GREGORY BUCHAKJIAN, ‘Abandoned Dwellings: A History of Beirut’
ABANDONED DWELLINGS: A HISTORY OF BERUIT
Size: 24 x 29 cm
Pages: 240
Published by Kaph Books, 2018
Over the past 150 years, Beirut has witnessed a cycle of unbridled growth, war, economic and social crises and migratory movements. It is in this territory ceaselessly destroyed and rebuilt, broken and regenerated, that Gregory Buchakjian has undertaken an artistic project and a research devoted to abandoned dwellings. Disclosing the survey of 744 buildings, the collection of archives and testimonies, a PhD thesis and the creation of photographic tableaux with the subjects surrounded by sagging furniture and mounds of rubbish, the process that constitutes the present book proposes new perspectives towards the city as well as instruments to reclaim it at times it is confronted with various forms of violence.