cities that transform: beirut after the blast

VICEVERSA is a dynamic platform connecting architecture, visual arts, and discussions on political and social issues. It focuses on the present, critically observing, questioning, and analyzing current events to create messages that highlight today’s complexities. Founded in 2021 by Dorin Ștefan Adam and Laurian Ghinițoiu, VICEVERSA aims to be a source of thought-provoking content, encouraging viewers to look deeper and engage with the forces shaping our world.

A shadow cast in one place can illuminate insights elsewhere. Set 26 meters below the Plenary Hall of the Romanian Parliament, this light, sound, and photography installation becomes a performative rebellion echoing Guy Fawkes’s Gunpowder plot. It underscores how political decisions impact the built environment. A non-place, an underground dark space, abyssal in its oddity, clearly defined yet seemingly endless, where infinity echoes in the concrete structure's reverberations; a space that is so secure that it almost becomes prohibited. The curatorial concept suggests the conversion of this underground technical space, never used, devoid of natural light, from a building classified as a military objective. Isolated from the city, the world's heaviest building ranks second in surface area after the Pentagon. Initially for communist president Nicolae Ceaușescu, the Romanian Parliament now stands as a symbol of the past regime. Though its purpose has shifted, symbolic acts are needed for urban integration. Access of the external public was restricted, an initial condition that we accepted. Organically everybody else found “friends” who worked in the institution. Ironically, people met the political at its home and not in any way, but through "nepotism", but for the first time used for a cultural purpose - a celebrated dialogue even when it seemed impossible. The approval, in itself a performance, 2 years we discussed with several vice, presidents and secretaries of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, technical, security and protection departments. With 10 signatures, none able to provide sanitation, the 40-year thick layer of dust ended up on the shiny politicians’ shoes. Unintentionally, at the vernissage, the designed atmospheric smoke got sucked up by the old ventilation system to the top floors including in the active plenary hall. 45 backlit photographs radiating light, flood the basement's darkness. Negating the grid, they are arranged radially simulating an explosion around the imaginary epicenter, always displayed with the back towards the visitor. The main gesture, the "black hole" is visible only through its own light thrown onto the walls. The image is on the other side, secondary and replaceable by any traumatic event. The theme is the silo explosion in Beirut's port on August 4, 2020, an event that caused massive destruction to the city and loss of lives. Photographed after a month, they capture both trauma and the hope of life.