Shattered dreams and lost hope

 The stark pictures and his poetic yet hard-hitting words voice not just his own despair but that of an entire generation that has been waiting in vain for peace, justice, equality and hope for a better life. The message is reinforced by a specially created soundtrack playing in the background of songs from the 1960s and 1970s and speeches by leaders of those times such as Jamal Abdul Nasser, John F. Kennedy and Che Guevera on topics such as equality and justice.

Born in 1952, Elkoury is an architect by training but chose to be an artist. Today he is Lebanon's best-known photographer, an acclaimed writer and a video filmmaker. Elkoury began his artistic career by covering the 1982 Israeli invasion of Beirut. He later published a book documenting the destruction of the city. Since then his photographic subjects have ranged from documenting war-torn territories to capturing intimate personal narratives of Egyptian cinema and presenting his own take on Dubai's phenomenal growth and aspirations. His previous series On Love and War, a collection of daily journal entries and images documenting the 2006 Israeli incursion into Lebanon, was exhibited in Lebanon's first National Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale.

The thread of time

The present series is an extension of themes that Elkoury has been exploring throughout his career and many of the black-and-white and colour photographs he has used here were taken a long time ago during his travels around the world. "I thought of this title two years ago and suddenly I had a direction to work on. Then I started producing and looking for pictures that could illustrate all these different wounds in my heart and my shattered dreams," he says.

Once started, the process was almost magical. Sometimes the words were inspired by the pictures and sometimes pictures he had taken many years ago seemed to fit nicely with what he wanted to say. For instance, a picture he had taken 25 years ago of soldiers with their backs and rifles towards the camera was the perfect background for the whimsical words: "What I miss most is your incredible smile". "It does not matter where and when this picture was taken. What it says applies to any place and person affected by war," Elkoury says.

War in the Middle East is the predominant theme in this exhibition and the focus is on the deep, immeasurable effects of war on human hearts and minds. Elkoury uses a montage of pictures taken in Beirut during the ten days of the war in 2006 to highlight how the constant media attention has turned war into a circus watched by millions of spectators. And in another exhibit, he asks: "After Iraq what?", with the words scrawled in sand beside a picture of ancient ruins. Some of the pictures need no words. A statue fallen from its pedestal, a broken fence and a bent railway track going nowhere or a book lying abandoned in a field say much more than words could ever express.

As expected, Palestine features prominently among this artist's dreams that were never realised. Elkoury's pictures and words powerfully and poignantly present the Arab perspective on this issue and the enormous price that an entire generation of Palestinians has paid to seek the right to decide its own future. Born loser tells the story of a Palestinian boy who believes that the only way to achieve freedom in Palestine is not by war or negotiation but through knowledge. He works hard to win a Fulbright scholarship but he is denied this chance of a good education because the Israeli authorities refuse to give him an exit visa from Gaza.

Another montage makes a cynical comment on the West's denial to acknowledge the unfair treatment and suffering of the Palestinians. Here, Elkoury has placed a copy of a Western newspaper carrying headlines about a new road in Gaza next to a picture of a pool overflowing with water along with the words: "A thought for Palestine". One of the most thought-provoking exhibits is a photograph of a man waving a big stick at an ostrich in a cage, accompanied by the indignant and profound question: "Since when do zoo keepers negotiate with animals?" But perhaps the most unforgettable work in this series is the chilling image of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin titled Palestine 2048.

A long wait

Many of the artworks are extremely personal yet resonate with the aspirations of many. In one picture of a rear view mirror in a car, Elkoury says: "I waited all my life for Palestine to exist, for Lebanon to get rid of individualism, for a regime change in Syria, for Israel to abide by the rule of law, for a coastal highway linking Turkey to Egypt." Every viewer can identify with the sentiment expressed in the words "Without faith how can I resign to death? Without home where should I die?" The artist's disillusionment and loss of hope is apparent. And you can feel his angst and pain in the stark black frame with the simple words: "My last picture". "This is what I do when I have nothing left to hope for or to say," Elkoury says.

But the exhibition is not all dark and gloomy. Elkoury has injected a lighter note in his work with a picture of a road sign of a province called Gaza in Mozambique and pictures taken in Cuba, where the way he was treated made him feel like a colonist.

The artist takes a dig at the restrictions imposed on creativity through too many rules and regulations with a picture of an EU poster and you cannot miss the sarcasm in the picture of a hazy city titled Let's be capitalistically realistic — privatise air. Another montage of pictures of his friends interspersed with comments about their daily routine and passing thoughts makes a humorous comment on today's Twitter culture where people share every irrelevant detail of their lives with strangers.

Elkoury's next project is about Soviet military bases in Europe. Asked why his work is always about war, he says with a wry smile: "These are abandoned bases. This is not about war, it is about silence. There is too much noise in the world and I cannot hear any more. I need silence."

Jyoti Kalsi is a UAE-based art enthusiast.

What Happened To My Dreams will run at The Third Line gallery, Dubai, until December 17.