Collapse of meaning
Omar Al-Ghazi, author of the editorial “Collapsing Dictionary,” asks about the impact of words on us, “While the word collapse suggests a state of collapse and dissolution, the word crisis makes us feel a limited period of time and reminds us of the image of a tunnel that must eventually lead us to the light. Can this crisis be considered Unprecedented? Is such a consideration permissible in a country whose history is impossible to work on from the standpoint of crises, while its entire history is a crisis? In her introduction, Sinita Krishati considers the collapse as part of the collapse of meaning and the severing of links between expressions, words, and their connotations. She asks: “Who or what is meant by the people? There are other terms that may turn into covers that do not indicate anything specific, such as the most famous slogan in the protests: All of them means all of them, and the expression of the political class, which refers vaguely or obscures those responsible for the deteriorating situation.” “For the country”?
The writer and theater director, Crystal Khader, is trying to remember the first time she heard the word “subscription,” but she remembers well that she grew up with the word “house” and the phrase “technique de junta.” As for the word “subscription,” in her opinion, it has become in the collective subconscious and popular language. , opposite to the word “state”, after the word “electricity” was deleted in front of them.
While the novelist Fawzi Dhibian, who wrote a text under the title “Victory,” believes that words are very arrogant because they are aware that we do not exist in the world except through them, so you see them sometimes hidden and at other times replaced by frankness and clarity to the point of crudeness, and sometimes they fall into the in-between area, “Words Like birds that fly reassured, but this reassurance soon disappears when these words turn into prey that falls into the trap of understatement.”
Dictionary of synonyms for collapsed
Sahar Mandour divided the “collapse” into three stages: the first stage: astonishment, questioning, expectation, and confirmation. The second stage is losing lightness and becoming heaviness, because collapse has become a reality, and the Corona virus has added a suffocating flavor to it. The third stage is the stage of clear numbers that benefit those who manage them. Sarah Murad wonders about the lives and homes saved by the mounds or the cement block that was found to preserve wheat grains.
Serge Harfouche wrote about the word “support” and Naim Halawi about the word “son-in-law”, which is synonymous with the spoiled and the shadow president. Hashem Adnan wrote about the word “arsat,” which has become part of the oral knowledge stock in Lebanon, while Hassan Al-Sahili wrote a text about the word “future” and expensive dreams. Meanwhile, Vivian Akiki touched on the word “depositors,” which has been repeated many times since the beginning of the crisis in Lebanon, and the word “haircut,” which Rima Rantisi heard for the first time in its economic meaning early in the October 17 uprising, and the panic that Musaad Asaad knew in movie scenes and was not there. Defined in its general social sense.
As for Sarah Qaddoura, she wrote about the term “NGOS,” which has become a point of view and synonymous with labor according to the authorities’ media. Amal Talib wrote about the word “one thousand and five,” which is an abbreviation for one thousand five hundred. Director Hashem Adnan ends the book’s presentation by asking about the words that were imposed on us and the words that were used to confront the authorities, and which of them attract the broadest segments? Which of them strengthened the position of authority and which of them disrupted it? Questions that words may answer from within themselves, and from their frequent use in the street, in signs, and in daily speech, until they have become collapsed words in the dictionary of collapse.
Performance team:
Prepared by: Nassim Al-Banna, Fatima Marwa and Hashem Adnan
Performance: Fatima Marwa and Nassim Al-Banna
Video: Carla Awad
Music arrangement: Mahmoud Abu Zeid
Directed by: Hashem Adnan
Writers team:
Participants: Musaad Asaad, Hassan Al-Saheli, Serge Harfouche, Naeem Halawi, Christelle Khader, Fawzi Thebian, Rima Rantisi, Amal Talib, Hashem Adnan, Vivian Akiki, Sarah Kaddoura, Sarah Murad, Sahar Mandour.
Editorial team: Rami Rajeh, Jana Traboulsi, Hashem Adnan, Sinita Creshati, and Lina Al-Mundhir
Editorial: Omar Al-Ghazi
Introduction: Sinita Krishati
Visual search: Alaa Mansour
Translated from English: Vivian Akiki
Translated from Arabic: Joumana Sikali
