The Return, 2023 

The Return, 2023

The Return is an immersive installation that investigates the journey of a marble sculpture, dated ca. 360 B.C. that was unearthed during the excavation of the temple of Eshmun in Saida in July 1967. The marble piece depicting a Bull’s Head, discovered by French archeologist and Ancient Near East specialist Maurice Dunand, spent millennia buried and undisturbed, but within the timespan of half a century, between 1967 and 2017, it moved from Saida to Byblos, disappeared for over three decades, reappeared in Colorado USA and was ultimately hidden in plain sight, within a display in the Greek and Roman Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Fifty years after it emerged back, a court case to establish its rightful owner brought it to the spotlight.

Rayyane Tabet, The Return: 1996 – 2005, 2023, Two wallpapers, collages, and two modified car lights sculptures, Variable dimensions, Exhibition view Sfeir-Semler Gallery Beirut 2023

6 nights, 2023

The six-day war that erupted on June 5 of 1967 had completely reshuffled the region’s landscape by June 10. At the time, curfews were instated, that required that all sources of light be turned off, to limit exposure to enemy air raids. In order to circumvent the curfew, people started painting their apartment windows and their car headlights blue, making them less visible at night.

Rayyane Tabet, 6 nights, 2023, Metal structure, car headlights, and blue enamel paint, 125.5 x 86.5 x 32 cm, Exhibition view Sfeir-Semler Gallery Beirut 2023

Referencing the geopolitical context in which the Bull’s Head had been first discovered, Tabet experiments with the medium of light, and floods the gallery space with blue. The windows are covered with a blue transparent film, while sculptures produced using modified car lamps, hang from the ceiling, illuminating the space through their blue-painted bulbs.  

Rayyane Tabet, Untitled, 2023, Wooden windows, glass, and blue paint, Variable dimensions, Exhibition view Sfeir-Semler Gallery Beirut 2023