NNA –\u00a0The Lebanese Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition \u2013 La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Hala\u00a0Ward\u00e9, the architect and founder of HW Architecture, who realized the Louvre Abu Dhabi with Jean Nouvel, is\u00a0pleased to announce its opening at the Magazzini del Sale on May 22.<\/p>\n
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A Live Instagram\u00a0visit\u00a0with Hala Ward\u00e9 is taking place on Friday, May 21st at 2PM CET\u00a0\u2013 3PM\u00a0Beirut Time\u00a0@aroofforsilence<\/p>\n
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Selected in the first public competition launched by the Lebanese authorities to represent Lebanon, Hala Ward\u00e9’s\u00a0project was chosen by a committee of experts appointed by the Ministry of Culture and the Federation of Lebanese\u00a0Engineers and Architects, presided by Jad Tabet.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Lebanese Pavilion at the\u00a017th\u00a0Venice Biennale of Architecture is the completion of a long journey, notably marked by paradox and uncertainty. With the uprising of Lebanese youth, which spread across the country, the theme of the Biennale\u00a0\u201cHow will we live together\u201d took on a new meaning. The metaphor of the roof that shelters everyone, while avoiding that the expression of the plurality of belonging ends in cacophony, this metaphor became even more relevant.<\/p>\n
In the face of the tragedy that has struck us, leaving behind hundreds of dead and missing, thousands injured and tens of thousands displaced, we must absolutely demand the right to silence and recollection under a protective roof.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jad Tabet<\/p>\n
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Echoing the question\u00a0\u201cHow will we live together?\u201d\u00a0as raised by Hashim Sarkis,\u00a0curator of this 17th International Architecture Exhibition \u2013 La Biennale di Venezia,\u00a0Hala Ward\u00e9 tackles the issue of coexistence through a questioning of the spaces of silence, by putting into dialogue architecture, painting, music, poetry, video and photography.<\/p>\n
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“Why not think about\u00a0places in relation to their potential as voids rather than as solids? How can we fight fear of emptiness in architecture? How can we imagine forms that generate places of silence and contemplation?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hala Ward\u00e9<\/p>\n
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The Lebanese Pavilion is conceived as a musical sheet, finding resonance between disciplines, shapes and periods to\u00a0provoke the sensory experience of a thought, articulated around the notions of emptiness and silence, as temporal\u00a0and spatial conditions of architecture.<\/p>\n
Developed as a manifesto for a new form of architecture, Hala Ward\u00e9’s project is based on the cryptic shapes of a\u00a0group of sixteen olive trees that are a thousand years old in Lebanon. These legendary trees, whose hollows are\u00a0home to various species, are the tutelary figure of the Lebanese Pavilion. They are places of recollection or gathering,\u00a0where peasants have convened for generations to decide on village affairs or to celebrate weddings.<\/p>\n
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The architectural arrangement of the Lebanese Pavilion is integrated into the space of the Magazzino del Sale following a rigorous geometry and rhythm. It unfolds in four stages:<\/p>\n
On an introductory wall, Paul Virilio’s Antiforms, an exploration of space and absent matter, are set against photogrammetric records of thousand-year-old trees and black and white photographic prints of olive trees in Lebanon by Lebanese photographer Fouad Elkoury.<\/p>\n
On the ground, a trail of glass. Imprints or fractal traces of various forms: that of the impact of the Beirut blast in August 2020, a form of emptiness that joins that of the Antiforms or the large-scale graphic prints of the trees’ cavities.<\/p>\n
As the visitors move through the exhibition, they are led to a triptych projection of 16 olive trees of Lebanon that are a thousand years old. Filmed in the darkness of the night by Alain Fleischer, filmmaker, photographer and visual artist, these olive trees offer a sensory experience of emptiness and light, accompanied by a musical creation by the sound artists Soundwalk Collective.<\/p>\n
Walking through these images, visitors are led into the central room: an octagonal floor plan, but with a cylindrical interior space, where the 16 canvases of Etel Adnan’s poem-in-painting Oliv\u00e9a: Hommage \u00e0 la d\u00e9esse de l\u2019olivier are on display. The artist does not show a particular olive tree but rather the feeling inspired by this legendary tree that has accompanied the Mediterranean civilizations. Crowned with a semi-spherical roof bordered by light, this space embodies the possibility of an \u201cessential\u201d place: A Roof for Silence.<\/p>\n
Hala Ward\u00e9<\/p>\n
Born in Lebanon in 1965, Hala Ward\u00e9 trained as an architect at the Ecole Sp\u00e9ciale d\u2019Architecture in Paris where she studied with Paul Virilio, Bernard Tschumi and Jean Nouvel, with whom she worked for over 20 years. In 2008, she established HW architecture, her own architectural practice, and continued collaborating with Ateliers Jean Nouvel in the framework of a privileged partnership. Hala Ward\u00e9 was in charge of the One New Change office and retail project in London, delivered in 2010, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi landmark museum which she led from inception in 2006 through to delivery in 2017. In 2016, Hala Ward\u00e9 won the architectural competition for BeMA (Beirut Museum of Art), a future landmark museum in the Lebanese capital. In 2018, her studio was selected to design \u201cLe Mirabeau\u201d in the maritime quarter of Marseille, currently under construction. In 2019, she wins together with Jean Nouvel the competition for the Sharaan resort located near by the historical site of Al Ula in Saudi Arabia. In parallel, Hala Ward\u00e9 collaborates regularly with artists, for site-specific interventions in relation to the built environments, such as Guiseppe Penone, Nan Goldin or Etel Adnan.<\/p>\n
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Source: National News Agency-Lebanon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NNA –\u00a0The Lebanese Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition \u2013 La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Hala\u00a0Ward\u00e9, the architect and founder of HW Architecture, who realized the Louvre Abu Dhabi with Jean Nouvel, is\u00a0pleased to announce its opening at the Magazzini del Sale on May 22. A Live Instagram\u00a0visit\u00a0with Hala Ward\u00e9 is taking … <\/p>\n