Following the success of her previous exhibition at B21 in 2007, Lebanese photographer Nadine Kanso continues to explore her identity as a fully modern Arab woman in ‘Rewind: Ya Zaman'. 

Kanso's photo-assemblages, created from carefully collected images and documents, celebrate the cultural and political icons from the Arab nationalist movements of the 40's, 50's and 60's. Against this background, modern Arab passers-by are flanked by an array of over-sized luxury goods and arresting road signs. The electrifying contrast of her images attends to the importance of that cultural legacy for a contemporary Arab society besotted by consumerism and spectacle.

Ten individual backdrops, deftly woven from newspaper clippings, photo-portraits, and mementos of times past, tell the stories of noted musicians, politicians, writers, and revolutionaries from across the Arab world. Kanso brings to life an impressive array of potent personalities, such as George Habash, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Umm Kulthum or King Mohammed V, who all contributed to the strengthening of an Arab identity in very different ways.

Her works are at once palpable testimony to the vitality of Arabic culture and probing commentary of a society too-often indifferent to its past. Kanso reproaches this lackluster attitude as she manifests the potency of identity and memory.

The twenty multi-layered photo-assemblages that constitute Rewind Ya Zaman seek interpretation but demand a fundamental comprehension. Rewind Ya Zaman reflects the profound interest Nadine Kanso has not only in Lebanese (and Arab) modern history but also in the fate of her fellow Arabs today.