Nothing to Declare

Cross-border train connections

Inspired by an old map of the Middle East that shows the cross-border rail link between Damascus and Medina, a journey that could be traveled without a visa, Dictaphone Group set out to explore the disused railway network in current Lebanon.

Starting in Beirut, the three members of this research and performance collective each followed a different railway track and found old train stations, some of which were abandoned and others which had at one time been converted into military bases or even torture chambers.

The video installation Nothing to Declare deals with the significance of borders in Lebanon, between neighboring countries, and in the Arab world.

• Dictaphone Group is a research and performance collective that creates live art events based on multidisciplinary study of space.