Hale Tenger: Beirut

For the exhibition at RizzutoGallery – in addition to photographs and sculptures in very rare editions – the artist presents the video installation Beirut (2005-2007, Video 3’47 “).

At 12:55 on February 14, 2005, a Mitsubishi van exploded in a district of Beirut, when the convoy of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri was passing by. Twenty-two people were killed in an explosion that had the strength of a ton of TNT.
Beirut tells in a romantic and sad way the shared destiny of the whole Middle East, and of every city or country that has experienced the violence of political unrest, bombs and murders. It wants to be a moment to reflect – here in this “Palermo as Beirut, Middle Eastern City in Europe” – on the need for an endless search for a true democracy, which will never be fully established until it will be able to provide equality to people “through dialogue, the culture of hospitality, cohabitation, and the coexistence of the different”.