Department of Architecture in the Ramez G. Chagoury Faculty of Architecture, Arts and Design (RC-FAAD) at Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) student Youssef Chidiac won the Rhodesworks Design Studio (Rhodesworks) competition, which fundamentally seeks proposals in response to “Resolute Arch,” the new sculpture by studio principal Richard Rhodes. The sculpture, a granite arch broken near its apex, will premiere at “Burning Man” in 2018 and from there will tour for the next three years to be installed in five different cities around the world.
This competition invited emerging artists to imagine a site-specific, dramatic, and meaningful context for Resolute Arch. Proposals indicated a specific installation site for Resolute Arch and included forms, such as spatial interventions, ephemeral performances, artistic designs, or other creative forms not mentioned by this brief that would activate the sculpture in the given context.
#NDUer Chidiac was selected as one of the five winners. Authors of the five winning proposals will join Resolute Arch Art Support Camp at Burning Man located in Black Rock City, Nevada, USA.
Chidiac’s idea was to place the resolute arch on the beginning of the green (demarcation) line, which was once a separation between eastern and western Beirut, Christians and Muslims, from the northern part of the city, where there is a statue of martyrs of the war. The broken stone from the arch will represent the fallen memory on this line that once upon a time was just the bold enough who dared to cross it, similar to the concept of the arch where only the bold enough would take a seat under this improbable structure. It would be framing the martyr’s statue in downtown Beirut, right on the beginning of the green line.
After winning the competition, Beirut was chosen as one of five cities where the resolute arch will be installed within a three-year timeline.