BASILICO, Gabriele (Milano, 1944 - Milano, 2013)Beirut

"In 1991, I was involved by Lebanese writer Dominique Eddé in a project that aimed to photographically document the central area of the city of Beirut. The work was intended for a group of photographers whose experiences would freely intersect. I found myself working alongside Raymond Depardon, René Burri, Josef Koudelka, Fouad Elkoury and Robert Frank [...] Only the topographical area had been identified and it was the same for all of them, corresponding to the central part of the city, limited to the north by the sea, to the south by the ring road called the Ring, to the east by the Christian quarter and to the west by a mixed quarter. It was not a question of making a reportage or producing an inventory, but rather of composing a "state of things", a direct experience of the place entrusted to a free and personal interpretation, at a very delicate and unrepeatable moment in Beirut's history: the end, in 1990, of a gruelling war that had begun fifteen years earlier (13 April 1975) and the wait for a reconstruction that had been announced" (from Basilico's text).

"It is certain that when you arrive in Beirut you feel the weight of history. And it is a heavy baggage to bear. I remember arriving at night, on a very clear night, and they showed me around the city. The city was not lit up, and the buildings looked like ghosts. Only the noise of electric generators could be heard. Space was perceptible but not matter. The atmosphere was both heavy and fascinating' (from Bauret's interview with Gabriele Basilico).

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