On the one hand, the supposedly impossible meeting between Gamal Abdel Nasser and Rafic Hariri, two deceased political leaders, and on the other, the photos of Hezbollah 'martyrs' plastered in the streets of Beirut, provide the speaker with material to develop observations whose implausibility in no way detracts from their relevance.

The idea behind Rabih Mroué's "non-academic lectures" is to hijack the principle of the lecture, by imitating its structure, with a view to performance. The idea is not to deride the principle of the lecture, but rather to exploit the power of the exercise as a public address, through a deliberate shift in ambiguity, from presentation to representation, from the real to the imaginary. The illusion is unsettling, the tone is neutral, the expertise seems proven, the supporting documents suggest authenticity: this is the aim of the game, by turns mischievous, moving and intellectually stimulating.

* Words collected by Tony Abdo-Hanna for the Festival d'Automne 2024 / Portrait Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué