One Guided Tour Two Exhibitions With photographers Dimitri Haddad, Alessandro Rizzi and Rawan Mazeh

The Beirut Center of Photography in collaboration with Artlab and A+ Studios invite you to join a guided tour of two ongoing exhibitions:

Concrete Chlorophilia: Beirut

Concrete Chlorophilia: Beirut is a look at where the urban meets flora. It studies the intimate relation between “Concrete” representing the Urban and its surrounding Nature.

Nec Plus Ultra is a duo collective formed by Alessandro Rizzi, urban artist and art historian, and Dimitri Haddad, a conceptual artist. Through an integrated experimental process of creation, the artists research the notion of blurred shapes and borders in the heart of the Urban.

In Their Place

In Lebanon, looking at the wars through a narrow scope, temporary media coverage of conflict often overlooks deep and lasting impacts that go far beyond wartime. Residual manifestations of war are often as powerful and as important as those direct outcomes of casualties and destroyed infrastructure. The destruction that affected homes, as well as hospitals, schools, roads, airports, power stations, fuel depots, warehouses, factories, electricity, and most of the bridges, went through an extensive reconstruction phase with time which subsequently didn’t leave behind evidence of destroyed buildings; that is to say that the remaining proof of physical destruction today is that of cluster bombs and landmines that were left by Israelis from 1978, 1982, and 2006. These bombs, left in the southern part of Lebanon still constitute a danger, given the fact that they still might explode when touched today.

Usually referred to as the aftermath, injured survivors, traumatized relatives, friends and family of martyrs, homes, and landmine-filled landscapes that might’ve been affected continuously, and throughout the years with each war, remain overlooked.

This series strives to build a bridge to tell the untold stories of those that remained in the shadows hiding and intimidated, too afraid to stand up on their own, fearing they would join those who lost their lives and suffered incomparable losses. Through this series, I put myself in their place and step in the landmine and remnant zones; I follow the memories sitting in drawers, covered with daily routine objects and belongings; and I face the human remains: injured, mentally ill, and traumatized. These memories are backed up by constant reminders saved from one generation to another, taking the form of objects which end up being considered part of their heritage and belonging.

And while life goes on, these people, memories, and places stay still, standing where their shoes were left, frozen in the past tense.

Biography:

Rawan Mazeh is a Beirut-based documentary photographer who received a bachelor in photography and multimedia with distinction from Notre Dame University in Lebanon in 2018. She took part in the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) Arab Documentary Photography Program (ADPP) in 2017. Mazeh combines her social interest in documenting to her artistic drive. Her work focuses on tracking and tracing belonging, memory and the relation between citizens and their lands.

Date: Thursday, September 27th
From 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Location: Artlab, A+ BCP in Gemmayzeh, Beirut

IMPORTANT: Seats are limited! Reserve your seat by writing to info@bcplebanon.org