The artist, known for his painting, exhibits a new kind of work at the Lebanon pavilion, at the Venice Biennale. In an interview with the “world”, he explains the genesis of this installation as spectacular as it is enigmatic.
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Ayman Baalbaki was born in 1975 into a family of artists, his father and his uncle being painters. After studying art in Beirut from 1994 to 1998, then in Paris from 2001 to 2003, he quickly became known for his large portraits of fighters on strangely flowery funds and his views of ruined buildings whose facades seem cliffs . They are widely shown in the Middle East and in Europe, until 2016, the date of its last personal exhibition. We expected to find them in the Pavilion of Lebanon of the Venice Biennale. However, he presents a different work there: a very large installation made mainly from a tarpaulin from one wall to another, mounted on a structure which she conceals. In an intense green, she is crumpled, macular, tagged. By bypassing it, we discover a dusty cabin and heap of various objects and debris. The installation, entitled Janus Gate, is as spectacular as it is enigmatic, as long as the artist does not explain Genesis.
How could you get this huge tarpaulin?
I started from an advertising tarpaulin, those placed in front of the building under construction. They have printed images, which show what the building will be. At first, my idea was to put my painting on this advertising image then, little by little, the project evolved. I negotiated with the workers. One day, I entered the site and asked them if they had soon finished. They replied yes. I then told them that I wanted to take the tarpaulin. “It’s difficult, replied the site manager, because I have already given him to a Syrian worker so that he made a tent to sleep there.” So I bought a real tent For the Syrian worker and, thus, I was able to take the tarpaulin.
When we go behind, we discover a cabin. Why?
Because, on construction sites, there is always the cable of the goalkeeper. In fact, it’s simple: I took my elements in the street, in the urban landscape of Beirut today. All comes, sheets, boards, tires. Tags too. They are a sign of general rebellion. In Beirut, everything was tagged and broken. It was therefore necessary that, in my work, there is this vandalism of the Beirut today. So I also used colored bombs.
The tarpaulin is actible with an intense olive green. Where does this color come from?
For anyone, in Lebanon and in the region, it is a military. It is that of war. The installation is called Janus Gate, because it has two sides; Because Janus is a guardian; And also because he is a double God, of peace and war. And this green is also that of small plastic soldiers made in China with whom children play.
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