The exhibition at the Beirut Exhibition Center through Aprils 19th features the work of several contemporary visual artists working in photography and video. The pieces all belong to private collections. The paper airplanes of the children of Tangiers appear alongside the work of Akram Zaatari, where Israeli war machines streak the Lebanese sky. A few steps away: a Parisian scene re-painted by Elger Esser, Ali Cherry’s sandstorm revealing a statue of Saddam Hussein, Hiroshi Sugimoto looking contemplative, and Wolfgang Tillmans playing with ink and liquid. A common thread among them is their shared history, the color of sand, and a blurry appearance.
A total of ten Lebanese collectors shared some of their most cherished pictures, accompanied by the keen eye of Jean-Luc Monterosso, director of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, who is familiar with this fundamental distinction between a public collection and a private selection. “The big difference between a private and public collection like the MEP’s, which holds some 21,000 works, the idea of a ‘favorite’ which is almost entirely non-existent for us. At the MEP, every purchase must go through a committee. You have to consider the historical importance of a work. Whereas an individual collector lives with his or her collection, and even if it changes over time, there it is on the walls of their homes.”
The panel put together by Taek Nahas, a Lebanese collector and photography fan, covers the movements that have left their mark on photography in the past 30 years. He engages with the artists regardless of their fame. The most well-known of the Lebanese is Fouad el Khoury, who “speaks” to Walid Raad, who “speaks” to the young Ziad Antar, who “speaks” to the creators of the Düsseldorf School, Bernd and Hilla Becher, masters in the art of frontal photographs of industrial structures.
Read the full article on the French version of L’Oeil.
EXHIBITION
Open Rhapsody
A journey into photography and video collections
From March 2nd to April 19th, 2015
Beirut exhibition Center
Minet Al Hosn
Beirut
Lebanon
http://www.beirutexhibitioncenter.com
