Documentary
A multidimensional arena that reveals the fragile lebanese identity more than 20 years after the civil war. Architects, oil sheiks, migrant workers, tourists, western investors and corporations, oligarchs, urbanists, artists, intellectuals and activists contend with each other for their vision for the future identity not only of Lebanon, maybe for the whole Middle East.
For Khoury, architecture is a battle arena. A place that serves as a witness of the history, the presence and the future of a society and a place where the identity and the history of a community is negotiated. How does architecture conserve history without being unprogressive? And even more important: whose history at all? Architecture is always a political act”, Khoury states as he builds monuments against oblivion. Buildings, that make history visible, instead of burying the past. He builds against the “big building boom” in other Arab states manifesting a omnipotence of the ruling elite. He builds against Solidère, a Lebanese joint-stock company, which is transforming the city of Beirut despite massive public protests into an oriental ghost town for western investors and petrodollars.
Architecture at Gunpoint takes the audience on a road trip through the contemporary Middle East. Together with Khoury we want to explore archives, visions and construction sites of landscapes, societies and communities being developed right now while trying to conserve their identities. What are the social impacts of mega-projects like the Burj Khalifa, the Jumeirah Garden City or Dubailand in Dubai? How to evaluate for instance the redevelopment of Qatar, the new coastal City of Lusail, 35 km away from Doha, the Lusail Iconic Stadium, the Entertainment City of Qatar – projects employing low paid foreign workers. Which role does architecture play for the identity formation of a society? How does the contemporary condition of the Middle East look from the inside, from the viewpoint of architecture and urbanism. We want to discuss these and many other questions on site, at those places, where they are raised. We want to discuss them with architects, designers, artists, urbanists and activists, i.e. Walid Raad, Zaha Hadid, Rabih Mroué and of course Bernard Khoury.
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ƬΉΣ BΛD BӨY of architecture in the Middle East. Follow us on a journey through the mind of an exceptional artist!
