The event organised at art centre Ashkal Alwan (Beirut) on May 14–16 2015, represents both the beginning of The Against Nature Journal and the conclusion of the first phase of research of the project, called Manufacturing of Rights. Over the course of this three-day public conference, participants were invited to share legal cases, both historical and contemporary, referring to Nature in the form of short speeches, lecture-performances, audio pieces and films. The booklet of the event can be downloaded here.

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PROGRAMME

Thursday, May 14

5.30pm: Forewords
— Christine Tohmé (Ashkal Alwan); Bente Scheller (Heinrich Böll Stiftung - Middle East Office); Sandra Terdjman 2 (Council); David Kim; Lawrence Abu Hamdan, and Nizar Saghieh (Legal Agenda)

Moderated by Tarek Zeidan

— Case #7: A Tale of Two Judgments: Between Empathy and Contempt, video-letter by Arvind Narrain 3
— Case #12: The Petitioner’s Case, lecture by Eric Gitari 4
— Discussion

7.30pm: Screening
Introduced by Maya Mikdashi and Carlos Motta

— Case #5: Deseos / رغبات, premiere screening of Carlos Motta’s film
— Discussion

Friday, May 15

2.00pm - 3.30pm: First Sequence
Moderated by Grégory Castéra

— Case #4: Dahdah Verdict, co-intervention by Lawrence Abu Hamdan & Marwa Arsanios
— Case #8: Another Earth, reading by Émilie Notéris
— Case #3: The Case for Di Aping, lecture by Adrian Lahoud
— Discussion

4.00pm - 5.30pm: Second Sequence
Moderated by Maya Mikdashi

— Case #2: Indecencies, lecture by Nayla Geagea
— Case #1: Chlordécone, video-letter by Vanessa Agard-Jones
— Case #11: The Intermorphs, reading by Ashkan Sepahvand
— Discussion
— Video Case: Toxic, screening of Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz’s video (2012, 13 min)5

Saturday May 16

11.00am - 12.30pm: Third Sequence
Moderated by Carlos Motta

— Case #6: The Dekwaneh Case, lecture by Karim Nammour
— Case #10: Unnatural Bodies, Desires, and Devotions, lecture by Zeb Tortorici
— Case #9: God, Nature, and the Nature of God, video-letter by Linn Tonstad
— Discussion

1.30pm - 3.30pm: Workshop For the Collective Writing of the Online Data Platform
Moderated by Youmna Makhlouf, David Kim, Sandra Terdjman and Grégory Castéra 6

4.00pm - 5.00pm: Conclusions
Introduced by Youmna Makhlouf and David Kim
— Concluding remarks by Council