Conference

My last evening was spent at the Lebanese University participating in a conference that was part of a cultural festival organized by UNESCO called “Francophone”. Ghada Waked, an art historian and curator based in Beirut, learned that I was visiting and, in the eleventh hour, arranged for me to present my work to a group of international students who were part of the event. Students from a number of French-speaking countries attended, including Mali, Belgium, Guinea and Haiti. Fortunately, they also understood English as my Quebecois-French is not so good. There were lots of questions and an interesting dialog ensued as many of the themes in my work seemed to resonate with the group as they are all grappling with issues related to technology in ways that are unique to their communities and cultures. Ideally, I would like to build on this relationship and develop more opportunities for cultural exchange with Lebanese cultural institutions.