Arleb by Nabad interviews emerging artist from Beirut Manar Ali Hassan, whose ongoing work revolves around reshaping identities in the shadow of an inescapable painful body. 

Arleb by Nabad – What is your background and what is the experience that has influenced your work the most?

Manar Ali Hassan – Art education, graphic design and visual art. And the experience that has influenced my work the most is the stigma of being a woman with chronic pain.

Arleb by Nabad – Which subjects or themes are you working on? 

Manar Ali Hassan – Reshaping identities in the shadow of a painful body. “Ode to Beirut” is a visceral reaction to the Beirut blast that took place on August 4, 2020. It queries the notion of collapsing space and time into one image. The analog of the inescapable event is reshuffled as a trapped succession of distortions, where the figures representing a painful body are dissolving into several fields and breaking up, hinting at the devastated city. 

Arleb by Nabad – What is your creative process like? 

Manar Ali Hassan – Experimental.

Arleb by Nabad – What was the impact of the Beirut port explosions (August 4, 2020) on your work as an artist/creative enterprise? 

Manar Ali Hassan – My personal chronic pain became collective, leading to an embrace between the inescapable painful body (now collective) and a devastated city.

Arleb by Nabad – What are, according to you, the roles of arts and culture in social, economic, environmental or political change? 

Manar Ali Hassan – Art should be inclusive, especially when its aim is not to be hanged in living rooms but to impact lives. 

Arleb by Nabad – What are, according to you, the main challenges/obstacles facing artists/creative enterprises in Lebanon nowadays? 

Manar Ali Hassan – The art scene is ruled by a handful of curators and their chosen artists. Not enough platform for emerging artists, nor for experimental forms of arts.

CHECK OUT MANAR ALI HASSAN PROFILE AND ARTWORKS FOR SALE ON ARLEB.