Beirut is a city that has many faces: An antique city, a medieval city, the city of the 19th and

20th century and a contemporary city. The Lebanese civil war but also the reconstruction period destroyed everything related to the old Beirut. Today, it remains only a little number of buildings dating from the Ottoman period. As a part of this work, I wanted to show the actual and the old city in its ugliness and in its beauty. I wanted to pay a tribute to this city, and present a series of work between acrylics painting, marker, soft and hard pastels, pencils, collages and photography to show the diversity of the city. Some of my works are related to the actual city that looks more like Dubai, but others gives a view of the old houses with their specificities, their triples arcades and their colors. In another work, I made a video named The History of Someone I used slides found in an old house, I imagined the interests, the passions, the life of the person who lived in this house. With old music partitions, found in the same house, I made a collage. Finally I inspired myself from old slides, where the subject has been totally erased and left only traces, adversely affected by the ravages of time and neglect, giving upon arrival a total abstract work. The using of those slides, permitted me to create an intimate work.

Welcome To Beirut City

Marker on cardboard 42x30 cm

This drawing represent a more smiling and cheerful image of the city and demonstrate that despite all the destructions, there is still some colored buildings,roads ,and real urbanity as a hope message supported by the use of brightly colored felt.

City

Acrylic on cardboard 40x30 cm

A acrylic representation of Beirut City.

Chaos

Collage on cardboard 40x30 cm

This collage made from photographs shows one of the darkest aspects of Beirut. A city that grows haphazardly and in the chaos in the absence of any development plan.

Windows

Collage on cardboard 40x29 cm

In this work, I dressed with images, a photograph of a house that no longer exists, taken by a photographer 30 years ago. These collages have allowed me to show the diversity and the richness of Beirut from before, the archways, wooden windows, stained glass and colored walls.

Old houses and buildings of 2 or 3 floors that were there not long ago the identity of the city are now replaced by tall buildings and skyscrapers from 10 to 40 floors. The city, like men, are now crushed by this verticality which has an important impact on the whole social life. Beirut now resembles those cities born from the desert and the emptiness. To adopt this new face she had to delete large sections of its architectural and human history. To better show the verticality I used black and white charcoal and dark colors of pastels.

Verticality 1
Pencil on cardboard 42x30 cm

Verticality 2

Hard and Soft pastels on cardboard 42x18 cm

Airplaine View
China Ink on cardboard 42x30 cm

Jbeil

Aquarelle on cardboard 42x30 cm

Some vestiges of the medieval period remain in the city. This is especially places of worship, the only elements of the ancient city, protected from destruction. In this aquarelle I wanted to show the coexistence of the old and the new.

Fast & Devastation Photograph

Lotus Photograph

THE HISTORY OF SOMEONE

A little movie made about a old house. Click on the poster or the following link to see the Video: https://vimeo.com/86916042

Music

Collage on cardboard 50x36 cm

This collage made from paper and extracts from musical scores found in a half-destroyed house, allowed me to imagine the musical tastes of the person who left it there, bringing, through writing in Arabic and French, my personal song.

Merging

Collage and Aquarelle on cardboard 42x30 cm

I used slides found in an old house to build in this drawing an imaginary city.

Work Made on Photoshop:

Rimbaud Photoshop Work

Les Fleurs du Mal Photoshop Work

Dounia Habache dhabache@gmail.com Ucas ID: 111-842-5332