Annabel Karim Kassar Architects shows in the Cortile 700 of the Università Statale in Milan “Camera Chiara“, an architectural installation with two pavilions: Liwan and Camera Obscura. Invited to the Energy For Creativity exhibition organized by the Italian magazine Interni (on show until May 24, 2015), Annabel Karim Kassar Architects chose to display a monumental architectural structure as a vision of everyday life in a Lebanese room. Through the bellows of old cameras, Kassar symbolizes stills of Lebanese lifestyles brought to life here by the actor-spectators entering, wandering through, contemplating and leaving the space. Annabel Karim Kassar not only highlights savoir-faire but also French and Lebanese savoir-vivre. Attracted by the diffuse light from Saint-Gobain’s hand-blown glass, one is in for a rare experience – a piece of interior and a kind of cinema installation.
The wood floor was hand painted by craftspeople in the same patterns found on Lebanese ceramics. A sofa and vintage armchairs invite the visitor to sit. A vintage damask silk fabric covers the main couch. A recording of the hubbub of the city mixed with the traditional Arab music playing on a vintage gramophone and the singing of a bird comfortably perched on its cage.
all images © NICOLÓ LANFRANCHI