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Dictaphone Group

Dictaphone Group, an independent collective founded by Lebanese performance artist, Tania El Khoury  and architect Abir Saksouk, along with artist and producer Petra Serhal present interactive video installation work, 'Nothing to Declare'.

 

A research based project, 'Nothing to Declare' is set at various points  along the old Hijaz railway. Now disused, the Hijaz railway connected Damascus and Medina, transporting Muslim pilgrims through Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia without the need for visas.

 

Dictaphone Group's documented findings reveal what became of the railway and the station buildings that punctuate it. Some were abandoned while others had been turned into makeshift housing or converted into military bases with accompanying torture chambers. Elegiac, evocative and profoundly affecting,

'Nothing to Declare' is a revelation.

 

'Nothing to Declare' was developed at Watermill Centre in partnership with ArteEast. It was supported by grants from AFAC and the British Council.

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