Opening: Tuesday 26 March, 2013 at 6:00 pm (till April 20 , 2013) Venue: Agial Art Gallery, 63 Abdel Aziz St., Hamra, Beirut, Lebanon.
“The Days of the Blue Bat”, 2013 Installation, images and objects
A project by Salah Saouli
The year 1958 in Lebanon was marked by a crisis that lasted six months and made the deep rifts in the society clear. The regional geopolitical situation and its players influenced the crisis strongly, including the landing of 14,000 US-marines on the coast of Beirut, termed “Operation Blue Bat”.
The conflict arose from different social and political aspects and led to a general chaos. In the aftermath, this episode was defined as either “Revolution of 58”, “Violence of 58”, “Unrest” or “Insurrection. A political compromise with the motto “no winners and no losers” ended this crisis. 17 years later, unsolved problems led to the Civil War. The corrupted political leadership is still today in firm control and dominates society and the political landscape. At the end, there were no winners, only a large number of victims.
The exhibition goes beyond mere documentary and explores a period of the recent Lebanese past that remains largely unexamined and allows for a re-contextualization of historical processes.
