Under The Cold River Bed
- AboutUnder The Cold River Bed, 2020
Part 8 of Unconformities project
Sculpture, (resin, concrete, soil, fabric), 220 x 160 x 20 cm, 3 slide projectors
In collaboration with Maissa Maatouk, Hadi Choueiri and Karim Chaya This story unfolds in Nahr el-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, established in 1948. After a hundred-day conflict in 2007 between Fateh el-Islam and the Lebanese Army, the camp was nearly destroyed and 30,000 residents displaced. - Other Installations
As reconstruction efforts began and rubble was cleared, layers of archaeological ruins unexceptedly surfaced: the remains of the mythical Roman city of Orthosia, believed to have been destroyed by a tsunami in 551 AD. While tens of thousands awaited their return to Nahr el-Bared, Orthosia was emerging from centuries of latency. How to preserve this archaeological site while allowing for the urgent resettlement of the twice-displaced community?
In Under The Cold River Bed, the artists guided by archaeologists, present its entangled history through sculptural forms echoing both the soil and red sand used to cover the land. A slideshow of images or testimonies narrates a story that vertiginously weaves together human displacement, military conflict, and archaeological discovery.
