Spoleto Festival USA General Director & CEO Mena Mark Hanna has unveiled the Festival’s 2024 season poster featuring an abstract composition of mixed media on paper by visual artist Sara Chaar. The artwork, Yellow Plastic, is from the artist’s Imagined Certainty series, which reflects her native Lebanon’s turbulent history, including the recent economic collapse, the infamous explosion, and the impact of COVID-19. The poster, unveiled at the “Spoleto Piazza” (a time-delineated design for the iconic Market Circle) at The Charleston Place, is now available for purchase ($35) at spoletousa.org, at Spoleto’s ticket kiosk at the Charleston Visitors Center, or by calling 843.579.3100.
Chaar’s series Imagined Certainty uses vibrant colors and floating fantasy forms to explore how collective memory navigates paths to certainty amidst the challenges of adapting to new realities. This artistic journey contemplates the solace found in an envisioned certainty within the turbulent currents of change. Through this series, the artist invites the viewer to contemplate these imaginary forms and lines, and perhaps locate their personal emotional place of comfort and certainty.
“Sara’s work beautifully resonates with the themes we are exploring this year at Spoleto,” said Spoleto Festival USA General Director & CEO Mena Mark Hanna. “Shared humanity amidst political strife features in both our world premiere works of Ruinous Gods and The Song of Rome. We are thrilled that Sara’s work is a visual cue for these crucial conversations.”
In discussing Yellow Plastic, Chaar explained, “I am intrigued by reshaping and abstracting hidden layers, revealing my emotions through collective and personal stories intertwined within the depths of history and identity.”
Chaar (b. 1986) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, installation, and interactive projects. Chaar’s work emerges from her personal experiences that often explore themes of collective identity, memory, and the human experience within challenging socio-political contexts. Chaar has exhibited in Beirut, London, New York, Copenhagen, and Paris. Her work has also been acquired by Public Collections like the Museum of the Institut du monde arabe in Paris.
The Spoleto Festival USA Poster program is generously made possible in part by The Wayne and Alicia Gregory Family Foundation.