Beyrouth détruite. Interférences entre images, émotions et temps

Abstract

On August 4, 2020, an explosion ravaged a part of Beirut, many times related to destruction. By trying to be as close as possible to this disaster, the artist Lamia Ziadé creates Mon Port de Beyrouth. This illustrated story relates her experience of the event, lived only through images from the media and social networks – which she redraws, putting the trauma at distance. Ten years earlier, another Lebanese artist, Lamia Joreige, invents the disappearance of Beirut in 2058. After the dramatic events that occurred between 2005 and 2010 in Lebanon, she exteriorizes her fears by projecting the city into a post-apocalyptic future. The possibility of a conjuration of catastrophe will be examined with this two works, through interferences – considered as resonances and setting in motion – between images, emotions and events (past, present, future). Ziadé and Joreige also question the fate of their city, and the possible need of destruction for resurrection – of Beirut as of Lebanon.