Lebanon

The Motherlands and cultures of Artivista’s members have always played a major role in the dawn of each of our projects.

Basically, the initiative started with Claire who has Lebanese origins together with Anthony and Pia who has just joined us after recently moving to France. Led by the association, Claire and the team alongside French and Lebanese guest street artists will be intervening in one of the country’s most neglected neighborhoods. The scope of the project is to take part in uplifting a neglected area through artistic manifestations and sharing moments around urban art, just like in the previous exchanges with Bresil, Irak,and Columbia.

Lebanon has been assailed by numerous crises. First, the global COVID19 pandemic, followed by the horrific explosion at the port of Beirut on the 4^th of August 2020, and lastly, one of the worst economic and financial crises its history has ever seen. The local currency has lost more than 90% out of its value in the course of the last two years and the dollar reached an exchange rate of 30 000 Lebanese pounds on the black market in the past month. This situation has resulted in several resource and primal necessity shortages, and the intense increase of the inflation and unemployment rate. Moreover, Lebanon, next stop for Artivista

n has been witnessing an excessive brain drain, over a million citizens have fled the country in the past two years. According to official sources, 60% of the population lives under the poverty line and the unemployment rate has exceeded 40%.

The underprivileged neighborhood of Bab al Tabbaneh in Tripoli

Located 80 km north of Beirut, Tripoli is the capital of North Lebanon. It is considered the poorest city in the country despite its universally valuable historical heritage dating back to the Mamluks and Crusaders eras. Among the most important monuments, we can count the Saint Gilles fortress, deemed one of the largest built in the Middle East by the crusaders, numerous mosques, madrasas, souks, khans and hammams in the heart of the old town.

The suburbs of Tripoli are today, a string of unsanitary and neglected slums. Bab el Tebbaneh among them counts over 60 000 residents, 60% of whom are Lebanese Sunni Muslims and 30% Syrian and Palestinian refugees. Additionally, the marginalized neighborhood has long experienced violence and misery. The fallout from the Syrian war and local political rivalries have caused intercommuniterial tensions and violent clashes with the adjacent neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen for years.

The other reason that determined the choice of Tripoli, was the encounter of Mohamed Abrash a local street artist and activist that grew up and still resides in Bab al Tabbaneh. He will be the key for our integration, and will facilitate the exchanges and communication with the local forces, and most importantly the schools, social centers and the community. We genuinely wish to involve the residents of the district, benefit the small businesses and recreate social bonds around our artistic project.

Murals, pariticpatory walls and intercultural exchanges

For two weeks, in mid-October 2022, three Lebanese and three French artists will take part in this intercultural exchange project and will paint six large frescoes on a total area of 600 m2. The selected zone is located at the entrance of Bab el Tebbaneh. It separates the district from the city of Tripoli and the highway going to Syria and Akkar in the north of the country.

Street art initiation workshops and a participatory wall will be carried out in partnership with a local high school for girls in Tripoli (Thanawiyat lil Banat). This event’s aim is to revive the environment and mobilize the residents in participating in putting colours on the concrete rundown walls.

The persons contributing in the project will be accommodated in Tripoli at the Seed Guesthouse throughout the length of the project, and their transportation by minibus will be provided by a local transport provider.

Walls painted by the 6 artists in the Bab al-Tebbaneh neighborhood, in Tripoli.