If Not Now, When?

If Not Now, When? was among 20 finalist artworks that were on display at The Art of Resilience exhibition, World Bank headquarter in Washington DC, and the only one representing the Middle East region. The exhibition was curated from a global call for entries by the World Bank Art Program and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.

Cities age just like us.

We tend to think of our cities as robust structures withstanding natural disasters. In reality, their urban skin is aging, accelerating the dysfunction of their tissues and maintenance of their normal functions. In this crumpled abstraction of Beirut, I went skin-deep exploring one of the oldest cities that, according to a legend, has been demolished and reconstructed seven times. The three-dimensional fabric traces Beirut’s dilapidated urban evolution. The drawings show how Beirut’s nucleus has grown and neighborhoods evolved with a range of economic, urban, social, and cultural levels which led to a disparity in the nature of the urban fabric, threatening the disappearance of the city’s unique character and its planning and design characteristics. Some are orderly, while others are random. Some are in perfect condition and some are broken into pieces. The markings, the cracks, circles, squares, and lines symbolize the ’emotional faults’ that Beirut needs to resolve – from tempering impacts to reducing vulnerabilities and sustaining political commitment– to survive and thrive against future stresses and shocks.