Galerie Tanit, a Beirut gallery that was damaged by the August 4 port blast, has reopened its doors in Lebanon. The gallery, situated less than 600 metres from the Port of Beirut sustained enormous damage to its space and artworks.
The walls have been repainted and the glass windows restored. But the builders haven’t left yet, and the sound of loud drilling reverberates from the back room. The building’s architect, Jean-Marc Bonfils, who was at home in the apartments above the gallery, died from the impact of the blast.
Gallery is reopening with an exhibition titled Togetherness featuring works of 19 artists residing in Lebanon. “A lot of young artists lived in the area affected by the blast. I had to do something for them,” says Kettaneh-Kunigk.
After an open call for submissions, 17 projects were selected by a jury, which included Kettaneh-Kunigk. In the first room, artist Rayane Raidi’s painting of stretched, interlaced bodies echoes the exhibition’s theme, which aims to “describe, question, challenge and embrace the thought of being together again”.
Many young artists and recent graduates appear in the show. “It’s an opportunity to get to know the new generation of artists, follow their trajectories and organise overseas opportunities for them,” says Kettaneh-Kunigk. “They are Lebanon’s future.”
Artist Elias Nafaa developed a light installation on the changing nature of private and public spaces as a result of the pandemic. Nafaa says coronavirus-related restrictions gave him the “comfort of stepping away from the world to take a pause”. But, he says, “our intimate private spaces were invaded with work calls, and the voyeurism that came from working from home”.
The interactive installation consists of moveable white cubes with coloured lighting, and was made using textures and materials commonly found in the home. “It’s a playful piece that encourages viewers to participate and rethink how we live together,” says Nafaa.
Maysa Al Khoury, 24, produced a photo and video installation about the days spent in isolation with her bed-bound grandmother.
Due to the Country’s Financial crisis, many artists are struggling to purchase materials. “We’re forced to keep all our ideas on paper,” says Nafaa. The gallery, he says, supplied the resources needed for his installation.
Some chose to blend the poetic with the political. Laetitia Hakim and Tarek Haddad’s sculpture of blue jersey fabric stretched to the point of transparency evokes the horizon of Beirut’s seafront. But it also serves as an allegory for the crises that are pulling the country apart to the point of rupture.
References to the blast also appear through more personal works. Sarah Sehnaoui produced a series of ceramic objects representing the shattered fragments of a woman’s pelvis. Zeina Aboulhosn’s abstract terracotta sculptures use fragments of roof tiles sourced from a local manufacturer.
Bettina Khoury Badr presents three watercolour mosaics, based on photographs of Beirut’s sky taken daily since the start of the pandemic. The largest among them, Sky Painting (2021), is composed of 450 square watercolours of building antennas, skylines, clouds and starlit skies, arranged in a grid and a blue gradient from light to dark. A smaller painting from the previous year depicts the changing sky on the night of the Beirut blast.
Togetherness runs at Galerie Tanit in Beirut until Saturday, August 7