“On the Other Side of Time” draws its inspiration from Dante’s famous “Divine Comedy”, a timeless epic that narrates the poet’s travels through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. The poem, an allegory of man’s journey through life towards salvation, emphasizes the consequences of sin and the glories of Heaven. I was struck by its relevance to the time and place in which we find ourselves, seven centuries later, Lebanon being in a state of unprecedented economic and social collapse due to decades of corruption, negligence and treachery, coupled with impunity.
The site-specific installation, occupying the square adjacent to Saint Elias church, at a prominent crossroad in downtown Beirut, echoes both the theme and structure of the poem through a multilayered symbolic composition. While expressing my response to the here and now, I wanted the work to be inclusive, engaging, and, above all, to instill the belief that, there exists, still, a ray of hope.