In 2022, Hammana Artist House enters its sixth year of activity. Located in the village of Hammana, 1200m above sea level and 45 minutes away from Beirut, HAH is a multidisciplinary art residency space with a focus on performing arts. At the heart of HAH mission is the decentralization of access to the arts from Beirut, the capital, to a wider range of locations and communities in Lebanon. Under its MIMETA supported Imprint Residency Program, HAH offers residencies for local and international artists to deepen their artistic research, meet diverse audiences, develop their networks and reinforce their social engagement. Comprising spaces for rehearsals, artist hosting, scenography workshop, and an open-air theatre, HAH also proposes a year-round artistic programme under the artistic direction of Collectif Kahraba and in partnership with over 35 other organizations.
The Imprint program supports the artists in their process from the very first steps of their projects (team brainstorming, research, applications and paper writing) to the final phases of a production. It included short stays or longer residencies. Artists can apply to residencies for any of these phases. The end of residencies showings is an opportunity to convey the local audience (residents of Hammana and its surroundings, but also Beirut) invited to meet the artists, discover their work, and give feedback during these showings or simply around shared moments in the house and the village.
“Whenever a member of Hammana community comes and ask us for our support on one of their own projects, we feel it as a success in our relation to the village’s life and its residents. A healthy relation based on solidarity is growing more and more around HAH in Hammana village. HAH team supported 5 events organized by community members, either in the space itself, either in other locations”
HAH artistic direction privileges projects that involves the local community either in the research process, being facilitators for encounters, either for interviews, or sharing a workshop, creating a stronger social connection of the arts but also giving a chance to the artists to include their approach in accurate reflections about our society and its realities. Many artists are not considering the audience of rural areas or from other cities of the country. Working at HAH, it opens artists perspective on the potential of decentralized presentation, encounters with audience of these areas, the required technical adaptations to be able to tour the country, and the richness of exchanges that can happen with such audiences. In a country that is still divided by decades of civil war and a ruling class that continues to fuel sectorial divisions, such efforts fall in the sphere of civic engagement, as well as artistic one.
HAH is one of the rare structures around the country that support the dissemination of performing art works in Lebanon, logistically and financially. HAH hires artists and performances, and this in a country where the normal is that artists have to rent venues and theatres and where financial support for their work is scarce. Through its annual programming, it provides artists with an opportunity to present their work, develop a relationship with the audience and receive feedback through Q&A and informal discussions.
Through the touring around the country that Collectif Kahraba could do since many years, HAH implement outreach activities that connect artists and communities from several regions, inviting them to dive into different realities and perceptions of a common territory, while at the same time offering job opportunities to the artists through paid workshops, interventions, presentations or performances.
Considering the weakness of the academical training in arts, HAH developed a series of training residencies to develop competencies and reinforce technical and artistic skills among the active artists. These trainings are also an opportunity to restore connections among them, revive a sense of community, and connect with colleagues and potential collaborators.
