For many years, the Lebanese artist Rabih Mroué has been dealing with the images of violence, the mechanisms of martyr cult and political propaganda. He collects materials, deconstructs and overwrites them, and creates works for the stage, installations and texts that question how images and stories are constructed and instrumentalized.
Last summer, he began researching recruitment videos of Islamic extremists in Hesse. He collected videos and held talks with the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. They form the material for his new work "Sand in the eyes".
The videos are specifically tailored to the viewing habits of young people. They play with the limits of what we want to see and can endure.
For "Sand in the eyes" Rabih Mroué sets out to expose the visual language of propaganda, frame by frame, shot by shot. What do the videos tell us about those who produce them? And why do they succeed in recruiting young people?
A production by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, as part of the project "100 Jahre Gegenwart", funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, in co-production with the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden.
Text source and further information about the event: http://www.staatstheater-wiesbaden.de/programm/spielplan/sand-in-the-eyes-2017-2018/3857/
