For Beirut with Love
Group show
Opera Gallery, Beirut
2020
In the wake of the terrible incident that deeply impacted Beirut on the 4th August 2020 and destroyed an important part of the heart of the city, Opera Gallery had to respond…
Not only because our Beirut location is located in the perimeter of the explosion, but because it is one of the crucial missions of Art to convey messages.
Today, we wish to express love. Our love for Beirut, our love for Art, and our love for all the Beauty there is in this world.
Since the dawn of times, Beirut has always been a unique location. Inhabited since before 5000 BCE, it is one of the most ancient cities in the world, showing that its pristine location always was ideal to mankind. Throughout our country’s hectic history, Beirut fell, then rose again.
Long before being the Pearl of the Middle-East, Beirut was a phoenix. Today, we still believe in its resilience, in its power to rise from its ashes. It is to contribute to this rebirth that Opera Gallery Beirut organises an exceptional show: eleven artists have generously donated artworks for Lebanon.
Paintings, sculptures, photographies, all mediums are gathered under this powerful message of Love we wish to give. We are so very grateful for the artists’ contribution.
All the proceedings of this exhibition will go to a selection of esteemed Lebanese NGOs: Arc-en-Ciel, Beb w Shebbek, Caritas and Offre Joie. All aim to rebuild the devastated city. Come join us and be part of this message of Love we wish to send to Beirut and its people.
Article by Gilles Dyan, Founder and Chairman Opera Gallery Group and Salwa Chalhoub, Director Opera Gallery Beirut
Participating artists
Michel Abboud, James Austin Murray, Sundus Al Khalidy, George Morton-Clark, Yasmina Alaoui & Marco, Guerra, Quim Bové, Golnaz Fathi, Hallie Hart, Nick Gentry, Alfred Haberpointner, Ellen von Unwerth
I invited Turkish TV channel TRT2 into my London studio to talk about reusing old technological materials to make art.