|
"Representations of the war increasingly subsumed the country
into Beirut the muse--majestic, erotic and violated. This
symbol of multiculturalism, of religious pluralism, a beehive
of intellectual activity that spanned the extreme right and
extreme left, all living together in more or less perfect
symbiosis collapsed in 1975 when the war broke out." With
the idea of the powerful destruction of war, Dr. Miriam Cooke,
professor of Arabic at Duke University and author of five
works on such issues as feminist concerns in the Arab world
and women in the Lebanese Civil War, presented "The Aesthetics
of War Destruction: Beirut, 1975-1995" in a thought-provoking
lecture to a typical Civilization Sequence Forum audience
of AUB academics, intellectuals and a few students. Among
those who engaged in a radical debate that followed the lecture
were Emily Nasrallah, a well-known Lebanese novelist; and
two AUB Civilization Sequence professors, Dr. Lamia Schehadeh,
a respected AUB feminist scholar; and Dr. Mona Amyuni, who
has worked on the theme of the city in her literary criticism.
Indeed, by expressing the need to sublimate the war through
narratives, photography or exhibitions in a destructive art
style la Foucault or la Magritte--two mid-twentieth century
French intellectuals--Dr. Cooke explained the importance of
providing a closure, a new kind of framework to transmit the
war memory. According to Dr. Cooke, this painful artistic
recreation of the war blocked many local researchers and intellectuals
unable to forget the painful living through traumatic war
events. As the comment of Dr. Amal Dibbo, Civilization Sequence
teacher at AUB, showed, a time to forget is needed for artists
and writers who have been overwhelmed by a sequence of tragic
events. Dr. Cooke also explained that recreating the "aura"
of downtown Beirut "is made possible only through the function
of destructive art" that enables every person who lived the
war to interpret it or sublimate the memory of traumatic events
in a personal and private creative manner. Thus, from destructive
art springs a reflection of the theme of disappearance as
well as the need to erase the past. However, the majority
of the audience rejected the amnesia function that Cooke said
was imposed by a traumatic post-war situation. At the same
time, several members of the audience felt compelled to express
their concerns related to the different points of view and
motivations about the pre-Solidere reconstruction of the town.
"Too partial," "Unnecessary aesthetics through foreigners'
eyes," were the comments that followed the projection of Magnum
Agency photographs of downtown Beirut before its renovation.
Extracted from a coffee table book by Dominique Edde, the
photographs, glossy and sublime at the same time, aroused
a debate on the validity of transmitting to present generations
a "distance from the epicenter or violence." Dr. Cooke's lecture
provoked much debate on timely issues. Should we forget the
martyred Beirut and look with a historical memory at this
"ageless courtesan," as described by Najla Chehab? Or should
we look at a downtown represented by any "motivated" artist
whose only aim seems to be the passage "from one moral order
to the other"? Should Beirut become, as Franois Leotard commented,
"the [eternal] forgotten"? The controversy still goes on.
|
