Section 04 — Work 2013 — 2026
Maya El Helou.

Work

Work

4.1

Performance

The Art of Small Talk

Qissa Festival, 2026

Experimental comic art stand-up, developed through a three-month workshop. The piece blends ethnography, illustrated comics, and live visual storytelling — and marks a return to public-facing art.

Qissa Photos courtesy of Qissa Festival website.

4.2

The Folder of Wonders

Untold Mag, 2024

Passing down the knowledge about what to take and what to leave behind in times of war is something no one should have to possess.

Read it at Untold Mag ↗
All comics at Untold Mag ↗

4.3

Comic art & visual ethnography

Beirut nightmares

This artwork captures the visceral emotions of people in the diaspora who witness the turmoil and devastation of wars in their homeland from afar. It holds the haunting juxtaposition of nostalgia and horror, as familiar cityscapes become scenes of conflict and destruction — a reminder of the complex emotional landscape that accompanies displacement, and the ever-present connection to one's roots.

The Face of Waiting

An exploration of how the families of Lebanon's missing and forcibly disappeared inhabit uncertainty: living rooms frozen in time, a chair worn smooth by decades of vigil beside a phone number that is never changed, in case the missing find their way home. Drawn from interviews conducted while reporting on the disappeared, the piece renders waiting as a condition that fixes bodies, rooms, and lives in place long after hope should have run out.

4.4

Awards

2023

Doria Feminist Fund Award

2017–18

Rosa Luxemburg Feminist Scribbles Book Publication Grant

2017

Long-listed: Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards

People Award, for the Feminist Killjoy page

2015

Magda Al-Nowaihi Award

Best Thesis in Gender Studies