Beirut Arts Lift Off with Political Gallery Show

How about a jam session of Israeli bombs accompanied by the trumpet? Or maybe an Andy Warhol-like pink pop work of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah?

The devastating summer war between Israel and Hezbollah has inspired a multimedia exhibition opening Beirut's artistic season at one of the Lebanese capital's leading galleries, Espace SD.

"We wanted to create a platform for artists, poets, writers and film-makers to share their work produced during or in reaction" to the July/August war, said gallery director Sandra Dagher.

"Nafas (breath of) Beirut," which runs until Nov. 17, features work by more than 40 artists, many of them under 30.

The event also offers a series of events including video screenings, concerts, poetry readings and a lecture on the oil spill along Lebanon's coast since Israeli air raids destroyed seafront fuel tanks south of Beirut.

"The Beirut art scene had been witnessing a real revival before the war," Dagher said.

"After the events, we wanted to create a new dynamic. We launched this exhibition, but it is not about militant art: It allows artists to bear witness to the war in their own way."

The works are not of bloody or graphic scenes, but rather expressions of personal anger, sadness or despair at the horrors of the war and the hardship of forced exile.

Sintia Karam searched for her native Beirut in a series of artistic photographs of Berlin while in exile in Germany during the war. She also shot sandbags, military servicemen and news bulletins about Lebanon on plasma television screens in the subway.

On a television screen, Randa Mirza shows a "self portrait with remote control" showing her next to a dead child on a stretcher. She stares back at the viewer while pressing the remote control, as if freezing the moment.

Scattered on the floor of one side of the gallery lie photocopies of leaflets dropped by Israeli warplanes during the war to warn Lebanese citizens.

Artists Fadia Kisrwani Abboud and Maissa Alameddine invited visitors to take one of the leaflets stamped in red with "return to sender," write a message back to Israel and slide it into a box. They plan to send these messages to Israel's defense ministry.

Hala Dabaji's drawing on canvas shows eight identikit satirical drawings of "politicians responsible or accomplices of the war against Lebanon."

They group U.S. President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, U.S. ambassador to the UN John Bolton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, his Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and army chief of staff Dan Halutz.

On one large wall, a glittery pop-art portrait in bright colors of Hezbollah's chief looks at visitors with a broad smile. It reads: "superstar."

"I chose him smiling because he is always portrayed with a stern look. I chose pink because I feel it is the color of my generation. It catches the attention quickly and it is not a solid color," she said.

A dark room at the gallery throws back visitors into the realm of war through music.

Mazen Kerbaj's piece—made up of real sounds of Israeli bombing and his own improvised trumpet tunes—was recorded live on the balcony of his flat in Beirut on the night of July 15-16.

News bulletins, slogans and songs recorded during the war are mixed, manipulated and scratched by audio-visual artist Raed Yassin into a composition which wounds like someone surfing radio waves during the war.

by Nayla Razzouk, Copyright 2006 Agence France Presse