Cinema and television also have their own lumpenproletariat, so far away from sequins, mu ing the screen. Marwa Arsanios only chooses to keep amateurs and extras so she can turn them into fully-featured artists in their own right at the foreground. And (this is no insignificant trait) exposed to the gaze from one scene to the other, extras are also employed in the home backstage. A matter of invisibility in both cases, of the bodies – usually women’s – placed or displaced as needed. In Mexico as in Beirut, Marwa Arsanios turns points of view around to shed light on the background. (N.F.)
Marwa Arsanios