Sex, Ruin(s) & (3rd) Space

Queer (adj): the term ‘queer’ stems from the original word ‘terkw-’ meaning to twist, through the german word 'quer'. It becomes an expression for something that is perverse, or ‘off centre’. (verb) The Scottish idiom is the act of ruining, or spoiling, and sits in an eccentric, peculiar state.

After the Beirut Blast in August 2020, people were left in a state of isolation and systems of care and solidarity were lost. A ruin, nonfunctioning, where its inhabitants and plumbing are cut off, enters into the realm of sculpture. With the simple act of adding a chair, or a table, or even an instrument, the sculpture could perform as a shelter, shifting from content to container. With the mirrored depiction of a ruin and the other; a new grass-root campaign: Bayt Akhar is formed. Acting on the duality of heritage restoration and queer production, it aims to demarcate bravespaces of queer initiatives around the city. A gradient of spaces that operate within the spectrums of private to public, micro to macro, individual to commune and offensive to defensive are formed within the existing fragments.

Seven acts are formed in order to challenge the heteronormative sphere, not solely to act as a sign of protest, but to epitomise a public performance of visibility and liberation - these are joined by a set of framework questions, such as: how can the body reclaim its orientation? who is in charge of heritage? can we distort social order? how can space be fluid?