That Cedar Being Cut Down !

From 17 October to 31 December, 2020
Alice Mogabgab – Beirut presents the exhibition

That Cedar Being Cut Down!
Paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, videos
(See below)

Ce cèdre qu’on abat !
Peintures, sculptures, photographies, dessins, vidéos
(PDF)

! هذه الأرزة التي تقطع
لوحات، منحوتات، صور فوتوغرافيّة، رسوم، فيديوهات
(PDF )

We are in the destruction of the world,
And they, these trees, are still young, and, though rooted,
Much more free (in their development) than we are.
Etel ADNAN, Tout arbre est un chant.

That Cedar Being Cut Down! Of all the countries, Lebanon is among the few whose flag is adorned with a tree; the cedar. While the latter has been the object of much envy in the past, other varieties have suffered the same fate throughout History; pines, oaks, junipers and olive trees were also cut down by the conquerors, either for the need of building or for the purpose of destroying.

When power in Cedar Land was returned to its inhabitants just a century ago, no forest protection policy was put in place. The war years didn’t help; between foreign armies and local militias, the thirty hectares of parasol pines in Horsh Beirut, planted in the 17th century by the enlightened despot Fakhreddine, have been completely decimated. Since the return to calm and the beginning of the said reconstruction, each year, entire forests have succumbed to arson or to the savage urbanization of regions, reducing nature and its biodiversity, under the indifferent gaze of warlords converted into politicians, more predators than the desertization advancing from the East.

When the popular revolt broke out on October 17, 2019, it was nourished, among other things, by images of violent fires that had just ravaged Lebanon’s hills, valleys and mountains. At the speed of these flames the revolt spreads throughout the territory, in cities and regions, rallying Lebanese from all walks united by the ecological disaster against the criminal choices of the warlords in place, against their scorched earth policy. A scorched earth policy that now extends from ecology to economics, inexorably dragging the Lebanese to a slow death.

On October 17, 2020, Alice Mogabgab – Beirut reopens its doors, after the 4^th August blast. Faithful to its social commitments and to its cultural responsibilities, the Gallery presents the exhibition That Cedar Being Cut Down! paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings and videos, in the hope of gathering around the magnified tree, emblem of the sustainability of nature in front of the destructive forces that try to cut down Lebanon, all those still rooted in their land, who fight against the flames of hell and the waves of migration.

^{YANN DUMOGET, L’Odyssée I, 2015, pigment print on Hahnemhule Baryta paper, edition of 7, image size 25 x 25 cm.}
^{NADIM ASFAR, Forêt de cèdres à Tannourine 2, 2017, tirage photographique sur papier Inbe 2020, 60 x 90 cm.}
_{MALGORZATA PASZKO, Le Sentier, 2008, acrylique et pigments sur toile, 130 x 165 cm.}
_{ERIC POITEVIN, Sans titre (détail), 2000, épreuve argentique 2011 noir et blanc d’après négatif 20 x 25 cm. contrecollé sur Dibbon, 5 x (102 x 80 cm.)}
_{ETEL ADNAN, Les oliviers I, 1997, encre de chine sur papier, 24 x 32 cm.}
_{ALEXANDRE HOLLAN, Chêne, 2003, fusain sur papier, 50 x 65 cm.}
_{JEAN-BERNARD SUSPERREGUI, Arbre I, 1995, acier patiné, 75 x 40 x 40 cm.}
_{NICOLAS GAILLARDON, Along the Disaster, 2020, animation numérique à partir de dessin au graphite, 4′, musique de Nicolas Gaillardon.}
_{LUCIANO ZANONI, Nocciolo, 2009, fer, 215 x 140 x 160 cm.}
_{LUDWIKA OGORZELEC, Instruments of Equilibrium, 1998-2018, wood & rope, 230 x 180 x 50 cm.}
_{LI WEI, Listen to the Snow #24, 2016, China ink on silk 99 x 134 cm.}
_{CHARLES BELLE, Altitude, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 203 x 237 cm.}
_{HOUDA KASSATLY, Tout arbre est chant, Qornet el Sawda 2, 2004, tirage 2017 jet d’encre sur papier photo, 30 x 45 cm.}
_{PASCAL COURCELLES, Independence 05, 2005, mixed media on canvas, 88 x 146 cm.}