War Games

In 1975, Nada Sehnaoui lived with her family in Ashrafieh, a neighborhood of Beirut, and attended school in the nearby neighborhood of Verdun. On the way to school one day, the driver suddenly stopped at Mathaf Street— the street that links the two neighborhoods. He had realized that continuing across would be suicidal. That day, her home in Ashrafieh became part of what was known as ‘East Beirut’, and her school in Verdun became part of what was known as ‘West Beirut’. For the first time, going to school became an issue of crossing, and Beirut, a fragmented city. Sehnaoui’s first body of work entitled, War Games deals with issues of fragmentation and crossing.