Beirut artists intervene in Wellington streets

PRESS RELEASE:

For immediate release May 5th 2017

Beirut artists intervene in Wellington streets

Visiting Lebanese architect Rana Haddad and artist Pascal Hachem will be literally rolling out an artwork in Wellington’s streets next week, making visible historic paths with their project The Missing Flow.

“It’s powerful working alongside Rana and Pascal” says Public art programme Letting Space’s Sophie Jerram. “We are learning about new approaches to architecture and performance as well as Lebanese and Middle Eastern experiences of public space in a time of international conflict.”

In Wellington, Haddad and Hachem will perform in the streets with a piece made from used clothing - tracing the missing flows of streams and histories buried under the city. The work has been inspired by a partnership with Te Wharewaka o Poneke.

Haddad and Hachem say “We are the product of the war. And our work is still a reflection of our city and of cities. We choose to look at Beirut as it stands today: a city riddled with danger, yet ripe with potential. Learning to embrace whatsoever experience that comes to us. Drifting between architecture, design, performance and storytelling, our professional practice and academics led us to discover new potentials in existing conditions. We have absorbed all we have experienced, whether during the war years or in their aftermath. We’ve reacted to the polarized socio/political and economic factors that have engulfed the state since then. We have become activists in the city.”

Haddad and Hachem will be found in sites including Taranaki Street, Riddiford Street and around the Wharewaka on Taranaki Wharf between 9am - 12pm May 9-13.

A vacant space with Urban Dream Brokerage at 2 Tory Street provides them a workshop space to create the material for their work The Missing Flow and meet the public.

Public talks and availability

Public visiting hours: 1.30-2.30pm Tuesday 9 May-Saturday 13th May at 2 Tory Street, Wellington City. http://urbandreambrokerage.org.nz/the-missing-flow

Haddad and Hachem will provide a public presentation about the reason for making art in a time of war at Adam Auditorium, City Gallery Wellington on May 10 at 6pm. The public talk is supported by the Wellington Branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects. http://citygallery.org.nz/events/oblivion-rana-haddad-and-pascal-hachem

An academic public talk will be held at Victoria University at Vivian Street LT1: 1130am on Tuesday 9th May

About the artists and Letting Space

Rana Haddad, Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut, is an established architect. Pascal Hachem is an artist and designer. Haddad and Hachem have been working for the past decades in response to their everyday life experience and shifting conditions culminating in temporary installations. Their body of work is described as highly politicized, taking on bold issues through provocative installations, objects and performances. After 20 years of experience within public institutions, they have been working in found public spaces in Turkey, Lebanon, and Italy.

LETTING SPACE seeks to transform the relationship between artists, the public and their environments to enable social change. Based in Wellington, New Zealand, we have commissioned and curated over a dozen major art projects nationally since 2010, and run the Urban Dream Brokerage since 2013, which has enabled over 60 innovative projects in vacant retail spaces in Wellington, Porirua and Dunedin.

www.lettingspace.org.nz and www.urbandreambrokerage.org.nz

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