Dia Mrad is a Lebanese visual artist and architectural photographer, who was born in Ras Baalbek, Lebanon in 1991. In 2007 1 , he relocated to Beirut, a city whose architectural landscape would...
Written by
LIAM SIBAI
Dia Mrad is a Lebanese visual artist and architectural photographer, who was born in Ras Baalbek, Lebanon in 1991. In 2007 1 , he relocated to Beirut, a city whose architectural landscape would later dominate the artist’s subject matter.
Mrad’s journey with architecture started with obtaining his Bachelor’s degree in Architecture at the Université Saint-Esprit in Kaslik (USEK), in 2014 2 . He furthered his studies there, earning a Master’s degree in 2017.
By 2019, Dia embarked on a project he continues to work on till today. The project was to preserve Beirut’s architectural heritage through its documentation. His early photographs, such as Alb, 2019 or Sayegh II, 2019, sought to document the blend of Ottoman and French influences3 seen in Lebanese architectural styles. Mrad’s interest in Beirut's architectural heritage was primarily ethno-cultural.
However, in late 2019, Lebanon plunged into an economic and political crisis that transformed the trajectory of Mrad's work. Once focused on the static past of Beirut's architecture, his work began to reflect the city's dynamic and tumultuous present 4 .
A pivotal moment in Mrad's career occurred on August 5, of 2020 5 , a day after a devastating explosion shook Beirut, damaging a significant portion of its architectural heritage. Among the destruction was Villa Moqbel 6 , an example of traditional Lebanese architecture, which Mrad captured in his piece titled Gibran Khalil Gibran, 2020. This image, now part of the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation collection, depicts the blast's impact on the building. It quickly gained attention on social media and across news outlets. Both sources helped the artist leverage a newfound recognition to hold his first solo exhibition 7 in 2021, The Road to Reframe.
This exhibition showcased a collection of photographs captured just months after the explosion, highlighting the damage inflicted on the grain silo, a prominent landmark in Beirut's port since 1968 8 . It exemplified how Mrad had shifted his focus from merely documenting architectural heritage to capturing the profound impact of political change on Beirut's architectural landscape.
While The Road to Reframe delved into the effects of a single cataclysmic event, Mrad's subsequent project, Utilities, explored people's everyday lives grappling with the ongoing crises. Beginning in 2022, Mrad's lens turned to commonplace objects that emerged in response to these crises. These objects included metal boxes designed to secure ATMs during the night and solar panels mounted on traditional Lebanese architecture 9 , a response to the energy shortage triggered by the economic turmoil. These objects, photographed by Mrad, were poignant symbols of the crisis – not explicit representations but rather traces of its impact 10 . Rather than showing people enduring electricity shortages, he showcased solar panels; instead of depicting ATM robberies due to financial desperation, Mrad captured ATMs securely locked inside protective boxes 11 . In Utilities, architecture served as the backdrop, a silent witness to the transformation in people's daily lives.
Gradually, Mrad moved away from his initial focus of merely documenting Beirut’s architectural heritage. With 2023’s Tradition of Change, Mrad’s most recent project, he took yet another step away from his origins, opting to tackle Riyadh’s architectural heritage rather than Beirut’s. Tradition of Change consists of two-dimensional images of buildings about to be torn down, silkscreen printed onto three-dimensional pieces of debris 12 , collected from buildings already torn down 1 . In this project, the artist also moved away from a pure photographic practice, which he maintained even in Utilities, to a mixture of photography and sculpture.
Throughout the artist’s oeuvre, there is a recurrent exploration of the dissonance between two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality. This is a reflection of the artist’s dual interests in photography and architecture. Early pieces, like Jealous, 2019, and Peeking, 2019, focus purely on building facades, rendering them almost as monochromatic backdrops for features like windows and balconies. The same interplay persists in Utilities, especially with the cubic metal boxes safeguarding ATMs. Mrad's close-up technique, combined with a wide lens can “bring volume out of photography” 2 , capturing the weight and corporeality of the object of photography.
Today, Dia Mrad resides in Beirut, frequently participating in artist residencies worldwide, including France and Saudi Arabia.
Edited byWafa Roz & Elsie Labban
Sources:
Mrad, Dia.“Dia Mrad on Instagram.” Instagram, January 31, 2023. www.instagram.com
Mrad, Dia. “Dia Mrad on Instagram.” Instagram, January 8, 2023. www.instagram.com
Mrad, Dia. “Dia Mrad: Artist Bio & Art for Sale.” Artscoops. Accessed September 28, 2023. artscoops.com
Hamadeh, Yara. Beirut through Dia Mrad’s Lens. YouTube. Yara Hamadeh, 2023.
Mrad, Dia. “Dia Mrad on Instagram.” Instagram, June 6, 2023. www.instagram.com
“Reframing Beirut- Art Dubai 2022.” Zawyeh Gallery, August 24, 2023. zawyeh.net/art-dubai
Dia Mrad: Utilities, Zawyeh Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Power Shifts, Al Qasimiyah School, Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates
2022
The Road To Reframe, BB Museum, Brasilia, Brazil The Road To Reframe, Museum of Art of Rio, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil The Road To Reframe, Fondation Château Mercier, Sierre, Switzerland
2021
The Road To Reframe, Arthaus, Beirut, Lebanon
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Unfolding the Embassy, Fenaa Alawwal, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2023
Masaha Residency Cycle 5 Showcase, Misk Art Institute, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2022
Entangled Existence, Zawyeh Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2021
Gallery Salahin, Paris, France
Collections
Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belgium A.R.M. Holding, Dubai, United Arab Emirates The Coronet Theatre, London, United Kingdom
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