PROFILE Images - Courtesy of the artist. Interviewer - Emma Warburton, arts writer and researcher.
Randa Mirza: Beirutopia Post-war Beirut is a city for sale Following the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990,
photos depicting construction sites. To be ‘under
and its surroundings to create the most convincing of
Beirut endeavoured to reclaim itself and restore its
construction’ implies a state of incompletion. A site
illusions. These billboards metaphorically mirror the
reputation as a glamorous, sophisticated and modern
under construction is one that has abandoned its
city of Beirut itself. Like Beirut, they offer a vision for
destination. The city pined after the now elusive
previous identity, but has not yet arrived at its future
the future that will never be truly realised and they
memories of itself as a romantic cultural hub, but still
one. It is, perhaps, in a state of non-existence. For
manipulate the community with promises they can
it embarked on the task to reconstitute its identity
Mirza, Beirut is in a continuous cycle of reinventing its
never fully keep. Essentially, these advertisements
under the fading pretence that it was once praised
identity without ever actualizing it. Therefore the city is
are optical illusions, meant to deceive. But with
‘the Paris of the Middle East.’ Fast-forward to the
in a perpetually dissatisfied—it is under construction,
astute framing and compositional techniques, Mirza
present day, and this sentiment has materialized in a
and therefore unfulfilled. There is a tone to Mirza’s
succeeds in poking holes in the pastiche, and revealing
city-wide campaign for constant urban development
words that suggest these developments are excessive
the dishonesty at the crux of Beirut’s redevelopment
and renewal. Construction sites and billboards populate
—so excessive and so rapid that even locals cannot
narrative.
the landscape, and testify to a capitalist attitude that
keep track of their city’s changing form. This idea of
has rendered Beirut a product, rather than a site with
dissatisfaction links well with materialism and capitalism,
Mirza describes Beirutopia as a series of ‘two-
unique historical and cultural value that should be
both of which operate under the generalized concept
dimensional dioramas.’ That is to say that each photo
preserved and protected.
that more is never enough. There is a sense, too, that
is constituted of a three dimensional front plane (often a
the city-wide construction is not actually serving the
physical object or person that is present in the space as
Randa Mirza’s photographic series Beirutopia (2011 -
people of Beirut. Instead, it serves Capitalism. As Mirza
Mirza photographs it), a two dimensional second plane
ongoing) captures details of Beirut’s urban landscape
describes, when one structure is erected, another is
(the hyper-realistic billboards that create an illusion
to illustrate a progressive ideological shift she has
dismantled, and in this manic process of reinventing
of reality, a virtual reality) and a third, hidden plane
observed in the city, whereby the social and cultural
the city, the needs and expectations of the very people
that is behind the billboard (actual reality, concealed).
values that defined Beirut prior to the Lebanese war
who depend on it are ignored for the allure of profit
These planes also function to metaphorically trace
have been replaced with the values of capitalism
and prestige. The ‘new’ Beirut, as Mirza suggests, is a
time, whereby the front plane is the actual present,
and materialism. The idea for the series came to
foreign place. Perhaps this is because the new Beirut
the second plane is the pretend present (or projected
the artist during a peak in the construction boom.
does not take form with people in mind. Instead it
future), and the third is the disheartened past.
Mirza’s observations of Beirut at that time, and her
serves the purpose of generating profit, and leaves
uncomfortable and alienated response to her native
little room for sentimentality, nostalgia or even modest
Beirutopia portrays the city as a product. It is simply
city, are what compelled her to begin photographing
practicality.
a platform for advertising space—space that can be
the landscape. She states:
bought, leased, or consumed in some form or another. Beirutopia depicts construction sites that Mirza has
The series emphasizes the notion that preserving profit
“Today the city is still a huge construction site. I watched
encountered throughout the city. These sites are
is more important than preserving culture, society and
it changing rapidly… it became unrecognizable to the
photographed just as they are; they are carefully
history. All over the world, the destruction of cultural
people living in it. There were new buildings appearing
framed, but not staged. Promoting these projects are
heritage is being justified by the concept of renewal
but also there were old buildings disappearing. The
large billboards that advertise a forward-thinking vision
and modernity. And what can we do, except mourn
new promise for Beirut did not appeal to me. It was
for the space. They are hyper-realistic, computerized
our losses in disbelief, and tell ourselves that there is
profit oriented.” In essence, Beirutopia is a series of
renderings that simulate the future building, its interior,
a time for everything to disappear..
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