 I have been collecting worthless material for almost ten years now, taking good care arranging it, documenting it, indexing it, and preserving it from any possible damage… Today I possess what resembles an archive, or let's say I possess a real archive that relates only to me: a kind of added memory that occupies different corners of my domestic space, despite the fact that I do not actually need it. It is an invented memory that is exhausting me, and which I cannot liberate myself from. For this reason, I will uncover some parts of my archive, hoping that by making it public I can get rid of its weight. This will be my attempt to destroy a memory that doesn't know how to erase itself.
- Rabih Mroué
Merging modes of documentary practice within the context of theatre, Make Me Stop Smoking continues Rabih Mroué's ongoing investigation and exploration of Lebanon, largely through the wars and political strife that has plagued the country for much of the past few decades. Challenging both the definitions of theatre as well as video and performance art, Mroué's work is a simple monologue accompanied by projected photographs, images and video works. Though broadly political in their scope, Mroué's works use the personal as a grounding point for their narratives. Make Me Stop Smoking is constructed from material drawn out of the artist's own personal archive of interviews, photographs, videos and various other materials. Jumping from the assassination of Rafik Hariri to the citizens who went missing during the Lebanese Civil Wars to photographs of manholes and street lamps, Mroué's performance investigates how we remember and understand events and occurrences from the past through the lens of the present and future.
Rabih Mroué is an actor, director and playwright born in Beirut in 1967. He studied drama at the Université Libanaise and began writing, directing and performing in his own plays, performances and videos in 1990. His works have been shown in Beirut, Cairo, Paris, Vienna, Tunis, Amman, Basel, Barcelona, Brussels and Berlin, and include: How Nancy Wished That Everything Was an April Fool's Joke, 2007; Who's Afraid of Representation, 2005; Biokhraphia, 2002; Face A/Face B, 2001; Three Posters, 2000; Come in Sir, we will Wait for you Outside, 1998; and Extension 19, 1997. Since 1995, he has been writing and directing short animated films and documentaries for Future TV in Beirut.
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