Being, becoming, & ceasing to attain either, all occur in the specificity of the place. Inspired by Merleau Ponty’s conception of bodily experience, my inquiry stems from the idea of linking phenomenological being with the physicality of place. In the context of this research, I take Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, as my case study. My project started out as a personal crisis manifested in a lack of sensory perception of the place, but took an unexpected turn when the October 2019 revolution rose against a corrupt system & a dire economic situation. The material I collected serves as an introspection onto how navigating one’s existence in the place fluctuates vis a vis the different elements that compose it. My research proposes a moment of rupture in which we are still dwelling. The place and the people have transformed oneself & one another.

The material I compiled pre-revolution scrutinizes our engagement, or lack thereof, as it unfolds within & through the rigidity of place. Yet, the ongoing revolution has shaken the foundation of being in a place, a shift in performing our being from mere passerbys into an active negotiators.I look at how individuals have transformed their relationship with the city which was once harsh & exclusive, to one that is warm & vivid, notwithstanding sporadic violent ruptures. Parts of Beirut’s city center regarded as bourgeoisie zones have become accessible to all by way of a socio-economic transgression. Neoliberal paradigms that caused sensory stagnation have been dismantled. Space has been reclaimed both materially & symbolically, by the people, & for the people.

By laying out visual and auditory texts of mid-revolution Beirut, I seek to show how the city has transformed from being an Augean non place, one that is insignificant to the formation of social & cultural references between people, to regular meeting points that continue to evolve and forge organic relations between protestors.