Beirut Caoutchouc, 2004

First shown in Sharjah Biennial 7 and now part of the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection, Beirut Caoutchouc is one of Rechmaoui’s best known works.

Using thick, black rubber, the artist has meticulously crafted a sixty-piece jigsaw puzzle of the city of Beirut — each piece representing one of the city’s sixty different quarters, marked and divided by the carefully inscribed streets and highways that delineate its districts and neighbourhoods.

The puzzle sits solidly on the floor almost demanding engagement from visitors who traverse the surface and are offered, in exchange, a birds-eye view of a city they may or may not know, but whose challenges and resilience can be understood in different ways around the world.

October 2010