+ WEEPING WALLS
Weeping Walls is an ongoing documentation of the walls of Beirut I have begun in 2005 following the assassination of Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. Around this time Lebanon witnessed the simultaneous resurgence of political assassinations and various commemorative practices that flooded the walls of the city.
Victims of war, of political assassinations, the dead abound in my country. People are killed and as a tribute, their portraits are hung all over Lebanon, usually with a slogan or some message expressing the ever-lasting virtue of their sacrifice. With the pernicious passing of time, these portraits find themselves intermingled with the portraits of candidates for elections or popular singers and entertainers, on the walls of the city, the living and the dead commune in the same search for public attention. Paying tribute to the dead is a delicate matter and it often seems that instead of representing and denouncing the atrocities committed in Lebanon we are always trying to reassure the living: the show will go on. And martyrdom in this war is the highest distinction you could ever receive. The Lebanese still live in this constant morbid lottery, knowing that at any time they could be the victims of an eruption of violence. In this country the dead abound, they are called martyrs and you can find their portraits rotting on the walls...
