Tania El Khoury's 'Revenge Art' Confronts War and Power in Beirut Amid Conflict

Lebanese multidisciplinary artist Tania El Khoury, winner of the 2026 Creative Capital Award, is currently in Beirut on sabbatical with her family during intense conflict. Her interactive performance 'The Search for Power,' created with historian husband Ziad Abu-Rish, reenacts their 2016 wedding blackout to explore systemic corruption in Beirut's electricity infrastructure dating to French colonial rule in the 1920s. The work was first presented in Finland in 2018 and performed in New York's Under the Radar Theater Festival last year, with a Beirut run scheduled for March 12 postponed due to war. El Khoury describes her practice as 'revenge art' that counters official narratives through calming, multisensory forms incorporating smell, sound, and intimate scale. As Distinguished Artist in Residence and Associate Professor at Bard College, where she founded the Center for Human Rights & the Arts, she maintains artistic practice as her primary occupation. The artist reports living in survival mode since Israel's intensified bombardment began March 2, with over 2,294 Lebanese killed including 177 children and 91 healthcare workers. On April 8, dubbed Black Wednesday, Israel dropped over 100 bombs on Beirut in 10 minutes, killing 303 people including five of El Khoury's neighbors. Despite an April 16 ceasefire, the Lebanese army reports truce violations while approximately one-fifth of Lebanon's population remains displaced.