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Place your Bets, No More Bets
2021
400 x 400 cm
Floor mat
Place your Bets, No More Bets is an installation, which was initially shown at the Seoul Architecture Biennale 2021 in the shape of a 4 meters diameter circular floor mat. The visitors roamed around the installation in clockwise direction, observing and reading 100 hundred cards that frame the periphery of the circle. Each card is connected by an arc to its respective point of impact on the map of the city. These build a subjective story that unveils chronologically over a period of 12 years. The installation is complemented by an audiovisual document that can be activated by scanning a QR code visible at the base of the composition. In the center of the installation, a map of Beirut is framed by a square. The perimeter of the square frame is punctuated by a list of projects, more precisely 48 architectural commissions we were given, of which the majority was built during that 12 years period. Each project listed around the frame of the plan is connected to its respective location on the map of Beirut, framing our interventions within the context of some of the complex and sour realities that preceded, accompanied and followed these 48 architectural acts. All together these 48 commissions add up to over 450.00 m2 of built-up area, totaling and estimated budget of over 600 million dollars.
Bernard Khoury, born in Beirut (1968). He studied architecture at the Rhode Island school of Design (BFA 1990 / B.Arch 1991) and Harvard University (M.Arch 1993). He was awarded by the municipality of Rome, the Borromini Prize honorable mention given to architects under 40 years of age (2001), the Architecture + Award (2004), the CNBC Award (2008) and nominated for several awards including the Aga Khan award (2002 / 2004/ 2021), the Chernikov prize (2010) and the Mies van der Rohe Award (2021). He co-founded the Arab Center for Architecture (2008), was a visiting professor in several universities including the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and L’Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. He has lectured and exhibited his work in over 150 institutions, including solo shows at the Aedes gallery in Berlin (2003), the Spazio per l’architecttura Milano (2016) and numerous group shows including YOU prison at the Fondazione Sandretto in Torino (2008), the opening show of the MAXXI museum in Roma (2010), the Frac Architecture Biennale in Orleans (2018), the Oris House of Architecture in Zagreb (2020) and the Architecture Biennale of Seoul (2021). He was the architect and co-curator of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2014). Over the years he has developed an international reputation and a diverse portfolio of projects in over fifteen countries. Khoury was nominated by the French Ministry of Culture Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (2020)