The solo exhibition “Bernard Khoury. In order of appearance”, entirely dedicated to the famous architect born in Beirut, inaugurated yesterday, October 20, which will be hosted until December 2 at SpazioFMG, the showroom gallery of Iris Ceramica and FMG Fabbrica Marmi e Graniti, in Milan.
Curated by Khoury himself and Luca Molinari, superintendent of the cultural program of the exhibition space, Alessandro Benetti and Danielle Makhoul - the exhibition brings together drawings, images and words describing the architecture of one of the most unconventional contemporary Lebanese designers, undoubtedly influenced by the complex scenarios of his experience, meeting points of different cultural and religious traditions.
The buildings designed by Bernard Khoury / DW5, his professional studio founded in Beirut in 1993, are some of the most spectacular landmarks of a city experiencing a long convalescence. The underground discotheque B 018 (1998) celebrates the unbridled hedonism of the Lebanese nightlife with its sliding roof opening entirely to the sky; the yards lighting the raised pools of the residential building N.B.K. Residence (2013) stand out like beacons in the city skyline; finally, the recent Plot #4371 (2015) gathers 29 studio –apartments around a huge circular lifts of 30 square meters, these are reserved to the new creative elite of the capital.
Moreover, the exhibition involves directly the visitor, telling 16 stories by using as many “Talking Objects” suspended inside the gallery and animated by the voice of Bernard Khoury himself.
Luca Molinari so presented “Bernard Khoury. In order of appearance”:
"Bernard Khoury is one of the most authentic talents of contemporary architecture: Lebanese, following in the family tradition, North American education with a major shift to Harvard, today an important studio in Beirut. His first works - a series of metropolitan and ruthless nightclubs built in the corners of a city suffering an endless war - shook the critics for their combination of irony and formal control that only the pure creators can afford.
In these years, Khoury is investigating the residential world with the design of a series of residential towers that seem to challenge all market rules: solid black, made of metal, few details created with the car design refinement, daring housing cuts on often impossible lots. The result is always the same: sold-out by a new urban middleclass recognizing into architecture with a no-mediated personality. SpazioFMG is proud to host an exhibition conceived in an original way by an absolute master of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern architecture".
