{"id":5653,"date":"2021-04-21T10:40:13","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T06:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/?p=5653"},"modified":"2021-04-21T10:42:40","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T06:42:40","slug":"art-in-lebanon-reels-from-unprecedented-economic-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/art-in-lebanon-reels-from-unprecedented-economic-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Art in Lebanon Reels From Unprecedented Economic Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the wounded city of Beirut, where dusty debris are piled up with shattered hopes and dreams, multimedia artist Katya Traboulsi\u00a0reels from the devastating effects of Lebanon’s economic crisis on her life.\u00a0\u201cIt has become very difficult and expensive for me to have the freedom of expressing my art through different mediums,\u201d says the 61-year-old artist, from her atelier in Beirut. Best known for her\u00a0hand-crafted replicas of Lebanese war bomb shells adorned with colorful ornaments, she\u00a0had to put her new project on hold because of its cost, waiting for better days\u00a0that don\u2019t seem to\u00a0be near. Amid a deep economic crisis, the future of the art scene in Lebanon remains uncertain.

Since 2019, Lebanon has been going through a series of crises, leaving the population\u00a0with\u00a0a projected increase in poverty to 45% and in extreme poverty to 22%, according to the World Bank<\/a>.\u00a0The local currency has gone through an unprecedented devaluation amid a scarcity of the US dollars on the local market.\u00a0The purchasing power of the Lebanese has gone to an all-time low, with the Lebanese pound selling at around\u00a013,000\u00a0to the dollar, compared with 1,500 pounds in 2018.\u00a0The \u201cthawra\u201d anti-corruption protest movement, the COVID-19 pandemic and the explosion at the Beirut port on 4th<\/sup>\u00a0of August\u00a0added to the people\u2019s suffering from the political divisions and the financial meltdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The economic crisis is making art less essential and unaffordable for many, in a country known for its thriving art scene.\u00a0Artists and gallerists\u00a0who once were the soul of the \u201cthawra,\u201d\u00a0are now looking for ways to survive financially.\u00a0\u201cThe Lebanese artist, who used to be paid in Lebanese pounds and who used to live well, has lost almost\u00a090%\u00a0percent of the value of their money,\u201d said Laure d\u2019Hauteville, director and founder of the Beirut Art Fair, which has not taken place since 2019. Indeed, the sale of artworks at local galleries has become complicated. It’s only been saved by some art collectors, who\u00a0have continued to buy artworks using bank accounts abroad. Banks have been imposing limits on withdrawals and transactions in the country.\u00a0

For Marianne Chalabi, director at the Mark Hachem gallery, the devaluation of the local currency was the main problem. \u201cWhat has become complicated in selling artworks is that people want to pay in checks because it is complicated for them to take out money from the bank, so they don\u2019t want to pay in cash.\u201d While younger artists would rather accept checks even if this means losing half of the value of their artwork, more established artists prefer to be paid in cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jean-Georges Prince in a Zoom Call interview. March 22, 2021. Dubai, UAE. Kyara Chams.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Like many other Lebanese,\u00a0some artists are looking to leave the country in search of a better life abroad.\u00a0Tattoo artist\u00a0Jean-Georges Prince\u00a0moved to Dubai last March when\u00a0he got an opportunity in advertising, his former job. it had been very difficult to\u00a0sustain\u00a0himself financially in Beirut as a tattoo artist.\u00a0\u201cAs an artist, you will take the first opportunity you have to actually go and do what you love in an environment that allows you to do it better. (\u2026) Talented people from Lebanon are going to be poached. They’re going to find opportunities elsewhere and they’re going to take it,\u201d said Prince. \u201cI literally don’t know anybody who’s been in any kind of art field who hasn’t fled already.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some artists however are determined to stay in Lebanon.

Katya Traboulsi is one of them. She\u2019s already been through many wars, including the devastating Israeli invasion of the country in 1982. She remains optimistic and believes that Lebanon and its art scene will rise again.\u00a0\u201cWe are only trying to survive financially. Art will never die, meanwhile, it\u2019s on a respirator.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the wounded city of Beirut, where dusty debris are piled up with shattered hopes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5658,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653\/revisions\/5658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}