Beirut, 2005 - 2007

“Beirut” shows the windows of the hotel in front of which Rafik Hariri was assassinated by a car bomb in 2005. The video was shot secretly in an area that is under the armed protection of the United Nations. In fact, the bomb crater still existed on the other facade of the building when the video was being shot. The peacefully fluttering white curtains of the empty hotel, with the sounds of explosions and sirens heard in the background, leave us with a sudden confrontation with war. As if highlighting the postwar regret, oblivion, and the desperate repetition of war, the video is played in a loop, creating a vicious circle. While the music for the video was composed by Serdar Ateşer, the sounds of war at the end of the video were recorded in 2007 during Israel’s intervention in Lebanon and taken from YouTube (user: msoubra).