samar maakaron

Before the year 2005, a colleague and I set up an art and design space called ‘Afas’, in Clemenceau, Beirut. While it was coordinated primarily by the two of us, it evolved into a loose collective of artists, designers, dancers, writers and photographers who worked both alone and together as the opportunities presented themselves. During my time in ‘Afas’, I was also working as a freelance designer, streamlining my career by working with clients whose mission and causes I could truly believe in. As such, I found myself working with a long list of local and international cultural operators, but also organizing self-sustainable theme events that took place in the city.
In 2005, I was granted a scholarship by the British Council to study in London - I chose the Masters in social and participatory arts. For my dissertation, I devised, planned and received funding for a project entitled ‘Narratives of Hope’ only in the time span of 32 days. I got the idea for the project on August 12, 2006, the day of the ceasefire that put an end to the month-long military aggression on Lebanon that summer.
From March 2007 till March 2008, I ran a video and photography intiative with the title ‘Lens on Lebanon’. (www.lensonlebanon.org). In 18 months we’ve executed more than 20 Workshops in various communities in Lebanon and had three exhibitions to showcase our work to the public.
I also worked in stage design for contemporary theatre: in 2003 I designed the first of several contemporary stage sets for the writer/director Rabih Mroué and that work has taken me to contemporary arts festivals around the world, to Tokyo, Europe, Canada, Korea, India, and Latvia to name a few. I have designed since then the scenography for two other performances: ‘Who’s afraid of representation,’ and ‘How Nancy Wished that everything was an april fool’s joke’
I participated in many collective exhibitions, talks and conferences in Lebanon and internationally, details about my work can be found online, at www.samarmaakaron.com