Les Brisés

(2020)

Made in the aftermath of the Beirut blast, ‘Les Brisés’ (The Shattered) was created with shards of glass collected from my damaged family home in Beirut. ‘Les Brisés’ represents a map of Lebanon that, despite being shattered, is desperately trying to stay whole. The only way the map can exist is thanks to the 204 pins holding together the shards of glass that compose it. (The pins, reminiscent of human silhouettes, represent the 204 victims of the blast (official number back in 2020)).

As I placed these pins, I wondered if the only true common experience shared amongst all the Lebanese is unjust suffering: Regardless of one’s background, we have all suffered the unfair loss of a close one, be it through wars, bombings or the explosion. Is loss the one feeling that unites us all?

My piece, ultimately, asks one question to you, its viewer: How can Lebanon ever find a way of being unified, but without depending on our collective experience of pain and loss?

Currently exhibited as part of the new exhibition ‘Lumières du Liban’ at l’Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.