Nadine Majdalani Begdache

Has the pleasure to invite you to the opening of the collective photography exhibition

On Fleeting Grounds

With artists Rima Maroun, Elsie Haddad, Lara Tabet, Chafa Ghaddar and Chaghig Arzoumanian

Wednesday January 9, 2013, starting 6 pm

In the presence of the artists

Exhibition from January 9 to January 30, 2013

 

"On Fleeting Grounds" echoes the reality of a city in flux.

Confronted by a massive wave of demolition and construction projects, Beirut currently bares witness to ongoing drastic transformation. At a very rapid pace, a major part of the architectural heritage of the city has been annihilated and substituted by imposing new buildings.

As urbanites we feel incapable of properly assimilating such turbulent dynamics. It totally escapes us. Are we losing our landmarks?

Faced with this, a feeling of impotence took hold, driving us to engage the subject visually. A spontaneous urge to collaborate with one another sprang. Thereof, our joint venture and project was conceived.

As the project came about, one constant has been, the attempt to reconstitute the traces of what is lost, and to palpate the marks of what may soon be no more.

Spaces seemed to be suspended, fleeing towards oblivion. And the bodies within seemed disfigured, doomed to wandering.

How do we resurrect our landmarks again when they have simply disappeared?

It seems the only way we can reconcile with this city is by imagining it.