Mon port de Beyrouth

As part of the exhibition devoted to Lebanon, the Boghossian Foundation and Les Midis de la Poésie invites Lamia Ziadé to discuss her book “My port of Beirut” during a literary evening hosted by Ysaline Parisis. The Lebanese artist and writer will comment on her work, which recounts the explosions that took place on the 4^th of August in Beirut, her hometown. Her book brings together her writings and paintings, a selection of which will be presented during the exhibition How will it end?

“They were our Egyptian pyramids. [… ] Their constancy reassured me, their presence comforted me, and I saw in them a pagan sanctuary that watches over the city. With the Silos destroyed, everything became possible, nothing could stop Beirut from sinking into darkness.”

On the 4^th of August 2020 at 6.07 pm, a massive explosion blasts Silos, port and center of the Lebanese capital. Back in France, Lamia Ziadé receives a troubling message that reads (“It’s a curse your poor country!”) before seeing unusual activity on her family Whatsapp group and learning about the disaster. Hundreds of deaths, thousands wounded, and hundred thousands left homeless. The overwhelming flow of images and videos on the Internet marks a never-ending collective trauma. The following day, Le Monde approaches her to cover the events. She who was able to create a distinctive voice to describe and convey the war in Lebanon (Bye Bye Babylon), the golden age and the destruction in the Middle East (Ô Nuit Ô mes Yeux) and a century in the Near East (Ma Très Grande Mélancolie Arabe) did not wish to carry the immediate horror. “I started refusing, because I tackle subjects that are at least thirty years old! And then we all felt so bad… But, two days after the explosion, I realised that I couldn’t say no. I who was in Paris, useless, that precisely, I could do it. Not a news story, but a work of which my place, far from Beirut, is part.” In a month, she produces fifteen pages for Le Monde. And it’s her publisher who encourages her to keep writing.