WAYNOUN? / WHERE ARE THEY?
Waynoun?, 3000 names, 400 photographs, 400 large black and white balloons, acetate sheets, and plastic wrapping. Dome City Center, downtown Beirut, 2006
Waynoun? translates as Where are they? and is the name of the installation commissioned by The Committee of Families of the Kidnapped and Disappeared in Lebanon to commemorate 31 years after the start of the Lebanese war (1975-2006). The Committee asked Nada Sehnaoui to produce a work under the chosen theme of “To be remembered in order not to be repeated.” More than 3000 individuals are still missing in Lebanon, some since 1975. “Waynoun?” or “Where are they?” seemed the most pressing question to Nada Sehnaoui. Since the war ended, successive Lebanese governments have completely ignored the plight of those kidnapped and disappeared. The general amnesty law that was voted in 1991, pardoned war crimes without any material or moral compensation for victims and their families. This was a platform for the state of collective amnesia.