São Paulo – The faces of unknown people ignored by society in the city of São Paulo have turned to art in the photographs, engravings and paintings featured in Anonymous Faces, an exhibition by the artist Tarek Orra Mourad, from November 6th to December 5th at Beirut’s Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Centre.
A Lebanese descendant, Mourad was born in São Paulo. A designer, photographer and fine artists, he took pictures of approximately 150 people in the city in 1994. All of the subjects were anonymous, including homeless people and street peddlers.
“I spent two months in downtown São Paulo taking pictures of unknown faces. These are society’s outcasts,” says Mourad. At the time, the photos were shown in Faces from São Paulo, an exhibition held in Brazil, Lebanon and Portugal.
Twenty years later, while riding the subway, the artist met one of his subjects again. “He was in the same condition as before,” he says. Indignant about the lack of improvement in these people’s lives, Mourad decided to make a rereading of his photographs and worked them into engravings, oil paintings and watercolours, creating a new show altogether.
“The goal is to raise awareness to the fact that we must not look at them as anonymous people, and see what each individual can do for their (social) inclusion,” he says.
According to him, many of these people are wrapped up in themselves and no longer know how to live in society. “They require psychological work. There are people who have forgotten how to live with others. And this is not a government issue, each citizen has the duty and the obligation [to work for this inclusion],” he says.
In Anonymous Faces, Beirut audiences will see reworkings of approximately 20 photos by Mourad. According to Samia Yakzan, director of the Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Centre, the Lebanese population was not accustomed to seeing beggars and street people until recently.
“My mother lived here in the 70s and there used to be no beggars,” she claims, explaining that as immigrants arrived, the number of outcasts grew.
Thus, she believes the Lebanese public will identify with the images. “We were all touched because there is a beautiful human side to this. People will identify the faces of society’s outcasts in any urban centre in the world,” she remarks.
Service
Anonymous Faces Exhibition
Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Centre
Opening: November 6th, 8pm
Opening hours and dates: until December 5th, from Mondays to Fridays from 10am to 8pm
Address: Mar Mitr street, Trad building, 176 Achrafieh – Beirut
Free admission
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
