Rania Matar: Artist Statement

From 1975 to 1990, during the civil war in Lebanon, waves of civilians fled their devastated homes and sought shelter in abandoned apartments, villas, hotels, and summer houses. The Lebanese militias and foreign armies also occupied these buildings, using them as headquarters or sleeping quarters. Since the end of the civil war, many homes have been reoccupied by their original owners, while other buildings remain in ruins. An integral part of the urban landscape, these abandoned buildings stand as testaments of wars pastкscattered wounds in the collective memoryкand merit revisiting. These photographs speak of death and survival, the past and the present, and memories and transformations in a country that remains afloat among its ruins.