I was interested in investigating and documenting changes that were happening in the public spaces of Beirut following the political-sectarian conflict that resurfaced in Lebanon after the assassination of former Prime Minister Hariri in February 2005. This new..
Mohamad Hafeda
Mohamad Hafeda is an artist, a writer, and an academic. Hafeda holds a PhD degree in Architectural Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (2015). He is a senior lecturer of architecture at Leeds Beckett University. Hafeda is the author of Negotiating Conflict in Lebanon: Bordering Practices in a Divided Beirut (I.B. Tauris, 2019). He is the co-author of Febrik’s projects Creative Refuge (Tadween publishing, 2014) and Action of Street / Action of Room: A Directory of Public Actions (Serpentine Galleries, 2016), and the co-editor of Narrating Beirut from its Borderlines (Heinrich Boll Foundation, 2011).
Hafeda is a founding partner of Febrik, a collaborative platform for participatory art and design research working on issues of refuge and spatial rights. Febrik collaborates with communities, NGOs, and cultural institutions. Their projects include residencies and exhibitions at the Serpentine Galleries, South London Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, Mosaic Rooms, and Architecture Biennale Rotterdam. Hafeda’s practice-led research projects include Sewing Borders (2017), a video commission by Ashkal Alwan for Video Works 2017, selected for the International Film Festival Rotterdam IFFR 2018 and Queer Lisboa International Film Festival 2018; The Chosen Two (2012), a multimedia gallery installation commission by the Beirut Art Center for Exposure 2012 exhibition; and Negotiating Conflict: Bordering Practices in a Divided Beirut art series (2010 – 2014) supported by AFAC Grant for Visual Arts, FFB Trust, and UCL.