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Nadim Karam is an architect, artist, academic and author who has created large-scale projects
internationally, including in Melbourne, Australia; Prague; London; Tokyo;
Kwangju, Korea; and in his home city of Beirut, Lebanon. Following an invitation by the UrbanArt Commission and
Memphis College of Art, Karam visited Memphis from October 25 to 27, 2012. On
his itinerary were major cultural venues, such as Graceland and the National
Civil Rights Museum, meetings with cultural and urban leaders in the City, and
presentations of his philosophy and public art projects to MCA and UAC
audiences.
During his stay, Karam lectured at
Memphis College of Art and spoke at the dedication of the new Legacies
sculpture by Vinnie Bagwell in Chickasaw Heritage Park, a City of Memphis
Percent-for-Art project. Nadim Karam’s visit was sponsored in part by the
UrbanArt Commission in celebration of its 15-year anniversary. Nadim Karam spoke at Memphis College of
Art as part of the college’s ongoing Visiting Artist Lecture Series. A major part of Karam’s work is focused on exploring moments and dreams: he sees
moments as an accumulation of vignettes from different periods of our lives, both
of good times and of horror or war. For him, the temporality of these moments turns
into projects.
Early public art projects followed on
the heels of the long civil war in Lebanon and contributed to the rejuvenation
of the city during the 1990s. Stressing the difficulty to counteract the
setbacks of war, he noted that creating and rebuilding takes much more effort than
to kill and destruct. Karam’s Urban Toys
are a series of public sculptures placed in cities to tell stories and make
people dream. His question is a basic one, expanding the concept of dreaming from the individual to a civic
construct: “Can cities dream?” Thus, he provides glimpses of fantasy in urban
networks and around the world.
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| Nadim Karam. Kagami Lake installation, Nara, Japan, 2004. |
From
1982 to 1992, after receiving a scholarship, Karam pursued temple architecture studies at University of Tokyo, where
he graduated with his Ph.D. in Architecture.
In 2004, his deep connection with country, culture and people led to the
realization of a large-scale public art project in Kagami Lake in the sacred
temple city of Nara, accompanied by a ritual performance in Todaiji temple. Seven
hundred anchored, unique steel sculptures and large flowers floated above the
lake, doubled by their reflection on the water’s surface. Noting the 20-year
timeline for this temporary installation and Karam’s knowledge of Buddhism, a
glimpse of understanding the artist’s concepts of temporality and moments emerges.
Presently, together
with his Atelier Hapsitus, Nadim Karam is working on his new Wheels of Chicago project that envisions the revival of Olive Park on the Lakeshore. The
installation of seven, large-scale revolving wheels would introduce a site-specific narrative, with different wheels
representing diversity, leisure, business, art, and nature.
Through February 3, 2013, Nadim Karam’s work can be seen in the exhibition 25 ANS DE CRÉATIVITÉ ARABE at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, France.
Further reading
Christina Lanzl. Nadim Karam: The Phoenix of Beirut, August 2012.
Christina Lanzl. Nadim Karam: The Phoenix of Beirut, August 2012.
