Moustapha Ghabris and the speakers, from left to right: Noura, Cynthia Karam, Coco, Naila and Youssef. (Photos: Mustafa al-Zein and Hussein Shabakji; Illustration: Jaimee Lee Haddad/L'Orient Today)
The lights were dimmed just enough to feel like dusk had crept indoors.At Station Beirut, a once-ordinary gallery space located in the heart of the capital, was transformed into something intimate and luminous: 16 faces stared back from the walls, each portrait paired with a QR code – scan it, and a voice from the city whispered a story.Some were a minute long, others lingered.Together, they formed a chorus of everyday life: pain, love, survival and song. This was the Beirut Sonder Stories exhibition, and on the night of its second edition, it finally stepped off the screen and into a room full of people.The project’s founder, Moustapha Ghabris, stood among the crowd – grateful, a little overwhelmed and ready to do what he’s done hundreds of times: listen. “Everything until now has been virtual,” he said. “This was the first time we...
The lights were dimmed just enough to feel like dusk had crept indoors.At Station Beirut, a once-ordinary gallery space located in the heart of the capital, was transformed into something intimate and luminous: 16 faces stared back from the walls, each portrait paired with a QR code – scan it, and a voice from the city whispered a story.Some were a minute long, others lingered.Together, they formed a chorus of everyday life: pain, love, survival and song. This was the Beirut Sonder Stories exhibition, and on the night of its second edition, it finally stepped off the screen and into a room full of people.The project’s founder, Moustapha Ghabris, stood among the crowd – grateful, a little overwhelmed and ready to do what he’s done hundreds of times: listen. “Everything until now has been virtual,” he said. “This was the...
