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Lebanon: Photo exhibit captures changing Armenian quarter

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  • Lebanon: Photo exhibit captures changing Armenian quarter

    Los Angeles Times
    Aug 1 2009



    LEBANON: Photo exhibit captures changing Armenian quarter


    A rare photo exhibition and film festival explores the ups and downs
    of Beirut's Armenian suburb as it undergoes a transition that has the
    potential to either help or alienate residents who have already
    endured decades of marginalization.

    "Badguer," which takes its name from the Armenian word for "image,"
    opened last week with a performance from an Armenian rock band and
    features a number of foreign and local artists. Babylon & Beyond
    visited the exhibition on a recent warm evening and found a lively mix
    of local families and young, stylish Beirut residents. Bits of
    Armenian, Arabic, French and English could be heard over the strains
    of a young man's violin. Please watch the video above for interviews
    and a tour of the exhibit.



    Until recently, the quaint streets of Bourj Hammoud, the bustling,
    mostly Armenian neighborhood just east of Beirut, were practically
    unknown to the well-heeled Lebanese and Persian Gulf tourists that
    crowd the capital's cafes and shops in summer.


    But as Beirut's galleries, bars and cultural spaces creep ever
    eastward in the search for cheaper real estate, Bourj Hammoud is
    emerging as a destination for its distinctive food, bootleg DVDs and
    fine metalwork in gold and silver.

    The municipality, meanwhile, is hoping this new interest will
    translate into sustained support for local cultural and artistic
    initiatives.



    "Badguer" is currently being staged on the grounds of an old pipe
    factory in the heart of Bourj Hammoud, a setting which lends itself
    well to the themes of memory and transformation.

    Arpina Mankasarian, the chief engineer at the Bourj Hammoud
    Municipality and a primary organizer of the event, said it was
    important that the show depict the community truthfully.

    `People said, `It's a very good project, but it's very sad -- you have
    sad pictures,'' she recalled. `I said, `This is the reality. Sad, and,
    the reality.'

    Work like that of photographer Sintia Karam, who did a series of
    poignant portraits of the residents of Sanjak, the last Armenian
    refugee camp in Lebanon, raise uncomfortable questions not only for
    the community but also for its religious leaders and
    politicians. Sanjak is home to about 50 impoverished families who will
    be homeless when the municipality carries through on its plan to
    demolish the camp and build a shopping center.

    "I just hope the leadership realizes how important this is and allows
    us to continue," Mankasarian added.

    Jeanette Zamaroud, a 32-year-old homemaker who lives in Bourj Hammoud,
    agreed. Zamaroud, who was accompanied by her young son and daughter,
    said it was important for the community to be exposed to something
    new.

    `We don't have exhibitions like this in the neighborhood,' she
    said. `They should do more so that our children develop and see what
    is going on in the country.'

    For the artists, especially those who grew up in Bourj Hammoud,
    participating in the exhibition was a cathartic experience.

    Tamara Stepanyan's thoughtful installation "My Beiru" deals with
    longing and emptiness by re-creating elements of the artist's first
    encounter with Bourj Hammoud after emigrating from Armenia in 1994
    after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    "It's very hard to be an Armenian from Armenia in Lebanon, especially
    the first years," she said. "It's my life I'm presenting here, all the
    pictures, all the letters, they're very personal things [...] for me
    it's like a treatment; I'm dealing with my past."

    "It had to come out some time," she added, smiling.

    -- Meris Lutz in Beirut

    Video: A report on an exhibition chronicling Lebanon's Bourj Hammoud,
    an Armenian district. Credit: Meris Lutz / For Babylon & Beyond

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbey ond/2009/08/lebanon-photo-exhibition-captures-chan ging-armenian-quarter.html
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