At the National Congress in Brazilia, the photography exhibition "Beirut: The Road to Reframe" has opened. It presents a selection of works by Lebanese photographer Dia Mrad showing the consequences of the explosion of the port of Beirut on the city's architectural heritage. The exhibition will continue until 10 March. This is its fifth edition, as the event was also introduced last year at the Bank of Brazilia Museum. Lebanon's ambassador to Brazil, Carla Jazzar, was at its inauguration, thanking Brazil for its support towards Lebanon in the aftermath of the double explosion on 4 August 2020.
"The Road To Reframe is a series of immersive photographs that function as a coping mechanism, attempting to understand and visualise a new surreal reality. The series depicts the human tragedy experienced in Lebanon in 2020. The exhibition is divided into two parts, with the Beirut silos as the boundary, which "saved the western parts of Beirut from total destruction and absorbed up to 10% of the damage in the hardest hit areas" (excerpt from an interview with the artist in The National newspaper). In "Part 1: The Dark Side of the Boom", the photographer studies the insides of the remaining wall of silos. In "Part 2: The desert of Beirut", Dia Mrad tells the story of the silos on the other side.
The photographs were organised chronologically for the exhibition, and captioned by the time they were taken. "I wanted to create an immersive experience, so that the viewer would feel as if they were walking through the terrain as I was" - Dia Mrad.
Mrad began documenting Beirut's heritage houses in 2019. A family trip to France and Italy fuelled his interest in preserving Beirut's architectural heritage. Upon his return, he began photographing traditional houses in the Gemmayze and Mar Mikhael neighbourhoods. Then, while working as a photographer for a property developer, he gained access to little-known views of the Beirut skyline from private flats. This gave him new perspectives to document the city's heritage homes. His Instagram started to gain visibility, but his photography career really took off after publishing before-and-after photographs, showing the terrible damage of the explosion on these houses and monuments in the capital.
Photo: photographer Dia Mrad next to his photograph showing a painting by Khalil Gibran on the wall of a house gutted by the explosion on 4 August 2020. Copyrights Dia Mrad.