Beirut's Heartland collective - Anonymous art group shows its face

The Daily Star - June 10, 2005

In brief, an anonymous spokesman for equally anonymous artists' group, Heartland, explains that "Heartland is an art project even if our interest is political, economic or social..."
"Al-Murashah (The Candidate)" was the second Heartland intervention to take shape in Beirut. The first, "Sarraf (Exchange)," took place between August and November 2003. The group systematically stamped words on Lebanese banknotes, photocopied them, and put them into circulation. The words were meant to evoke some aspect of Lebanese popular culture, from music and food to cars and cities where high numbers of Lebanese are living abroad.

How much money did Heartland stamp? "Relatively the money that a group of a few people could spend in one month," they answer.

So, on LL20,000 notes, "Mercedes" and "Range Rover"; on LL10,000 notes, "Amr Diab" and "Wassouf"; on LL5,000 notes, "Paris," "Dubai," and "Montreal;" on LL1,000 notes, "Zaatar," "Foul," and "Rosto." On a LL50,000, one whopping word representing Lebanon's sacred summer cash cow, "Festivals." In a brief description of the project, Heartland states that the medium of money is "the simplest and most discreet way to pass on messages."

Heartland's approach is to take a chain of visual material and basically insert a blank, one synaptic misfire that exposes the others in their strangeness. They describe their work as a missing piece, but it could also be called a disruption, a tiny tear on the surface of Beirut's visual culture.

Weird. I like it. You'll probably have to read the whole article to understand it.