Exactly a year ago, on August 4, 2020, the people of Beirut came across something that left them in shambles and agony. The city saw a massive explosion at the port that killed at least 190 people and left thousands injured, leaving vast stretches of the capital in ruins.

Nearly 3,000 tonnes of improperly stored ammonium nitrate caused the blast and left everyone in such a position, that the scars from the incident are fresh even after a year. The families who lost their loved ones still await justice as the investigation remains inconclusive, stalled by political contrivances.

As the incident completes a year, Celine and Tatiana Stephan, architects and co-founders of Architecture et Mecanismes, decided to collect testimonials of the horrific incident. After twenty days of the blast, the two sisters started to collect over 100 testimonials of people from different walks of life in Beirut who were affected by the blast.

The duo vowed and decided to keep the event from being forgotten. So they started to place the stories in plain sight around the city with their project titled ‘Beirut Narratives’.

Since May, on every fourth day of the month, they have used the collected testimonials to create urban installations at the damaged areas in the city as a form of commemoration and quiet protest.

Large tapestries of jute bags sewn together, that represent the torn fabric of Beirut display quotes, pictures, and drawings about what people experienced that day and the trauma of the aftermath, have been hung from buildings.

The two sisters asked everyone to share with them their testimonials and went to hospitals and on the ground to talk to people. They also asked parents to send us their kids’ drawings, as that’s how kids express themselves.
Some chose writing, as writing was one of the best forms to expel all their pain and everything they experienced. They wanted to immortalise those words they used and decided on an urban installation within the city of Beirut as a first phase and then started building our fragments.

The duo collected the stories in French, English, and Arabic and grouped them into three categories —people’s emotions, descriptions of what was happening, and their reflections in the aftermath. To add to that, Ahead of each new installation, a mailbox has been kept for anyone who wishes to add their story or suggest a place to hang another ‘fragment’.