The Green Line, 2018 (Mini)

The Blur Series is an ode to the collaborative process between a camera and its photographer. A series of dye-sublimation photographic prints on aluminium, the artworks are of photographs taken with a Lubitel 166+ Lomography film camera, which is a 2008 reproduction of the original 1977 Russian design, the Lubitel 166. Each photograph in the series is an abstract visual interpretation of a specific location. Throughout these works, we learn that the camera is equally capable of telling a story on its own, acting as the artist’s partner rather than the artist’s medium.

Captured in Beirut during his Masters at ETH Zurich, The Green Line is Jassim’s largest and smallest dye-sublimation print on aluminium. During Jassim’s time in Beirut, he visited a waterfront World Heritage site which has been under the threat of demolition by the state. The proliferation of privatized seaside resorts and the exploitation of public land for the sake of tourism has caused heavy disagreements between the people and the state, as such, urbanization could pose disastrous consequences for ecology and marine biodiversity. The deep-green image that was created on this site served as a reminder of a similarly divided time in Beirut’s history, the Civil War of 1975.  

As a consequence of this war, the city of Beirut was split in two and divided into East and West with a physical road which was unmanned territory. The road, due to reduced pollution from car and foot traffic, started growing trees and developed its own unique ecological environment.  It became known as “The Green Line”, a line of demarcation that separated the city’s communities. The Green Line and its ominously appealing aura explain to us that the contemporary divided community is history repeating itself.

Year of Printing: 2023