After the negotiated end to the fifteen-year Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), a private-public partnership named Solidere was formed to redevelop the war-torn downtown Beirut. Equipped with the powers of eminent domain, Solidere has encountered public opposition for displacing residents, offering below-market valuations for seized property, and favoring new construction over preserving the city’s architectural heritage. Solidere was originally designed to sunset its activities in 2019, but its mandate has been extended until 2029.
Sweet Talk: Commissions (1987–2006) is a project by artist Walid Raad that documents Beirut’s residents, buildings, streets, stairs, squares, monuments, storefronts, and gardens. This video is a portion of the larger project. About the video, Raad writes:
“Beginning in the mid-1990s, hundreds of buildings in downtown Beirut were demolished, their rubble dumped in the sea, to rebuild the new post-war city center. The video below derives from dozens of implosion videos recorded by irritated former tenants who had been ousted and/or bought off to make room for the new downtown. Unsurprisingly, this downtown became the site of tumultuous events that were neither anticipated nor desired by its developers.”
Walid Raad (b. 1967, Lebanon) is a Beirut- and New York-based artist who works in photography, video, mixed media installations, and performance. His artworks address the contemporary history of Lebanon and the history of art in the Arab world in complex projects often assembled from found and made audio, visual, and textual documents. He is currently Distinguished Visiting Professor of Photography at Bard College.
