Beirut Art Residency

Beirut Art Residency (BAR) was a non-profit, artist-run interdisciplinary residency based in Beirut, Lebanon.

Background and program

Beirut Art Residency (BAR) was founded in 2015 by Amar A. Zahr and Nathalie Ackawi in Beirut, Lebanon. The project offered a two-month residency program for 3-5 residents at a time. The artist-in-residence program aimed to stimulate creativity through interaction with local environments, artists, and cultural institutions, attempting to foster cross-cultural exchange between participants and Beirut’s artistic community.

The program consisted of artists from various disciplines, such as visual arts, concept and theory, design, film & video, installation, music and sound, performance, photography and curatorial research. It was in Gemmayzeh, which has numerous art galleries. The residency aimed to build community through interaction and engagement and provide a platform for communication between the invited artists and the Lebanese art scene.

A jury of local and international creatives selected the artists at BAR. The jury consisted of the following people:

• Ziad Antar, photographer, filmmaker, and co-founder of the Third Line Gallery
• Sunny Rahbar, director
• Mari Spirito, art historian, photographer, and founder of Protocinema
• Gregory Buchakjian,art historian & photographer
• Myriam Ben Salah, curator and writer

The advisory board also included Ali Khadra, founder of Canvas Magazine, and Middle Eastern art collector Khaled Jalanbo.

Past Residents

• Phase I (September 1 - 1 October 2015): Sara Naim and Athier Mousawi
• Phase II (October 1 - 1 November 2015): Ivana Ivkovic, Lucienne Bestall, and Pierre Dalpé
• Phase III (January 1 - 1 February 2016): Ibi Ibrahim, Lara Ögel, and Evelyn Simons
• Phase IV (April 1 - 1 May 2016): Mary Ann Peters, Naomi Moser, and Amor Herrera
• Phase V (June 1 - 1 July 2016): Dexter Davey, Isaac Blease, Sumiah Salloum, and Asiya Alsharabi
• Phase VI (September 1 - 1 October 2016): Gianna Dispenza and Darryl Westly
• Phase VII (November 1 - 1 December 2016): Rehan Miskci, Nicolas Courdy, and Ragnheidur Gestsdottir
• Phase VIII (January 1 - March 1 2017): Abdelkader Benchamma, Hilda Ekeroth, and Esmeralda Kosmatopoulos

La Vitrine

During the second year of BAR, La Vitrine emerged as a response to the lack of public art in the city. La Vitrine is a four by two meter, high-ceilinged room with a glass door acting as the only separator between the art and the sidewalks of Beirut. Artists are invited on a bi-monthly basis to work on site-specific interventions responding mainly to social issues and public space.

References