Introduction
The opening of the new Guggenheim Museum will take place next summer in Beirut. Rauche, a seaside district not far from the town’s centre, was considered as the perfect location not only because of its rare spot and its magnificent view over Mediterranean sea, but also because of being a space charged of the Lebanese historical past. During the French colonialism the whole area of Rauche had comprised the quarters of a French military camp, which in 1980 had been reduced to ashes by a fire caused by a group of Lebanese partisans.
The architect’s proposal focuses on a version of the Mies van der Rohe monument, which he had designed for the city of Berlin (1926) in memorial to Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg and had been dismantled from Hitler in 1933.
According to the scenario of the new version, the monument is transformed into a transportable building, to house the Arab Guggenheim Museum. After a period of two years activities the structure will be transported in Cyprus for other two years and accordingly to other towns in the Arab world. Due to the troubled political situation of the Middle East -and the nearby region - the founder and the shareholders of Guggenheim, had approved the architect’s idea of a portable, rambling museum.
The museum design
The particular Lego-type design of the legendary Mies monument gave to the architect the ideal solution in order to carry out the project. Inspired from the constructivist outline of the monument and following pattern, a radical building has been formed out of revolutionary ecological materials, which could provide an exceptionally light result to the whole structure. In case of war, the boxes of the museum can be deconstructed and transported to another Arab country.
Following a premeditated rearrangement of the boxes the museum can easily be rebuilt at a significant location, preferably incorporating remnants of the past of each country, refurbishing or even rebuilding historic monuments, buildings, antiquities etc. In Beirut, for case in point, the main building of the museum has been surrounded by a group of assistant buildings which have been built, following the original plans of the demolished quarters of the French military camp; bringing back to life memories of an era that left its indelible traces on Lebanese people.
The row of the long central buildings of the camp that had served as administration and commander’s offices in the past, have been converted into a series of versatile workshops for local and invited foreign artists,while the soldiers’ chambers have been converted into a of studios for the artists. The architect has played upon the former French ruins by creating baths, a swimming pool, changing rooms and the Arabic hammam by carving the earth, with the guidance of the geologist for the composition of the minerals.
This series of constructions lye on the grounds of the local history and of course, on the quotidian of the Arab’s life. All the excavations and erections that have taken place within the site have been supervised by a special geologist; in straight collaboration with the architect they have confronted the complexity of creating dykes immersed in a sea of rocks and communing with one another through a path made of concrete.
The composition inevitably immerses itself in the sea. The galleries of the museum have been camouflaged behind a ramp and a mesh-rope glass façade.The latter dissuades from the penetration of the direct sunlight, whilst a ramp that bridges the course of the procedure from the capture of the concept and its creations within the workshops, to the final phase of its display in the museum,and a refreshment café both for the visitors and the artists has been molded following the site’s contour lines.
An Art School
The owners’ perception of the museum reflects the ancient Greek model of a Museion, a meeting place and an interdisciplinary laboratory for creative activities, a kind of constant workshops, rather than the Anglo-Saxon model of an exhibition space as it has been established since 1759 (the year when the British Museum was founded).
Arab Guggenheim highlights this original Ancient Greek idea of a cultural/educational temple, where poets, musicians, artists and scientists could work together - under the protection of the Muses, taking actually the form of an alternative Art School:a small group of international artists (5 or six) could be i invited each time,for a period of three months to act as the teachers of the school.
In fact, the artists/teachers could be invited to carry out one of their own projects,working in collaboration with their 'students'. The students should work
following the instructions of the artists in order to accomplish their projects,while in parallel they could work on their own artworks, under the supervision of the artist.
Of course the final outcomes will belong to the guest artists but the documentary of the entire procedure (films, interviews, texts and the relics of the activities) will consist a new artwork, a parallel installation- acquisition of the museum. On occasion, replicas of the artists’ artworks (or smaller models) could be constructed for the museum's collection,by the permission of the artist.
