RAMI CHAHINE 

at work
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Interventions


How can we reclaim abandoned and neglected urban spaces?



Gathering to make repairs to l’Abricocotier on the Mar Mitr bridge after the rain damaged the original cardboard structure, Beirut (2017) The bridge was a remnant of an old discarded urban plan and it lead to nowhere.



L’abricocotier and El-Ankaboot are two installations which reclaimed neglected urban spaces by repurposing  the existing natural environment or the trash invading the location thus reappropriating  the stagnation that plagued these places.
They both rallied  communities around that cared for the reclaimed spaces and gave them a second life by cleaning the areas, organizing public workshops and jams, building structures and engaging with the residents to rally them around our vision of turning neglected plots in the city to cultural , community  spaces.

How do we approach our work when it becomes clear that the decay hitting our urban, social and environmental fabric reflect deeper systemic corruption?


Is the role of social practice to fill the gap left by the institutions? Or to use it to propose alternative utopias?

El-Ankaboot intervention on a pedestrian bridge in Douar above the disaffected train tracks (2019) The intervention was the last action we undertook on that location after almost two years of ongoing discussions with residents and representatives