Dia Mrad: Essay;
Power Shifting (2024)
70x70cm, Fineprint on archive paper
In Beirut, however, the adoption rate of solar energy is lower than in the periphery, despite the capital’s greater financial capacity to invest in such a transition. This disparity stems from factors such as limited space, restrictive rental laws, and, most significantly, the historical neglect of the periphery by centralized governance, which has historically concentrated its focus on the capital. This neglect has forced the periphery to become more independent, with most solar investments occurring on a micro-scale, whether at the household level, in factories, or in residential compounds.
The capital’s lower adoption rate of solar panels reflects a preference for returning to a former dependency on the Lebanese government as the primary energy provider, rather than fully embracing alternative solutions. The Utilities series, including Power Shift, seeks to explore these dynamics and consider what lies beyond our confrontation with the solar panel, both as an aesthetic object and a technology.
One can draw parallels with the narrative of Solaris. This relationship between technology and the underlying issue is best exemplified in the story, or stories, of Solaris. Both Lem and Tarkovsky produced works that transcend the cold sci-fi genre, in literature and film, respectively. One interpretation of Solaris views the planet/ocean as an embodiment of the Lacanian Other, an alien entity that structures and shapes reality. This is a fitting analogy to how many Lebanese perceive their government: an Other, distant, unaccountable, and beyond their grasp or influence. While Enlightenment ideals promised states as participatory systems managing communal resources, citizens often find them to be alien instruments of power, perpetuating property relations and economic inequality.
What is interesting in this tale is why Beirut, as the capital, did not resolve its confrontation with the Other/Government as effectively as the periphery. The Lacanian perspective falls short of explaining the unfolding reality. To grasp the emotional and psychological dimensions of governance and citizen engagement in Lebanon, the government must embody a complex interplay of symbolic authority and the desire for security, specifically energy security and distribution.
Kristeva’s Black Sun illustrates this in her post-structuralist approach to psychoanalysis: the subject, even after entering the symbolic order of law and norms, continues to oscillate between this order and the semiotic, pre-Oedipal aspect of the Other. The pre-Oedipal stage is marked by a strong connection to the maternal figure before the child’s separation into social norms. The subject remains “in process,” unconsciously drawn to the semiotic, desiring reunion with it as it represents security.
Just as the pre-Oedipal stage fulfills the child’s needs through the mother, a functioning government meets citizens' essential needs, playing a semiotic role distinct from the symbolic order.
When citizens realize the limitations of government, they enter a depressive position of conflict and contradictions, one that does not necessarily lead to a final resolution. Kristeva recognizes the persistence of unresolved issues and complex dialectics. This methodology is central to the ideation of Power Shifts.
The key observation, the significant discrepancy in adoption rates between Beirut and the periphery, can be perceived as longing for governmental support, hoping it will eventually return. People find themselves in a position of unresolved and latent desire for the previously idealized role of the state, which prevents them from fully embracing new solutions and resolving the situation completely. Solar panels, as objects that drew attention based on their aesthetics, now reveal an unresolved contradiction.