Focus on Fouad Elkoury

Conference by Gregory Buchakjian

11.04.2017
At Saradar Collection Offices

Saradar Collection is organizing a series of encounters for the members of the Saradar Group around its art collection‭. ‬For our‭ ‬next conference we propose to have a closer look on the work of Lebanese photographer Fouad Elkoury‭.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Born in 1952‭, ‬Fouad Elkoury studied architecture‭, ‬however intuitively became a photographer‭. ‬In 1991‭, ‬he participated‭, ‬with major practitioners in a photographic mission in the ruins of the Beirut city center‭. ‬Since then‭, ‬his work has been shown in major museums and institutions worldwide‭. ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

During the 1970s and 1980s‭, ‬Elkoury documented life and survival of people in a country doomed by violence and destruction‭. ‬Nevertheless‭, ‬he is not what we commonly call as a war photographer‭. ‬Depicting situations of crisis‭, ‬but also intimacy‭, ‬leisure and‭ ‬resilience‭, ‬his Civil War series is rather a testimony of sensibility and humanity‭. ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Gregory Buchakjian (b. 1971) is a Beirut based art historian and photographer, assistant professor at Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA). His research evolves around modern and contemporary Lebanese and Arab art. He is PhD graduate at Université Paris IV Sorbonne for a dissertation entitled: «Abandoned Dwellings in Beirut. Wars and Transformation of the Urban Space.2015-1860» and a member of the Saradar Collection advisory committee.