East Beirut was controlled by the Christian parties claiming to fight for the preservation of the Lebanese nation-state against increasing Palestinian militancy.
While the origin of this designation is not certain, the Green Line aptly described the post-apocalyptic cityscape it traversed, where streets and buildings were overtaken by wild vegetation.
In their works, they blur the lines between truth and fiction, past and present, memory and history, home and exile, and personal and collective trauma.
Each work comes to operate as an alternative form of history and memory, transporting knowledge and narratives about the Lebanese wars across borders, places and times.
[1] Reviews of this exhibition and interviews with the curator appeared in the Ottawa Citizen Scenes from the Green Line: Art and the war in Lebanon, Herd Magazine Narratives of Conflict: Johnny Alam and Akram Zaatari at CUAG, L'Hebdo MagazineAu Carleton Curatorial Laboratory.