Biography
Laetitia El Hakim was born in Byblos, Lebanon in 1993. She is a multidisciplinary artist who studied Architecture (USEK, Lebanon, 2017), Photography (NDU, Lebanon,2020), and Dance (Al Sarab Dance School, Lebanon, 2009).
Laetitia’s artistic practice lies at the intersection of anthropology and politics. She observes and analyzes the socio-political dynamics that affect women in today’s world, as well as the metamorphosis and transformation of cultural markers in her surroundings. Unfolding through three main axes of research (Domestica(f.), Future Constructs, and On Land and Belonging), her work focuses on confronting systemic gender-based violence, the re-(writing) of histories, memory, rituals, and land. Her practice manifests through installations, performative and storytelling gestures, with photography as her primary medium. It oscillates between reality, fiction, the occult, and the fantastic. Often inspired by the written word, her work unfolds through visual narratives that aim to generate conversations around topics we tend to want to ignore.
She is part of a photographic duo with Tarek Haddad. Their work has been shown in the collective exhibitions: “Togetherness” at Galerie Tanit, Lebanon (2021); and in "Au bord du monde vivent nos vertiges” at the Abbaye de Jumièges, France (2022); in "Tashattot" at Kiosk, Ghent, 2023. They had their first solo exhibition "ebb and flow: on power and loss", at Galerie Tanit, Beirut, Lebanon in 2023 in collaboration with Elias Nafaa and curated by Marc Mouarkech. They received the Boghossian residency prize for their work in 2022, and in 2024 had a residency at the Villa Empain.
In 2021, she had a residency at Diaphane pôle photographique x Frac-Picardie,France, as part of the program “NAFAS” launched by the French Institute. She took part of a residency at the Abbaye de Jumièges in July 2022. She was selected for the Catapult-Visual’Arts Residency program where she spent August2022 at Hospitalfield and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in Scotland. She was the laureate of the residency program of the French Institute at the Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France where she was from October 2023 till April 2024.
She was selected by the “Catapult-Visual Arts” program (ArtLab x and The BritishCouncil) to develop and present her first solo exhibition “In mud, rust, andblood” in October 2022. Her project "Domestica" (f.) received the Lebanese Grant Prize at the 5th edition of "Les femmes s'exposent", Houlgate, France(2022). In 2024, she will present "Domestica (f.)" in France part of the Photaumnales organized by Diaphane pôle de la photographie.
Laetitia currently resides and works in Beirut, Lebanon.
Photo credit: © Tarek Haddad, 2021