Transdisciplinary+multimedia artist
Of What Remains
Of What Remains is a Beirut-based transdisciplinary and multimedia project which presents a war-torn city through a publication, a photography series and a documentary. It seeks to bring forward the subjectivity that war ruins can hold through personal memories.
With putting imaginary -or supposed- memories into poems, like fragments, this project emphasizes on the ethereal aspect of memories. The relationship between space, memory and architecture is questioned on the individual level to attempt a recollection of collective memories.
The first part of the project started in 2016 with documenting the remainings of the Lebanese civil war frontline that used to divide Beirut in two parts. It lead to a publication gathering writings as well as the photographs around those ruins. This visual journey through the past led the artist to do a field research by collecting memories of people who both have and haven't lived the war.
Attempting to do an archeology of the individual memories as to find a new way of talking about war and creating archives of the present.
Publication
Of What Remains, publication, edition of 100 copies, Motto Books, 2016
Documentary
Of what remains documentary is a transdisciplinary and multimedia work that gathers moving images, sound design and writing. The relationship between space, memory and architecture is questioned on the individual level as to attempt a collective construction of memory. It seeks to bring forward the subjectivity that ruins can hold through memories through images that reminds us archives. This visual journey displays the remaining buildings of the old war frontline that was dividing Beirut in two. The whole project is first based on ethnographic research by collecting memories of people who both have and haven't lived the war. Those are put into perspective with theoretical quotes taken from the fields of sociology, psychology and history. The narration itself is a combination of poems that emphasize on the ethereal aspect of memories as well as an analytical text that is the common thread of the narration. This archeology of memories attempts to bring new perspectives in the dialogue about war, not based on facts or sides but based on emotions. To understand History one must acknowledge the pain it holds.
Photography series
Of What Remains (series), black and white photography, 2017