The Model is delighted to present Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige,  I stared at beauty so much: Waiting for the Barbarians, 2013, a film made in response to the poem Waiting for the Barbarians by Constantine P Cavafy.

Both artists share with Cavafy the Middle East as a place of residence, in a period when, as the artists describe it “these days, there is the impression of a breach opening underneath our feet and the fear of being swallowed by the impossible present and the uncertain future”. Taking the poem “Waiting for the Barbarians“, the artists explore panoramic images of Beirut, shifting from mobile to immobile, and from the general to precise detail. The photography becomes strangely and disconcertedly animated while we watch it, as though time is both suspended and in motion, which creates an atmosphere of uncertainty.