In the project I WAS TOLD TO PATCH ALL WAKING MOMENTS, I find locations, often unexpected ones, for which I makes a tapestry. The tapestries are shaped for the specific site and placed at the locations. As time goes by, the tapestries are affected by time and weather. By using an old handcraft technique in a contemporary context, the materials reflect the passing of time and their perishability.
The tapestries challenge the common perception of our surroundings. They comment the trivial and remind us of the past. The inherent value of the art stems from the moment of its discovery by the spectator. In a context outside the Gallery a new relationship between society and art is created. It is about the discovery of beauty in unexcpected places; little secrets, traces of people, marks of history. People passing by find a minor, unexpected detail that awakes them from their automatic transport from one place to another. It is a message from an unknown messenger.
BEIRUT STREET FESTIVAL 2010
I am invited to participate with my project I WAS TOLD TO PATCH ALL WAKING MOMENTS at the Beirut Street Festival, "edition 8" in October. The locations I have chosen in Beirut are walls with traces from the war.
MEMORIES OF VIOLENCE
The city of Beirut is strongly affected by several wars, in terms of bombed out buildings and other traces of warfare. Most parts of central Beirut have still not been rebuilt after the civil war and bombed buildings have been left as monuments of the war for decades. War is death, horror and suffering. People puzzle their pieces of life back together when the war is over. They must live with uncertainty and deal with everyday challenges, under the ever-present threat of renewed violence. Many have lived like this for generations.
The ravaged locations of the city could be read as a symbol of the wounds, stories and experiences of its people. The tapestries, some of which are designed to fit and mounted in the buildings’ wounds, could in this context be conceived as a gesture to heal and repair the impact of war.
The tapestries challenge the common perception of our surroundings. They comment the trivial and remind us of the past. The inherent value of the art stems from the moment of its discovery by the spectator. In a context outside the Gallery a new relationship between society and art is created. It is about the discovery of beauty in unexcpected places; little secrets, traces of people, marks of history. People passing by find a minor, unexpected detail that awakes them from their automatic transport from one place to another. It is a message from an unknown messenger.
BEIRUT STREET FESTIVAL 2010
I am invited to participate with my project I WAS TOLD TO PATCH ALL WAKING MOMENTS at the Beirut Street Festival, "edition 8" in October. The locations I have chosen in Beirut are walls with traces from the war.
MEMORIES OF VIOLENCE
The city of Beirut is strongly affected by several wars, in terms of bombed out buildings and other traces of warfare. Most parts of central Beirut have still not been rebuilt after the civil war and bombed buildings have been left as monuments of the war for decades. War is death, horror and suffering. People puzzle their pieces of life back together when the war is over. They must live with uncertainty and deal with everyday challenges, under the ever-present threat of renewed violence. Many have lived like this for generations.
The ravaged locations of the city could be read as a symbol of the wounds, stories and experiences of its people. The tapestries, some of which are designed to fit and mounted in the buildings’ wounds, could in this context be conceived as a gesture to heal and repair the impact of war.
