Galerie Claude Lemand

YAZAN HALWANI, L’ARBRE DE LA MEMOIRE. - LIBAN, LA GRANDE FAMINE, 1915-1918.

www.yazan­hal­wani.com

From 1915 to 1918, cur­rent day Lebanon wit­nes­sed one of its most tragic events : The Great Famine. More than half of the popu­la­tion died or immi­gra­ted to flee from hard­ship, yet the Great Famine has not had any memo­rials… It is said that the Lebanese suffer from col­lec­tive amne­sia, and that Beirut finds it dif­fi­cult to recall its brutal past. It is also said those who cannot remem­ber the past are doomed to repeat it.

The art­work is the memo­rial of the vic­tims of the ‘Great Famine’ of Lebanon (1915-1918) that resul­ted in the migra­tion and death of more than half of Mount Lebanon and Beirut’s popu­la­tion. This event and many others, have not had a memo­rial erec­ted for them in the past cen­tury.
A hun­dred years later, only the trees can bear wit­ness to the events that occur­red.

The Memory Tree car­ries within it the memory of the people. Its ‘leaves’ are com­po­sed of wri­tings of many contem­po­ra­ries to the famine such Gibran Khalil Gibran, Tawfik Yousef Awwad, Anbara Salam Al-Khalidi and many others.