Not All Things that Shine Are Beautiful

Virtual Soundwalk

In this experimental short video, filmmaker Nour Ouayda takes viewers on a walk towards Beirut’s seaside. Her camera is oriented toward the city’s texture, light, and colors, zooming in on the mundane details as if unable to see the city as a whole or at once.

A Walk with Nour Ouayda
With the Voice of Ghalas Charara
Beirut, Autumn 2021

This virtual soundwalk is part of the virtual exhibition «Norient City Sounds: Beirut» curated and edited by Rayya Badran.

Biography

Nour Ouayda is a filmmaker, film critic, and programmer. She is deputy director at Metropolis Cinema Association in Beirut where she also manages the Cinematheque Beirut project. She is a co-editor of the Montreal-based online film journal «Hors champ». Her films and writing research the practice of drifting in cinema. She is part of the «Camelia Committee», a collective that explores hybrid forms of writing for and in cinema. Follow her on Instagram.

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Sonic Traces: From the Arab World

€16.00

Music, sounds and noises from the Arab World – Collected and mixed by the Norient collective. Vinyl and digital.

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Beirut Adrift

€6.00

A very personal selection of tracks from Beirut, Lebanon, that captures the shifts from sorrow to riotous urges, from surrender to escape, from remembrance to lapses of memory.

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Published on August 25, 2022

Last updated on December 18, 2023

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City

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Norient City Sounds: Beirut

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An Active Nuclear Power Plant

Quotation

by Majd Shidiac

«When I think of all the music coming out of this city, in parties and live sets, I take notice of the looping eruptions, as if propelled in an active nuclear power plant.»

This quote is from the article «From the Bottom of a Reactor» by Majd Shidiac. The article is part of the virtual exhibition «Norient City Sounds: Beirut» curated and edited by Rayya Badran.

Biography

Majd Shidiac is a writer, spoken-word poet, and performer from Beirut. With an affinity for contemporary and folk sounds from the Arab world, Majd explores sonic revelation and sound identity in journalistic-style features and freeform essaying featured in publications such as Norient, Scenenoise, and Project Revolver. Follow him on his Website.

Links

Majd Shidiac: «From the Bottom of a Reactor» (Norient)

Published on August 25, 2022

Last updated on August 25, 2022

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Violence

Dance

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Norient City Sounds: Beirut

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The Tidal Surge

Virtual Soundwalk

by Farah Awada

In this short video, artist Farah Awada records the ebbs and flows of the city of Beirut during one of its most tumultuous periods. From the uproar of the 2019 uprising to the stillness of the global lockdown and the economic crises that took place in between, her video is a montage of sounds, images, objects, and people that populated her life during that time.

Artist’s Note

A surge is caused by the storm’s winds pushing intense insecurities, fears, energies, and emotions onshore. Storm tide is the total observed seawater level during a storm, resulting from the combination of storm surge and the astronomical tide.

Beirut is an ever-changing city as it reflects our collective states of mind and energies and it has always been challenging to survive in it. But when you start to observe and listen to the city, all the layers become more audible and what was previously hidden is right there for you to grasp.

I have always struggled to understand and accept the city of Beirut. It has shaped me and it’s entrenched in my identity as if I’m tied to its core by an invisible rope, a rope that I can’t see and therefore can’t cut.

I’m obsessed with memories and stories; my chosen memories always revolve around a collection of all my senses and remembering is the act of reliving these moments.

In this virtual soundwalk, I tried to recreate and retrace the last couple of years as I felt them and as they were documented in my archive of videos and sound recordings. The piece is a reflection of the sounds and images of Beirut experienced through my sense of time, speed, and intensity.

The definition of safety and security is continually redefined and highlighted in relation to emotional, mental, and physical states as we have collectively gone through the most intense and terrifying period in our lives in the past few years.

credits

Sound design produced in collaboration with Rhéa Dally

Sound mixing and mastering by Zaki Al Hamwi

This virtual soundwalk is part of the virtual exhibition «Norient City Sounds: Beirut» curated and edited by Rayya Badran.

Biography

Farah Awada is a Lebanese artist who has lived in Beirut all her life. Driven by her curiosity of sounds, noise, and images, Farah has been experimenting with photography since 2012, and more recently started exploring the world of video and soundscapes. «The Tidal Surge» is her first project in this medium, and was treated as a discovery of herself and Beirut. Follow her on Instagram.

Published on August 25, 2022

Last updated on December 18, 2023

Topic

City

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Specials

Norient City Sounds: Beirut

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