Carnival Pause
At the end of the activities, the outcomes of the “art-school” could be put on display before the artists/teachers’ departure, following the form of a carnival parade into the town. Emphasizing the nomadic character of the museum the exhibits, could be set up on floats and “meet” people in public spaces, streets and plazas, instead of waiting them to visit the museum. Of course, Carnival is a ceremony that doesn't exist in Arabic civilization, even though it is so familiar to a variety of religions and cultures in the rest of the world.
Thus, trying to impose an overseas ritual to them, it sounds like a colonialist strategy. In fact, the Museum’s Carnival parade has nothing to do with the usual procession; actually the real reference here, is nothing else but the very oriental custom of displaying merchandises in the street; costermongers, hawkers and pedlars are very characteristic figures in the Arab world.
Introduction
The vacant building of the International Airport of Nicosia atthe Green Line is the ideal - emblematic location to host (after Beirut station) the activities of the Arab Guggenheim Museum. Although the airport is the only unoccupied from the Turkish army edifice, located at the Green Line, is still in a militarizedzone, under the control of the United Nations authorities. Stressing the necessity of an International school of Fine Arts and of a Contemporary Museum in the area, a group of international artists such as: Mounir Fatmi, Wafa Hourani, Gülsün Karamustafa and Eric Valette have been already invited to work as the first teachers of the school/museum. Atlas Group is also another collection of artists that have been included in Museum’s schedule for next spring in 2009, along with a retrospective of Joseph Beuys, programmed for the same period.
One ironic and almost symbolic thing to mention here is that the dividing wall in Cyprus is constructed from empty oil containers. Petroleum, the real reason for the war, is at the same time the element that literally divides the island...That’s the reason why I put emphasis on this element, constructing the Carnival Floats
in Sao Paolo.
Hollow
Airport
Museum
H A M
…Ham was Noah’s son, the forefather of the nations on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon and of the countries of the Middle East. The vacant International Airport of Nicosia at the Green Line is a Hollow building, a Museion without art exhibits. Although the airport is the only unoccupied from the Turkish army edifice located at the Green Line, is still in a militarized zone, under the control of the United Nations authorities. Stressing the necessity of an International School of Fine Arts and of a Contemporary Museum in the area, HAM, highlights the Ancient Greek idea of a Museion, as an interdisciplinary laboratory and not that of a space where artworks could be exhibited. Consequently, the space takes the form of Artististiclaboratories/
This plan gives students and local artists the opportunity to meet stimulating established artists, coming mostly from countries with similar political problems, contested areas or countries with long-lasting wars.
Students’ chance to collaborate and exchange ideas and feelings with them, accordingly, gives the “teachers” the opportunity to use the airport space as studio in order to accomplish one of their projects, while learning as much as possible about Arab people and the political situation in the Middle East. In other words, no matter how much absurd it sounds, to learn how many problems, the contest for oil, caused to Middle East countries and the nearby area.
One ironic and almost symbolic thing to mention here is that the dividing wall in Cyprus is constructed from empty oil vessels. Petroleum, the real reason for the war, is at the same time the element that literally divides the island and that’s why I focused on this element in order to construct the Carnival Floats in Sao Paolo and the rest of floating platforms of the Museion. As my six years old nephew told me, Cyprus suffered a lot and still suffers since is the western gate to Arab oil and wealth…
CARNIVAL PAUSE
At the end of the activities, the outcomes of the “art-school” could be put on display before the artists/teachers’ departure, following the form of a carnival parade into the town. Emphasizing the nomadic character of the Museion, the exhibits could be set up on floats and “meet” people in public spaces, streets and plazas, instead of waiting them to visit the museum. Of course, Carnival is a ceremony that doesn't exist in Arabic civilization, even though it is so familiar to a variety of religions and cultures in the rest of the world. Thus, trying to impose an overseas ritual to them, it sounds like a colonialist strategy. In fact, the Museion’s Carnival parade has nothing to do with the usual procession; actually the real reference here, is nothing else but the very oriental custom of displaying merchandises in the street; costermongers, hawkers and peddlers are very characteristic figures in the Arab world…
Extract from correspondence with Catherine David
