Alice Magghabb: Nothing more than a tree can withstand
50 artworks in the exhibition "This Cedar That Cuts"
Among the works of the exhibition, which seeks to be a space of hope.
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The artist, Alice Maghbab, cries neither grief nor joy, and mixes in a plastic and photographic exhibition the grief and destruction of Beirut with the memory of the outbreak of its uprising one year ago.
With a quiet face topped by a few smiles drawn with a feather of sadness, the owner of the exhibition, which bears her name, spends a whole day explaining to the visitors of "Maghbeghab Gallery" the story of an exhibition that rose from among the rubble titled "This Cedar That Is Cut".
The exhibition contains more than 50 artworks that embody, with multimedia paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, videos or comic strips, trees with all their stories of hidden meanings, existential messages and human anecdotes.
In the exhibition, which will continue until December 31, Maghbagh brings together 14 artists from Lebanon, Italy and France, among them the Lebanese artists: Etel Adnan, Hoda Kassatly, Nadim Asfar, and the Belgian Pascal Corsel.
The exhibition also comes days after scenes of fire that devoured the vast green areas of Lebanon and turned many forests and woods to ashes.
And to prevent artworks from being indulged in urban firewood, Alice Maghbegb decided to convert her exhibition in the center of the Lebanese capital into a place of hope after it was completely destroyed in the wake of the August 4 explosion in Beirut.
Mughabbab did not hesitate to recount her story with her exhibition, which was inaugurated the day before yesterday, and shed tears several times upon admitting to the visitors that she had decided not to rebuild the gallery after seeing the extent of the destruction that had befallen it, especially since it restored it more than once in the past years after its exposure The capital to various violent strikes.
“I did not act on that terrible day, but tried very hard to provide relief to my children, dozens of wounded people, who were bleeding and screaming in fear in the building, as well as in the surrounding neighborhoods,” Maghbagh said.
But my decision was firm between myself and myself: I will close the gallery.
I comforted myself that I repeatedly tried to contribute to creating a selective cultural atmosphere in the capital, through international and local exhibitions, as well as through the art festivals that I had founded over the years.
But it is time to surrender ».
And it did not take long days until she regrouped her powers and spent a long time between the walls of her exhibition, which was elegant and decorated with books and paintings, adding: “I went back to see what I could do with the rest of the paintings, pictures, tapes and sculptures. I sent them abroad, trying to keep some of them attached. With the memories that she carries between the covers of her virtual stories ».
And she continued: “I considered it a message so that I would not give up and admit to myself that I had repeatedly tried to emigrate, but I always came back to my country crying and asking him to forgive me for leaving him, as if I was new to the beloved reality that I deserted in a fleeting moment of affliction.”
As for the trees, for Maghbib, they embodied the idea of clinging to the roots, clinging to the ground and creating a home in the midst of the destruction.
And she adds: "Nothing more than a tree is able to withstand the storms, madness and whims of nature."
Seeing that life has changed after the fourth of August, "and we are no longer like ours," she decides that she will not immigrate and will restore the gallery.
1st Anniversary
The exhibition coincides with the first anniversary of the protests in Lebanon, and comes more than two months after an explosion in the Beirut port, which killed about 200 people, and destroyed several areas of the capital.
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