Burj El Murr is a forty-two-story never-completed architectural landmark in the Beirut city center. The tower was once considered as an architectural icon of innovation, but became a snipers’ tower during the civil war between east Beirut (Christian cluster) and west Beirut (Muslim cluster). As a result of the war, the tower was never completed and, with no plans for renovations due to urban plans and strategies controlled by political powers, was doomed to remain a constant reminder of the bitter history of Beirut. Currently, the first four floors serveas an army base while the other floors are empty.
This dark image was forgotten for a brief period of two weeks when colorful curtains were installed on the windows of the tower that started to dance with each blow of the wind. To transform the tower, the installation was made up offour hundred colorful window curtains installed on both the eastern and western façades of the tower. The curtains were made of the same fabric and colors as those seen in crowded inhabited Beirut streets where locals actually live, contrasting the coldness of upscale glass towers of the Beirut city center which became a ghost town due to its privatization after the war. Since the permission of Solidere (the landlord and company responsible for the reconstruction of the city center) was not taken for the installation, the challenge was to complete the installation quickly and discretely. For this reason, during the six days of work on site, curtains where rolled on themselves to avoid being seen from the street. On the last day, all the curtains were opened together and the blowing wind started moving them, the tower was given a breath of life. The ‘tower of bitterness’, once a separator standing at the demarcation line, was transformed to the ‘tower of wind’ (Burj El Hawa) a dancing tower in the Beirut skyline calling out for the city to start its long-awaited healing process.
Solidere ordered the immediate dismantling of the installation. Nonetheless, the installation survived for two weeks and transformed to a form of urban activism acting as a wake-up call for people to reclaim the Beirut city center and to participate in building the vision of their own future city. The ‘Burj El Hawa’ installation was acclaimed nationally and internationally and the curtains became messengers of peace and hope and played their role in various subsequent installations in Lebanon and abroad. The installation claimed the first prize at the 2019 edition of the Arte Laguna Prize (Venice – Italy) for the Land Art and Urban Art section and Jad El Khoury was selected for two art residencies as a result: Farm Cultural Park (Sicily) and Nuart Festival (Norway).
Extremist writings, sexual drawing, love letters, death wishes, religious quotes, bullet and missile holes, endless voids…
The building still holds inside a dark energy that it the result of all the crimes that took place in the floors. During the installation works, I documented the inside of AL Murr tower.
Burj El Murr is a forty-two-story never-completed architectural landmark in the Beirut city center. The tower was once considered as an architectural icon of innovation, but became a snipers’ tower during the civil war between east Beirut (Christian cluster) and west Beirut (Muslim cluster). As a result of the war, the tower was never completed and, with no plans for renovations due to urban plans and strategies controlled by political powers, was doomed to remain a constant reminder of the bitter history of Beirut. Currently, the first four floors serveas an army base while the other floors are empty.
This dark image was forgotten for a brief period of two weeks when colorful curtains were installed on the windows of the tower that started to dance with each blow of the wind. To transform the tower, the installation was made up offour hundred colorful window curtains installed on both the eastern and western façades of the tower. The curtains were made of the same fabric and colors as those seen in crowded inhabited Beirut streets where locals actually live, contrasting the coldness of upscale glass towers of the Beirut city center which became a ghost town due to its privatization after the war. Since the permission of Solidere (the landlord and company responsible for the reconstruction of the city center) was not taken for the installation, the challenge was to complete the installation quickly and discretely. For this reason, during the six days of work on site, curtains where rolled on themselves to avoid being seen from the street. On the last day, all the curtains were opened together and the blowing wind started moving them, the tower was given a breath of life. The ‘tower of bitterness’, once a separator standing at the demarcation line, was transformed to the ‘tower of wind’ (Burj El Hawa) a dancing tower in the Beirut skyline calling out for the city to start its long-awaited healing process.
Solidere ordered the immediate dismantling of the installation. Nonetheless, the installation survived for two weeks and transformed to a form of urban activism acting as a wake-up call for people to reclaim the Beirut city center and to participate in building the vision of their own future city. The ‘Burj El Hawa’ installation was acclaimed nationally and internationally and the curtains became messengers of peace and hope and played their role in various subsequent installations in Lebanon and abroad. The installation claimed the first prize at the 2019 edition of the Arte Laguna Prize (Venice – Italy) for the Land Art and Urban Art section and Jad El Khoury was selected for two art residencies as a result: Farm Cultural Park (Sicily) and Nuart Festival (Norway).
Extremist writings, sexual drawing, love letters, death wishes, religious quotes, bullet and missile holes, endless voids…
The building still holds inside a dark energy that it the result of all the crimes that took place in the floors. During the installation works, I documented the inside of AL Murr tower.
