Art Lounge is perhaps the ideal Beirut location for emerging artists to launch their careers: edgy enough, but also a stepping stone for them to break into the local arts scene.
Its latest show aims to help one collective do just that. 3aseer Taza, or “fresh juice”, is appropriately named. With one exception, the artists’ ages range between 19 and 25.
“Fresh” could also describe the type of art showcased. The 12 artists selected work in
photography, film, fashion and graphic design, mediums that Blip, the art collective behind the exhibit, believes are not given the attention they deserve.
Such work is often associated more with commercial use, such as advertising, than with fine art, said Art Lounge owner Nino Azzi, who added that you don’t typically find photography or cartoon-like illustrations in mainstream Lebanese galleries.
Among the pieces displayed are striking works such as a photograph by Jo Baaklini of a woman mid-leap between stepping stones in a body of water. Equally attention grabbing is an illustration by Cynthia Merhej, where between bold red stripes on a white background stands the sentence: “When you ask a question you are ready to hear the truth.”
Other pieces, however, risk lapsing into cliché. Although Ayla Hibri’s photographs are similarly eye-catching, when grouped together they are a formulaic pictorial summary of Lebanon: a veiled woman, a nun, a sickly elderly man and a toddler toting a Kalashnikov. While such images may introduce a foreign audience to the basics of Lebanon’s many identities, any first-hand experience of the country’s layered nuances suggests these are elementary and easy shots.
Of course, there is the possibility that Hibri’s art was intended as irony. If not, her less original take could be explained by her age. Hibri is 21, and so at the beginning of her development as a professional artist.
Born in 1974, Ghinou Chouieri – whose artistic mediums swing from potatoes to canvas ¬– is the elder of the exhibit. At 19, Jo Baaklini is the youngest artist on display.
The Blip art collective is a collaboration between Baaklini and Merhej, 20. While they and several other of the artists showcased have garnered an online following largely via their respective websites, the exhibition is a chance for the younger breed of commercial artists to expose their works to a broader public.
But Blip’s intentions do not end at elevating young artists. 3aseer Taza is the beginning of a much-needed larger movement that promotes new media as a whole, says Merhej. As an illustrator and graphic designer currently pursuing a degree at the prestigious Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design in London, she is adamant that her field is undervalued in the larger Lebanese cultural framework.
“They don’t see it as art,” she says. In her opinion, the Lebanese public sees photography as “just a picture,” while illustrations and graphic design are considered barely-glorified cartoons.
As Merhej sees it, the Lebanese art scene has a long way to go compared to London, Blip’s surrogate home for the next few years until Baaklini and Merhej graduate. As an industrial area that has drawn avant-garde galleries such as Art Lounge, the Beirut Art Center and Gallery Sfeir-Semler, Corniche al-Nahr fits the bill for a burgeoning arts hub. But it is no Williamsburg, New York or East London – at least not yet.
The nascent scene does have its upside, especially for young artists and collectives like Blip. There are too many artists in London and subsequently daily exhibitions, Merhej believes, whereas in Lebanon it is a lot easier to get noticed.
“Here, it’s small and so people really appreciate it… You stand out a lot more,” she says.