Anonymous Artist Turns Election Poster Garbage into Powerful Art in Beirut

Anxiety and disgust spiked in the weeks running up to the severely disappointing parliamentary elections in Lebanon, thanks to the horribly lame, ugly and dishonest election campaigns that littered our streets, buildings and trees.

Candidates are supposed to make sure all their horrible faces are removed from our eyesight after the elections are over, but just like they neglect the duties misguided people elected them for, they neglected to remove their photo-chopped faces from our streets.

Earlier tonight, I was going back home, and while walking on Pasteur Street, I noticed this epic collage:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjFnBadHEFs/?taken-by=ginoraidy

Then, a few hundred meters down the street, I saw another one:

Art with a Message

Too often these days, folks are discouraged by art that is obscure and way too abstract. Too much input from the artist is needed before you wrap your head around what he or she is trying to say.

These collages are the perfect example of art that has a message, that needs no further elaboration to click in viewers’ minds. The artist took garbage left over on our walls after the elections, and transformed them into a beautiful, funny and poignant message that is relevant in Lebanon today, especially for young Lebanese.

Civil Marriage, Now.

Sectarianism is the stage 4 cancer that has metastasized in every nook and cranny of our country. From politics, to basketball games, awards ceremonies and family dinners. No matter how much we try to change that, or condemn it, or claim to be against it, the fact of the matter is that as long as personal status laws are governed by religious courts and institutions, sectarianism will always be the stick in Lebanon’s bike wheels.

How can a country’s citizens feel equal if we have 18 different laws that govern their personal lives and relationships, who they marry, what they inherit and who gets custody of their kids? How can we expect sectarianism to fade, if we need to force a man or woman to change their sect in order to be with the person they love? How can our communities become closer, if it’s illegal for them to mix without bowing down to archaic religious laws with no proper civil government oversight?

Lebanon needs civil marriage, and most of the politicians who ran in the past elections promised to make at least voluntary civil marriage a thing. This artist’s collage was a subtle, yet brutal reminder of that.

Here’s to hoping this becomes more than a dream and a nice mural on Beirut’s streets. Here’s to civil marriage happening on Lebanese soil, in front of Lebanese courts, instead of in Cyprus or Greece.

Yazan Halwani Immortalizes “West Beirut” Movie in a Gorgeous Mural on the Former Green Line

Yazan is an old friend from back in my AUB days. He even designed one of my blog headers a few years back. Last Friday, Yazan completed his latest masterpiece, a mural near Sodeco Square, on the former “Green Line” that used to divide Christian East Beirut, and Muslim West Beirut.

The mural is part of a larger project called “White Wall” by the Institut Francais du Liban (the cultural arm of the french embassy) and Goethe Institute.

The Premise: West Beirut 27 Years After the End of the War

Ziad Doueiri’s “West Beirut” is a classic movie all of us have watched time after time, and reflected on how the situation back in the 70s, is still relevant and significant today. Tarek is a young Muslim boy, and the movie revolves around him and a young Christian girl called May, whose family sought refuge in West Beirut.

In Yazan’s own words:

The mural is a reminder of Lebanon’s post-war settlement: a political system built on sectarianism and business interest that blocks true national cohesion. The persistence of the current political class in fueling sectarian grievances and obstructing the rule of law reflects in the ever-growing government debt, absence of basic services and limited civil rights. Case in point, 27 years after the end of the Civil War, with the absence of civil marriage Tarek and May would not be able to get married if their story had continued (…in the way I imagine).

Below are some making-of shots. If you want to see it live, make sure you go down to Sodeco, and walk towards the National Museum (Mathaf) area, and it’ll be on your right hand. It’s important to note that the “Noueiri” building that features this mural, suffered heavy damage during the Lebanese Civil War, and was rebuilt after, making it the perfect canvas, in the perfect location, for such a powerful message.

20 Gorgeous Murals in Ouzai’s Ouzville District

Ouzville is a project I’m really excited about. I had heard about world-renowned Retna painting a part of it a while back, and home-grown legends Ashekman more recently. So, on Saturday, I went down to have lunch with Ashekman’s Omar in the area. We also met Ayyad Nasser, the man behind this initiative, who was hosting several donors, collaborators and artists commissioned for ongoing and upcoming pieces over lunch too.

Nasser’s plan is ambitious, and he’s been working on it for almost 2 years. The initial plan was to fly in renowned street artists to come and create art on the mounds of garbage most of Lebanon was drowning in in 2015. However, by the time the project kicked off, the garbage was being removed off the streets, hidden from our eyes, but not from the smells that greet us at Beirut’s Southern and Northern entrances every day since…

The artists were excited to come tag Beirut with their work, so Nasser tried to find a part of the city that would be open to being slowly transformed into a go-to destination for urban art enthusiasts everywhere. And that’s how Ouzville was born.

Nasser’s plans extend beyond that, and he hopes Ouzville will remind Lebanese that there is a lot more that unites, than divides them. It’s his way of giving back to community, an attempt to leave the world a little better than when he first got here.

Of course, I can already hear some of you typing up comments about how painting graffiti on a neglected community won’t really help pull the area out of its tough socioeconomic situation. True. But, art never hurt anyone, and the fact the area is quickly becoming a hot destination for these colorful murals by artists from around the world, it’s certain that more people will be willing to let go of their prejudices about the area and come down and spend a few hours walking around, having a meal, looking for old villas nestled on what used to be the seashore and maybe having a freshly-squeezed cup of juice as airplanes land a few hundred meters next to you.

Here are some photos I took while I was there. I will be regularly checking up on the project and updating you guys with photos!

Ashekman Are Planning To Do Graff You Can See From Space in #Ouzville

The second Ashekman posted this photo, I immediately called up Omar to find out more about this extremely massive project.

The idea is to paint the roofs of a several hundred houses and buildings in the Ouzai area of Beirut, next to the airport. It’ll be an awesome kufic style (the same style they designed my tattoo with, which I absolutely adore) word that planes landing in Beirut will get to see, a beautiful welcome to Beirut!

The word is “Salam”, Arabic for “Peace”, and the point is to try and shed the negative war connotations people unfortunately still have about Beirut!

I will be going down to the site on Saturday with Ashekman, and I’ll update you guys with all the details and plenty of photos from there. I smell a Guinness World Record brewing, but the kind that doesn’t involve Tabbouleh or Hummus!

Ouzville: Ashekman’s New Mural in the Heart of Ouzai

I love Ashekman. I have all their clothes, know all their murals, heck they even designed one of my three tattoos.

Last week, the twins reunited in Beirut to paint this beautiful Grendizer mural in the heart of Ouzai, just a stone’s throw away from the airport.

This comes weeks after Retna painted one of his masterpieces in an Ouzai public school. These magnificent murals are part of an awesome initiative by Ayad Nasser, who hopes to turn Ouzai into a mural heaven, and a street art destination like Wynwood is in Miami, or Bushwick in Brooklyn, or Christiania in Copenhagen.

What’s nice is that if you’re flying into Beirut, the chaotic mess of concrete is slowly becoming more colorful, and full of life instead of the dusty grey.

This project might not solve the underlying problems neglected neighborhoods like Ouzai have faced for decades. Ouzai is a neighborhood most of you pass through on the way to the airport, but never really venture into and explore.

I hope this project will make more people wanna visit, and more artists come and transform its buildings into colorful works of art. Omar from Ashekman tells me there’s an awesome fish sandwich restaurant in the area. I’m gonna try to go down with them, see the work firsthand and understand more about this ambitious project. Oh, and to try that fish place too.

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