Charbel Samuel Aoun

Born in 1980, Charbel Samuel Aoun holds a master’s degree in architecture (2004).
During the following five years he worked as a conceptual designer in several
architectural firms in Beirut and explored the fields of audiovisual and theatre.
At the same time, he started creating a wild garden, combining hundreds of
varieties of plants and trees. Relation with nature and the architectural experience pushed the artist toward working with a variety of mediums such as wood sticks, manure, dust, and discarded objects.
Lebanon is very diverse culturally within the spatial dimension and emotionally through time. In each period social images tends to be both poetic and catastrophic.
That diversity resonates in the artist work through a variety of mediums from daily life uncovering emotions of the present as a trace of time and culture.
Several collectors and institutions such as the Royal Family of Emirates, Raymond Audi, Jean Marc Decrop, Abraham Karabajakian, and the Tate Modern museum collected the artist’s work.
He is currently represented by Mark Hachem Gallery (Beirut-Paris-New York

Garbagescape
2013
Garbagescape contrasts the modern human intervention with the pure state of Nature.
It points out the transformation of our landscapes due to our behaviour and reactions towards natural spaces.
Shoes collected from the garbage mountain of Saida were used as a medium to gradually invade dead sticks’ structures on 3 phases, then exhibited in glass boxes.
Under these boxes one hundred plant of oreganum syriacum (aromatic native plant known as zaatar) were placed and contrasted with the visual of garbage
(shoes). Inside the middle box, two microphones were installed and they were connected to headphones. When the viewer put them, he discovers a track contrasting both sounds of nature and human interventions in the city (All sounds were registered In Lebanon).
The artist wanted to make from the contrast between human actions and nature a multisensory experience for the viewer.

“Garbagescape” was exhibited at Beirut Art Fair-2013 and presented at Tournesol in Beirut in the frame of Moultaka Ibn Rùchd 2014. in March 2014

Solo Exhibitions:
2012 Lost Spring $ SmoGallery-Beirut
2011 Pulse - Art SpaceGallery,Dubai
2010 Flows $ Art Lounge,Beirut
2009BeirutMix $ ZicoHouse,Hamra
2007Out of Space $ FrenchCultural Center-Beirut
2005Demonstrations $ ADGArt Center -Beirut

CollectiveExhibitions:
2013Beirut Artfair-Garbagescape -Biel,Beirut
2013 ! jeux de la francophonie-Nice"- representing Lebanon in painting-
Special mention of the jury
2013Biennale ofMediterranean artists-VoiceOfThe Invisibles-Ancone, Italy.
2013Residency in Caos museum-Terni-Italy
2013 « twelve »-MarkHachem artgallery-Beirut
2013TasmeemDoha design fair-FriendlyGas
2012 Set design! 10453-a story about life in 1km2 of trash"
2012Beirut Artfair-Biel,Beirut
2012 Salon d’Automne $ Beirut Exhibition Center-organized by SursockMuseum
2012 Ipanam-villaZein,BeirutDowntown-organized byHamazkayin Art gallery
2012 Pied D’oeuvres $ Smogallery, Karantina-Beirut
2011 Art Expo, Istanbul
2010 Lebanese ArtDiaspora $ BeirutDome,BeirutDowntown
Tribute to theMartyrs $Hamazkayin ArtGallery
Tear down theWalls $ Art SpaceGallery,Dubai
2009 Salon d’Automne $ SursockMuseum
RajaNehme Sertin ArtGallery
Culture and Identity $HaigazianUniversity
2006 La Peinture des Architectes $ PaulGuiragossianMuseum
2004 LebaneseYoungTalents Exhibition organized by the EuropeanUnion

portrait ©Grace Kassab