Camera Chiara | Annabel Karim Kassar Architects

Annabel Karim Kassar Architects shows in the Cortile 700 of the Università Statale in Milan an architectural installation Camera Chiara with two pavilions: Liwan and Camera Obscura.

Conceived to be reused and reassembled in a different location after its launch in Milan: the Liwan as a mobile shelter and the Camera Obscura as an itinerant cinema.

Invited to the Energy For Creativity exhibition, Annabel Karim Kassar Architects chose to display a monumental architectural structure in the Cortile 700 and a vision of everyday life in a Lebanese room.

Through the bellows of old cameras, Kassar symbolizes stills of Lebanese lifestyles brought to life here by the actor-spectators entering, wandering through, contemplating and leaving the space.

Two telescopic structures, named Liwan and Obscura respectively, made of raw metal and burnt dark and rough wooden planks face one another not far from Kengo Kuma’s paper structure and Alessandro Medini’s giant red lips.

Annabel Karim Kassar not only highlights savoir-faire but also French and Lebanese savoir-vivre. Attracted by the diffuse light from Saint-Gobain’s hand-blown glass, one is in for a rare experience – a piece of interior and a kind of cinema installation.

Liwan is a tradition passed down from Ottoman constructions.

“The great Roman and prehistoric excavations – as well as the bombings – have left the city of Beirut pockmarked, exposing its insides. Many people live precariously here on mounds of soil with a bit of flooring.

I decided to carry with me a “chunk” with its thickness and layers of ground to try to show the complexity of the city” explains Annabel Karim Kassar.

The wood floor was hand painted by craftspeople in the same patterns found on Lebanese ceramics. A sofa and vintage armchairs invite the visitor to sit. A vintage damask silk fabric covers the main couch.

A recording of the hubbub of the city mixed with the traditional Arab music playing on a vintage gramophone and the singing of a bird comfortably perched on its cage.

“During my travels I met the best craftspeople, great artists and a multitude of passionate people in various fields. I wanted to pay them tribute here by creating an ode to their knowledge”

The quiet Obscura Pavilion is showing some movies talking about human stories, make up processes, craftsmanship…

“I find it important to talk about the roots that give us our strength, and to talk about it in a comfortable space” says Annabel Karim Kassar ”The viewer will appreciate – I hope – a whole new kind of cinema, lying stretched out or curled up on mattresses handmade by artisans in Tripoli.”

Team:

Rabih Zeidan architect, project manager
Violaine Jeantet interior architect
Christophe Hascoet lighting designer
Caï light lighting designer
Alain Pin lighting designer
Produced by HSC