Biography
palestinian - lebanese visual artist... since 2006, he has worked in more than 300 performances in Lebanon and the Arab world as a lighting designer, technical director, and performer. he collaborated with many renowned artists as Robert Wilson, Jawad Al Assadi, Andrey Barteniv, Rafic Ali Ahmad, Hiba Qawwass, rima khcheich, kamilya jubran, Tania Saleh, Nagy Souraty, Lina Abyad, adonis and others…
he participated in several local and international theatre workshops and joined many festivals in Kuwait, UAE , Bahrain, Qatar, and USA.
in 2009 and 2010, he was asked to organize two street festivals and since then he also works as a festival coordinator.
he was the technical supervisor for Babel theatre in 2010 where he proposed a revolutionary plan to improve the theatre’s technical aspects. In 2011 he supervised the technical process of creating a new dance space in Beirut (maqamat dance house)
in 2012 he was the technical advisor for the creation of a new theatre space (Babel Studio)
alaa has a BA in Communication Arts from the Lebanese American University
has a certificate to train in lighting design from RADA (Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts) after attending lighting design training of trainees workshop in light design in 2009
he directed a theatrical performance; “The Slaughter/Die Schlacht” written by Hiener muller
since 2010, alaa started experimenting with light sources in an attempt to understand their influence on stage and the surrounding. it is a simple as saying " when we don't light we don't see"... light has an unresolved mystery i am trying to understand... an attempt to understand..."
in 2012, alaa collaborated with vladimir kurumilian that led to [a piano in my pillow], a light & sound performance aiming to understand the relationship between light and sound.
in 2013, alaa launched "beyond myself…"; a light installation that was premiered in the amsterdam light festival
in 2014, alaa launched "my light is your light…"; a light installation that was premiered in the amsterdam light festival and got internationally acclaimed
in 2012, alaa started a blog named "almost there...", where he publishes notes he writes since 2007. the blog is getting a considerable number of viewers
in 2013, he launched another blog named "sharing observations", in which he publishes monthly articles about the concept, process, and technicalities of the projects he does.
recently he started a series of experimentations relating light to music, history, and space.