Joyce Joumaa, *1998, lives in Beirut, Lebanon and Amsterdam, Netherlands
Photo: André-Marc Räubig
In her installation Periodic Sights Joyce Joumaa highlights the drastic energy crisis in Lebanon, one of the most severe and ongoing infrastructural crises of the country. The work consists of repurposed fuse boxes in which photographs of everyday motives from Beirut and Tripoli are set in: domestic scenes, rows of buildings, market places and urban spaces in-between. Joumaa focuses on how complex power, infrastructure, and social psychology are interwoven. These boxes are illuminated in real time: simulating the daily average power supply of a household in Lebanon – often not more than two hours a day. Thus, making it immediately tangible what it means to live under these structural conditions. Electric power – or rather the lack thereof – becomes a resource of social power.
The light regulation of the installation is directly connected to the exhibition booth: visitors can experience in real time how the supply of energy is rationalised and how visibility, participation, and exclusion are decided. Whoever can afford a generator or solar panels lives in the light.
In addition to the cash prize, Baloise acquires a group of works by the award winners and donates them to two important European museums. The works of Joyce Joumaa were presented to the collection of the MUDAM, Musée d'Art Moderne Grand Duc Jean, Luxembourg.
Gallery: Eli Kerr, States Montreal, Canada
This year’s jury includes: Karola Kraus, General Director MUMOK Vienna, Chair of the Jury; Bettina Steinbrügge, Director MUDAM, Luxembourg; Susanne Pfeffer, Director MMK, Frankfurt; Susanne Titz, Director Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach and Uli Sigg, Swiss Collector and patron of the arts.