mo’jam al arabeia
Farah Khelil & antoine lefebvre editions

#07 —
Farah Khelil & antoine lefebvre editions,
mo’jam al arabeia, Paris, 2015,
14 x 21,3 cm, 108 pp. + 2 postcards, 2 inserts, offset, 500 copies.

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This project is the fruit of a very special encounter with an object…
After the death of her grandfather in 2012, Farah Khelil explored his library and found an old family dictionary in Arabic (Mo’jam Arabia), at least what was left of it, for it had been devoured by book eaters. She decided to collect some fragments without knowing what she would do with them. Impressed by how carefully cut the pieces were, she wanted to transform them into artworks that would honour the memory of her grandfather.

Because she knew how important the book object is in my artistic practice, she showed me the fragments and suggested that we create an exhibition about bookworms at the gallery A.GORGI in her hometown Sidi Bou Said.
The book is made from the 108 pages that hadn’t been eaten. We cleared all the text and replaced it with original content, artistic contributions and commissioned texts.

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Après la mort de son grand-père, Farah Khelil a trouvé un dictionnaire arabe dévoré par des mangeurs de livres. Elle m’en a montré les restes en me proposant une collaboration qui nous a mené à produire un livre, une vidéo et plusieurs expositions ensemble.
Le livre a été réalisé avec les 108 pages laissées intactes par le rat de bibliothèque qui a dévoré ce dictionnaire. Nous avons vidé tout le texte pour ne garder que les éléments graphiques et les vignettes, puis nous avons commandé quelques textes a des auteurs et ajouté une contribution artistique chacun.