Bonnefantenmuseum, 2019-Gallery

Blue Building, 2015

"Everyday, I looked out my window at the problematic building being constructed across from my studio. Illegally built, it pollutes the river with its construction debris and partially sits on a landfill that used to be home to a large number of trees. The landfill is situated on an incline so during the winter months, they had to cover the soil under the building with a blue plastic sheet to prevent landslides. I would watch them work on Sunday nights without any days off all week - an abusive labor practice made more horrific because the weary workers had fled from the Syrian war. The owners had little regard to safety, regulations, labor laws and the surrounding environment, one wonders if the ancient Roman aqueduct above the site was damaged further through construction negligence - making cultural heritage a causality as well. The work Blue Building is a testimonial, emblematic of the problems and practices that took place during the time frame of the actual building environment."

Spectre, 2006-2008

"When I first began working on the Spectre project, based on the Yacoubian building in Ras Beirut, I was interested in German philosopher Martin Heidegger's text on habitat and dwelling in his book "Poetry, Language, Thought", The Yacoubian building had no resemblance to what Heidegger was suggesting on the issue of dwelling. was this a different type of dwelling? Or was it even a dwelling at all? Fascinated, I began studying the building as a housing structure for people from different cultural, economic, and religious backgrounds. Originally built as a modernist building in the early 1960s, the Yacoubian building was of several large structures built as a result of the economic boom in that era. Catering to the growing middle class until 1975 when the civil war broke out, the building then began to house new tenants from different backgrounds. Clashing with the aesthetics of the modern, the building started to transform with its new inhabitants. Even the interior that had a clear delineation of private and common space started to transform into ambiguous space. Spectre solidified these contradictions through a long process of repetitive acts to create 252 units made of concrete, aluminum and glass, replicating every single unit in the original edifice.