The Life and Work of Walter Ego

Night of 11 August 2013 at Mazen Kerbaj's Place in Sin el Fil, Lebanon

Night of 2 September 2013 at Studio Safar, Gemmayze, Lebanon

The Monotypes Day – 23 April 2021 at Omar Khoury's studio, Hamra, Lebanon

Drunken Masters – Exhibition at Musée Slaoui, Casablanca, Morocco (2017)

Drunken Masters – Exhibition at La Colonie, Paris, France (2018)

description

Hatem Imam and Mazen Kerbaj did not decide to form an artist duo; the work they have been producing together over the past ten years literally crept into every aspect of their professional and personal lives. Impulsively and feverishly, they have accumulated a rather large body of drawings and prints, scratched and scrawled with four hands, in the most unlikely situations, and often in an inebriated state. Mostly on paper, but sometimes on any other available surface, the works betray the artists’ reasoning of their value; a record of the time they are produced in, and an extended performative visual conversation.

Countering the customary postulation of the act of drawing as a solitary manifestation of an artist’s vision, the duo devises a spectral third, Walter Ego, deliriously conjured in their sessions. At once a witness, collaborator, and even foe, Walt shapeshifts both conceptually and figuratively.

Since 2012, and in parallel with their individual practice, the artists have developed a four-handed practice and a distinctive visual language. Their drawing sessions are sometimes pre-planned lengthy meetings at either of their studios, but most commonly they impulsively kick off at friends’ or in bars around the city. Kerbaj has made it a habit to always be armed with at least a couple of pens and a small notebook no matter where he is going. Whatever the setting, drawing, talking, socializing, and listening to music all happen simultaneously, documenting the night on paper, leaving at the end a unique record of the night. Each drawing session is a field for experimentation, improvisation, challenges, and discoveries where friendship and artistic collaboration overlap.

A paperless night at Torino Express Bar, Gemmayze, Lebanon (13 March 2013)

Double self-portrait (from Night of 25 July 2014 at Ahmad's place in Hamra, Lebanon)

Double self-portrait (from Night of 26 june 2014 at Ahmad's place in Hamra, Lebanon)

Night of 27 february 2020 at Green Door Bar in Berlin, Germany

Night of 23 September 2021 at Torino Express Bar, Gemmayze, Lebanon

A night from 2020 at Mazen Kerbaj's in Berlin, Germany

A night from 2015 at Mazen Kerbaj's in Hazmiye, Lebanon

An unidentified night in a unidentified place