Press release
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december 07, 2022 - Beirut Art Center
Statement from outgoing directors
Artistic Director Haig Aivazian and Administrative Director Rana Nasser Eddin have taken the difficult decision to move on from #beirutartcenter.
Relative to the grueling struggle of everyday life in Lebanon, changing an institution like BAC, reclaiming it for a different audience, using it as a channel for causes we believe in, is a low intensity struggle. Yet since taking on its directorship in January 2020, we have approached our work with utmost urgency, care and dedication.
When we, as appointed directors, were handed over the keys to the center 3 years ago, we quickly realized that basic aspects of the institution had to be rebuilt from scratch. To have a functioning office, we cleared out cardboard boxes from a dark storage space, put together makeshift tables and chairs, and figured out for ourselves how we were going to get paid for our labor without being prisoners to the banks. Although those early days are now a distant memory, and although timely wages for management level staff have yet to be resolved, the institution is closer to how we imagine it should be. Crucially, we have persistently addressed these, and other, seemingly individual problems by pushing the structure of BAC itself to rethink its labor conditions and economic priorities.
In the hardest times and beyond, we put the center's modest resources and mechanisms to what we deemed to be the best and most needed uses. From day one we swam counter-current to the institution's DNA and gradually put in place more ethical and sustainable funding sources and models, moving away from banks, reducing our reliance on private donors, and increasing our grant application efforts, all while figuring out more economic ways of doing things. We have thought of ways in which an art center can channel social struggles, to serve them, and to keep their lessons alive through practice. We thought of our activities, productions, commissions and other outputs, as not just opportunities to inspire and inject energy in a context of generalized depression, but also as opportunities for employing as many #people as possible while paying fair wages. Our exhibitions, our residencies, our rooftop garden, our online publication, our workshops, our discursive programs, lending and sharing our space...are all ways for us to garner collectivity, to make, to think, to do, and to speak together. Indeed, much of our labor went into making space possible for #people and communities, at a time when migration out of the country has been particularly felt. We have applied this approach to how we work internally first and foremost, as a core team and with our expanded network of collaborators who were absolutely essential in building this program and lay claim to what the center is today and its legacy.
On a good day we tell ourselves we did a lot with very little. On most days, however, we are frustrated by how slow-moving change seems, and looking back we say we could have done more given the right support. Ultimately, we believe that we will be leaving behind an institution that we helped survive and thrive at a time when it could have been relegated to irrelevance; an institution that now has a clear social and political line, voice, position and practice; an institution where more communities than ever before feel welcomed without being tokenized; an institution that has salvaged, cleaned up and organized its files, its archives, its finances, its storage... When we hand over the key to our successor, we will do so hoping that the work we have put in means that they will not have to go through the same struggles, frustrations and challenges as we did, that they will inherit a functioning, responsive, dynamic and thriving institution. We wish them much success, from the bottom of our hearts.
It was a difficult decision for us to leave our work behind prematurely, and it saddens us to part ways with our colleagues and comrades. It has been a privilege working with so many great #people here and abroad. In the hopes of collaborating again soon.
Among the hundreds of #people that we worked with during this period, we would like to give particular thanks to Ahmad Ghossein, Nadim Choufi, Monica Basbous, Nadim Deaibes, Rawad Kanj, Taleb El Saj, Hussein Nassereddine, Lori Kharpoutlian, Ata El Serhan, Salem El Azwaq, Kevork Malekian, Suhail Salouh, Abu El Safa Khnayfes, Mona Ayoub, Ashraf Osman, Joseph Keserouany, Ara Giragossian, Charbel Helou.
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