Lara Habib Kobeissi: In Conversation
- Date
- Wednesday 11 Jun 2025
- Venue
The Garrett Centre
- Address
117A Mansford Street, E2 6LX
- Timings
7-9.30pm (doors open 6.30pm)
- Price
- Free
LADA is partnering with Shubbak Festival 2025 to co-present Lara Habib Kobeissi’s Nazar, a one-to-one VR performance that engages all five senses in a transformative ritual rooted in protection practices from Southern Lebanon.
Join us on Wednesday 11 June for an in conversation between Lara Habib Kobeissi and Shubbak festival director Alia Alzougbi, exploring Lara’s process of making Nazar, including the movement from archival research to intimate world-building through virtual reality, ritual and touch.
The talk will look at digital archiving as an act of soft resistance, aimed at restoring collective memory and intangible heritage.
LADA has a long history of collecting research and documentation on one-to-one performance encounters. Our Study Room Guide on One to One Performance offers a list of some of the materials available in our Study Room, alongside a series of reflections of artists who make performances for an ‘audience of one’.
Nazar is generously supported by the British Council, Arts Council England, B3 Media, and Arab Fund for Arts & Culture.
Biographies
Lara Habib Kobeissi is a socially-engaged creative practitioner and XR Artist born in Beirut, now based in London. Her interdisciplinary practice draws on multi-sensory performance, interactive storytelling and game mechanics to explore new and existing methodologies of care and connection. Lara holds a postgraduate degree in Fiction and Entertainment from SCI-Arc, LA (2018) and has participated in creating boundary-breaking projects at the intersection of archival research and emerging technologies including StoryFuture’s StoryTrails and Studio ANRK’s There Exists.
Alia Alzougbi is a cultural strategist, artist and facilitator working at the intersection of art and social and environmental justice. Her practice uses the arts to interrogate the fundamental causes of inequality and explore alternative modes of understanding the world and being in it, foregrounding dignity for all beings and Earth, our only home. Alia is the Artistic Director and CEO of Shubbak Festival.
Lara Habib Kobeissi Nazar, credit Sara Sbeity
Access Information
Event Information
This is a seated event, various seating options will be available including fold out chairs, office chairs, a sofa and a bench. All are welcome to join in a relaxed space and are free to come and go as they please. The lighting will be fixed with no sudden changes and microphone amplification will be used. There are disposable masks and hand sanitiser available. Please be aware that the event will be audio recorded.
LADA space
The building is wheelchair accessible by lift and provides a wheelchair accessible ground-floor bathroom. All bathrooms are gender inclusive. There is no isolated quiet space inside, but there is a small quiet outdoor area. Some of the art on display in the space includes naked bodies. You can find more information and see photos of the space here. Should you have any particular access requirements, please email [email protected] and we will be happy to offer further support.
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