – roll #6 (2017)
Correspondence(s) – roll #7 (2017)
Correspondence(s) – roll #8 (2017)
Correspondence(s) – rolls 1 to 18 (2017-2018)
correwspondence(s) ROLLS 1 to 18 at maxxi museum, rome (2017)
correwspondence(s) ROLLS 1 to 18 at maxxi museum, rome (2017)
correwspondence(s) ROLLS 1 to 18 at maxxi museum, rome (2017)
correwspondence(s) ROLLS 1 to 18 at maxxi museum, rome (2017)
on the road again
the two artists In conversation with hatem imam (2019)
double interview for the saradar collection (2016)
INTERVIEW WITH THE TWO ARTISTS on radio liban (2015)
INTERVIEW WITH THE TWO ARTISTS on Cannibales Radio – Rennes, fRance (2018)
PRESS EXCERPTS
Perhaps even Freud falls short of explaining the complex relationship between mother and son. Whatever one might read into their witty collaboration, aesthetically speaking, Ghorayeb and Kerbaj are artists first.
[The Daily Star – Matern Boeselager]
While most artists hesitate to share even a gallery floor, few dare to merge creatively with another. However, Laure Ghorayeb and her son Mazen Kerbaj, both independently-established Lebanese artists, undertook such a challenge for their project “You, Me and the Painted Paper”, a collection of quirky, intricate pieces on display.
[Now Lebanon]
The pieces display the characteristic blend of sardonic humor and darker, more-serious social commentary that marks both artists’ solo work.
[The Daily Star – India Stoughton]
Ils forment le tandem le plus émouvant de la scène artistique libanaise. Le plus improbable et le plus naturel aussi. Laure Ghorayeb, la mère, 83ans, et Mazen Kerbaj, le fils, 39 ans. Aussi différents physiquement que le jour et la nuit. Elle : petite, extravertie, solaire, bouille ronde et crinière de lionne ébouriffée. Lui : grand, maigre, sombre, yeux noirs, cheveux noirs, barbe noire. Mais en commun, un même tempérament de feu qui les pousse à s’affronter, se mesurer, se défier... à travers, notamment, leur passion commune pour le trait graphique.
[L’Orient-Le Jour – Zena Zalzal]
Et puis, magistrale, cette fresque cantique qui célèbre les amours mythiques. Antar et Abla, Tristan et Iseult, Rimbaud et Verlaine, Adam et Eve, Ken et Barbie… un chant d’amour, puissant, émouvant, drôle, irrésistible.
[L’Officiel – Nasri Sayegh]
إنّها لعبة غريبة بين الابن وأمّه. لعبة ارتجال، كما في المسرح والموسيقى، لعبة بهلوانيّة خطرة بلا شبكة نجاة
[Al Akhbar – Pierre Abi Saab]
وعندما ترى اعمال مازن ولور الفردية ترى الاختلاف بينهما كبيراً، ولكن إذا دققت في اعمالهما المشتركة تشعر بانهما باتا فعلا شخصا واحدا
[Annahar – Jana Nasrallah]
تعاون مثمر بين كائنَين يفصل بينهما أمد زمني من حيث السن، ذكره الأم والابن في أحد الأعمال، وكأنهما شاءا أن يبيّنا أن سنوات العمر المتباينة العائدة لكلٍّ منهما، تجمعهما معاً في عالم التشكيل، وربما في عوالم أخرى لا نعرفها
[Annahar – Mohammad Charaf]
BONUS