Burj El Murr is a forty-two-story never-completed architectural landmark in the Beirut city center. The tower was once considered as an architectural icon of innovation, but became a snipers’ tower during the civil war between east Beirut (Christian cluster) and west Beirut (Muslim cluster). As a result of the war, the tower was never completed and, with no plans for renovations due to urban plans and strategies controlled by political powers, was doomed to remain a constant reminder of the bitter history of Beirut. Currently, the first four floors serveas an army base while the other floors are empty.
This dark image was forgotten for a brief period of two weeks when colorful curtains were installed on the windows of the tower that started to dance with each blow of the wind. To transform the tower, the installation was made up offour hundred colorful window curtains installed on both the eastern and western façades of the tower. The curtains were made of the same fabric and colors as those seen in crowded inhabited Beirut streets where locals actually live, contrasting the coldness of upscale glass towers of the Beirut city center which became a ghost town due to its privatization after the war. Since the permission of Solidere (the landlord and company responsible for the reconstruction of the city center) was not taken for the installation, the challenge was to complete the installation quickly and discretely. For this reason, during the six days of work on site, curtains where rolled on themselves to avoid being seen from the street. On the last day, all the curtains were opened together and the blowing wind started moving them, the tower was given a breath of life. The ‘tower of bitterness’, once a separator standing at the demarcation line, was transformed to the ‘tower of wind’ (Burj El Hawa) a dancing tower in the Beirut skyline calling out for the city to start its long-awaited healing process.
Solidere ordered the immediate dismantling of the installation. Nonetheless, the installation survived for two weeks and transformed to a form of urban activism acting as a wake-up call for people to reclaim the Beirut city center and to participate in building the vision of their own future city. The ‘Burj El Hawa’ installation was acclaimed nationally and internationally and the curtains became messengers of peace and hope and played their role in various subsequent installations in Lebanon and abroad. The installation claimed the first prize at the 2019 edition of the Arte Laguna Prize (Venice – Italy) for the Land Art and Urban Art section and Jad El Khoury was selected for two art residencies as a result: Farm Cultural Park (Sicily) and Nuart Festival (Norway).
Extremist writings, sexual drawing, love letters, death wishes, religious quotes, bullet and missile holes, endless voids…
The building still holds inside a dark energy that it the result of all the crimes that took place in the floors. During the installation works, I documented the inside of AL Murr tower.
Burj El Murr is a forty-two-story never-completed architectural landmark in the Beirut city center. The tower was once considered as an architectural icon of innovation, but became a snipers’ tower during the civil war between east Beirut (Christian cluster) and west Beirut (Muslim cluster). As a result of the war, the tower was never completed and, with no plans for renovations due to urban plans and strategies controlled by political powers, was doomed to remain a constant reminder of the bitter history of Beirut. Currently, the first four floors serveas an army base while the other floors are empty.
This dark image was forgotten for a brief period of two weeks when colorful curtains were installed on the windows of the tower that started to dance with each blow of the wind. To transform the tower, the installation was made up offour hundred colorful window curtains installed on both the eastern and western façades of the tower. The curtains were made of the same fabric and colors as those seen in crowded inhabited Beirut streets where locals actually live, contrasting the coldness of upscale glass towers of the Beirut city center which became a ghost town due to its privatization after the war. Since the permission of Solidere (the landlord and company responsible for the reconstruction of the city center) was not taken for the installation, the challenge was to complete the installation quickly and discretely. For this reason, during the six days of work on site, curtains where rolled on themselves to avoid being seen from the street. On the last day, all the curtains were opened together and the blowing wind started moving them, the tower was given a breath of life. The ‘tower of bitterness’, once a separator standing at the demarcation line, was transformed to the ‘tower of wind’ (Burj El Hawa) a dancing tower in the Beirut skyline calling out for the city to start its long-awaited healing process.
Solidere ordered the immediate dismantling of the installation. Nonetheless, the installation survived for two weeks and transformed to a form of urban activism acting as a wake-up call for people to reclaim the Beirut city center and to participate in building the vision of their own future city. The ‘Burj El Hawa’ installation was acclaimed nationally and internationally and the curtains became messengers of peace and hope and played their role in various subsequent installations in Lebanon and abroad. The installation claimed the first prize at the 2019 edition of the Arte Laguna Prize (Venice – Italy) for the Land Art and Urban Art section and Jad El Khoury was selected for two art residencies as a result: Farm Cultural Park (Sicily) and Nuart Festival (Norway).
Extremist writings, sexual drawing, love letters, death wishes, religious quotes, bullet and missile holes, endless voids…
The building still holds inside a dark energy that it the result of all the crimes that took place in the floors. During the installation works, I documented the inside of AL Murr tower.
