“While the whole world is busy discussing what they call the ‘refugee crisis,’ we hope to remember the importance of listening to those who are really in that crisis. We also hope to remember that leaving people in limbo with few resources and rights is not a solution but an absence of one.” Dictaphone Group

Little is known about why Palestinian refugee camps are located where they are. Little is known about the trajectories of their communities. It is often assumed that, upon their arrival, refugees were transported to tents that later became “camps.”

For Camp Pause, Tania El Khoury and Abir Saksouk from Beirut-based Dictaphone Group worked with four residents of the Rashidieh Refugee Camp on the coast of Lebanon, south of the city of Tyre — a camp that has existed for generations. Reflecting on ideas of refuge and the sea that connects them to Palestine, these residents led the group from their homes to the sea. Along the way, the residents wove narratives about the history of the land, their arrival, the struggle to build, and life in a camp situated away from the city, bordered by agricultural fields, the sea, and a checkpoint.

The four videos play simultaneously on the walls of a square gallery space, each video and its accompanying audio following one story.

Presented in partnership with Bryn Mawr College as part of ear-whispered: works by Tania El Khoury.

FREE / Gallery hours

Note: Camp Pause is on display at Canaday Library Rare Book Room at Bryn Mawr College through December 14. Hours:

September 12–23
Wed–Fri: noon–10pm
Sat, Sun: 2pm–10pm

September 24–December 14
Mon–Fri: noon–4:30pm

Click here for a map to help you navigate the works on Bryn Mawr’s campus.

Video Installation by Dictaphone Group Research and Art Direction Abir Saksouk and Tania El Khoury Camera Karam Ghossein Video Editing Ali Beidoun Sound Design Majd Al Hamwi Participants Hussein al-Zaini, Khadijeh al-Masri, Hassan Ajjawi, and Zahraa Faour Commissioned by Dar el-Nimr for Art and Culture in Beirut

Photos by Tania El Khoury

Camp Pause is part of ear-whispered: works by Tania El Khoury. Major support for ear-whispered: works by Tania El Khoury has been provided to Bryn Mawr College by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

About Tania El Khoury

Tania El Khoury is a live artist whose work focuses on audience interactivity and is concerned with the ethical and political potential of such encounters. She creates installations and performances in which the audience is an active collaborator. Her solo work has toured internationally and has been recognized with Anti Festival’s International Prize for Live Art, the Total Theatre Innovation Award, and the Arches Brick Award.

Tania holds a PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research and publications focus on the political dimension of interactive live art in the wake of the Arab uprisings.

Tania is associated with Forest Fringe collective of artists in the UK and is a co-founder of Dictaphone Group in Lebanon, a research and performance collective aiming at questioning our relationship to the city, and redefining its public space.

Learn more about the artist at taniaelkhoury.com.