Tania El Khoury

Dr
Tania El Khoury
Born1982 (age 41–42)
Jounieh, Lebanon
NationalityLebanese
Education
StyleLive art
Awards

Tania El Khoury (born 1982) is a Lebanese live artist. In 2017, she was winner of the ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival International Prize for Live Art, the only international award for live art, attracting a EUR30,000 prize.[1] Her work has been translated into multiple languages and shown in 32 countries across six continents. She is also visiting professor, festival curator and Director of the Center for Human Rights and the Arts at Bard College.[2][3]

Her work has involved creating immersive performances in many different sites, ranging from the great hall at the British Museum to an old church in Beirut once used as a military base during the civil war.[4][5][6][7]

Her exhibition, Gardens Speak, considered the Syrian uprising against the Assad regime. It presented the reconstructed oral histories of 10 men and women who died between 2011 and 2013, and were buried not in public cemeteries, but in the back gardens of ordinary homes. It led to an accompanying book, published by Tadween in 2016.[8][9]

El Khoury is the co-founder of the Dictaphone Group, with architect and urban planner Abir Saksouk. In 2018, a survey of her work entitled "ear-whispered by Tania El Khoury" took place in the city of Philadelphia, USA, organized by Bryn Mawr College and supported by Pew Center for the Arts and Heritage.[10]

She completed a PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, focusing on interactive live art after the Arab uprisings, supervised by Professor Harriet Hawkins and supported by a scholarship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.[11] Prior to this, she earned an MA (with distinction) in Performance Making at Goldsmiths, University of London and a BA in Fine Art from the Lebanese University, Beirut. Her work was also recognised with the Total Theatre Award for Innovation and the Arches Brick Award[12] in 2011.

El Khoury was selected as a 2019 Soros Arts Fellow, where 11 of the selected artists, filmmakers, curators and researchers whose work involved immigration were granted US$80,000 each "to realize an ambitious project over the next 18 months."[13]

  1. ^ "LEBANESE ARTIST TANIA EL KHOURY ANNOUNCED WINNER OF ANTI FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR LIVE ART". ANTI Festival. Archived from the original on 21 October 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  2. ^ "Artist in profile: Tania El Khoury". Gulf Business. 18 April 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  3. ^ "Tania El Khoury". Bard College. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  4. ^ "Interview with Tania El Khoury". Bomb Magazine. 5 December 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  5. ^ "Tania El Khoury". Arts Admin. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  6. ^ "Are you up for a 10-minute play in which your arm is inked?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  7. ^ "Artist in Conversation". Middle East Institute. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Ear whispered: works by Tania El-Khoury". Bryn Mawr. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  9. ^ Gardner, Lyn (29 September 2014). "Gardens Speak: the sound installation unearthing Syria's backyard tragedies". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  10. ^ "Philly Fringe 2018: The 25 must-see productions (Don't worry, you've got 3 weeks.)". The Inquirer. 31 August 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  11. ^ "Tania El Khoury". Royal Holloway, University of London. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  12. ^ "Gardens Speak". Public Theater. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  13. ^ "Announcing the Latest Soros Arts Fellows". Open Society Foundations. Retrieved 2019-05-15.