In Memoria: Beirut Gallery Owner Talks to Her Daughter Killed in The Blast

“Each moment I ask, ‘If she was here what would she like to do. Which designs would she choose?’

There are too many questions in me sometimes,” said Annie Vartivarian, co-founder of Hamra’s now-shuttered Letitia Gallery. “Before she used to ask my opinion on designs, for university projects ... and now I’m asking her, without her presence, ‘Gaia what do you think? This or that?’ but of course I don’t receive an answer.”

The Aug. 4 port blast claimed the lives of 211 victims. One of them was 29-year-old Gaia Fodoulian, an aspiring designer, Letitia director, and Vartivarian’s daughter.

Days before the blast, Fodoulian had been finalizing Art Design Lebanon, a virtual gallery platform. Vartivarian has taken up this project in her daughter’s memory.

“Last February we decided to stop doing exhibitions at Letitia because of the economic situation. The shows cost a lot of money and the situation was bad,” Vartivarian told The Daily Star. “Gaia decided to start a new virtual gallery. She had already started branding. I was present in the meetings, and after that we had our first meeting for website design.

“Only a few days after her death, my family who live in the States said I should produce Gaia’s designs and it clicked in my mind,” she recalled. “I didn’t only want to produce her designs. I also wanted to continue the work she had started.”

Launching in late March, AD Leb will provide a platform for creatives in the region to share their contemporary art and design works with multiple audiences, through digital presentations as well as occasional pop-up exhibitions.

The platform will be inaugurated by its first pop-up exhibition of new works at the historic Tabbal Building, in the Sursock quarter. The show is titled “Everyone is the creator of one's own faith” – the photo caption of Fodoulian’s last social media post.

“We were together that whole day and were very busy so I really don’t know how she found a moment to post that photo or what she had in her mind with that caption,” Vartivarian said. “It was like her soul had already decided to go.”

The show will include works from Samer Bou Rjeily, Karen Chekerdjian, Hatem Imam, Sirine Fattouh, Paul Kaloustian, Nathalie Khayat, Hussein Nassereddine and Caroline Tabet. Vartivarian will also show some physical productions of Fodoulian’s designs.

“Knowing Gaia and knowing what she would have wanted to do, she was thinking of creating only single pieces, not repeating the same design in several editions,” Vartivarian said. “The most important thing for her was to use fair trade products.

“I might try doing her designs in a few different materials rather than make a single piece,” she added. “We’ll have one at the pop-up show. I’m doing one exactly as she designed and I’ll make another in concrete, because she loved designing in concrete.”

Fodoulian had already set aside some funds to produce her designs and start her own design brand. Vartivarian will use that money to fulfill her daughter’s desires and create the pieces she spent her time perfecting.

AD Leb will be a non-profit, using proceeds from sales to keep the gallery functioning. Any profits made beyond that will go toward the Gaia Fodoulian Foundation, an organization founded in her memory to carry on her passion for animal welfare. The Foundation is run by Fodoulian’s sister, Mariana Fodoulian, a veterinarian.

A program of talks and other events will accompany each exhibition, with a physical pop-up taking place every three-to-four weeks. Vartivarian intends to program about five shows a year.

“It might be solo shows, groups or collaborations with other galleries outside of Lebanon,” she said. “We’re working on the program and will have some talks around the exhibition. There will also be collaborations in the future, alongside the program of side events.

“We will be doing these pop-ups in old houses and spaces, because I didn’t want to do them in the typical white cube spaces or industrial spaces, which are fashionable the last few years,” she added. “For something new, heritage houses have a story themselves. The Tabbal Building belonged to a lady and her brother, who also passed away during the blast and the building was damaged, so I felt it fit in parallel.”

“Everyone is the creator of one's own faith” is scheduled to open March 25, at the Tabbal Building, Sursock Street, Ashrafieh. Dates are subject to change due to pandemic restrictions. For more info visit: artdesignlebanon.com

This article has been adapted from its original source.

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