USEK has an exhibition entitled "Hamra the sidewalk of coexistence" co-curated by Miha Vipotnik and Melissa Gazale (full disclosure, Miha and myself have worked on several projects prior and he even designed the scenography of my own exhibition in Slovenia in 2009) - first the technical details: the exhibition will stay open till December 19th, from 11a.m. till 7p.m. Saturday and Sunday included. The curatorial team also includes: Fabio Macari and Serge Gazale. The concept goes back to Maroun Kosseifi and the graphic design is by Jennate Laamyem.
Is it a not-to-be-missed event? Yes. How come? First let me be clear, no one knows Hamra. The more you dig the more you find, and also to be very clear, there would not a Kaslik if there was not a Hamra (Kaslik was the war answer in the "Eastern Regions" during the war for what Hamra was - before the war to everyone - and during the war to the "Western Regions/West Beirut").
The exhibition dwells on many formats and features works from students in the Arts and Applied Arts Department of USEK. It mixes nostalgia with today, archives with current images, and Hamra being what it is, you wouldn't know the difference. The street mixes everything and everyone in a ribbon of "coexistence" to go back to the title of the exhibition, and yet, for all of its mixing-and-match, (loaded) past, it all makes sense in a very oblique way. Just like the exhibition which is some of sort of organized delirium (hint, the artworks work much better in the afternoon's dimmed light), but to quote Erasmus' book title "In praise of folly", the exhibition gives Hamra its dues - ironically in the university that leads its mirror image street, Kaslik.