Mona Hatoum’s video work The Negotiating Table documents her 1983 performance of the same name. The Lebanese artist created the piece as a critical response to Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. For three hours, Hatoum lay nearly motionless atop a table, covered in blood and entrails and wrapped in plastic. Her naked body was illuminated by a light bulb; the rest of the room was bathed in darkness. Excerpts of radio news reports on the Lebanese Civil War were played in the background. The film condenses the performance into around twenty minutes.
It begins silently with a close-up of the artist’s blood-soaked body, which gives viewers the impression that they are staring into an open corpse. Gradually, the camera pulls back to reveal the entire figure within the context of the dark room. The volume of the audio increases at roughly the same pace, with Western politicians’ promises of peace echoing louder and louder alongside the reports on the war. In this performance, Hatoum uses her body as a metaphor for the circumstances of the Lebanese people, who had been reduced to political pawns.
