In July 1967 a marble sculpture of a bull’s head – dated c. 360 BC and 33 cm in height – was excavated from the Eshmun Temple in Saida, Lebanon. At the time, four photographs of the sculpture were taken, to be included in the inventory of the excavation. The head was looted and lost during the years of the Lebanese Civil War but in July 2017, exactly fifty years after its discovery, the sculpture reappeared, now on display in the Greek and Roman galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The next day, a legal case was set in motion for its repatriation. From this starting point, The Return uses trial transcripts and a series of interviews with key witnesses to travel across the fifty years and address the troubled relationship between antiquities and national identity. Rayyane Tabet moves in a scenic space, halfway between a courtroom and an anatomical theatre, in which we are both jury and spectators. Starting from the known elements and proceeding with great lucidity, he slowly approaches the dark years at the heart of the story. For Tabet – born in Lebanon in 1983 and currently based between Beirut and San Francisco – it becomes a way to raise questions about traceability, and what it means to protect the past for a state that does not protect its present.

The performances of The Return by Rayyane Tabet are unfortunately cancelled due to Covid 19. Ticket holders have received more information by e-mail. Info and refunds via tickets@kfda.be or +32 (0)2 210 87 37.