Mediterranean towns and architecture
Syria, Culture, 12/20/2000

The exhibition of Mediterranean Towns and Architecture by prof. Nuhad Jamil Abdullah was opened on November 20 by Emar Gallery for Plastic Arts in Lattakia and is still on view. It was held at the joint cooperation of the Syrian ministry of education and the French embassy in Damascus.

With the persistence of an excavator, the fondness of a historian, the deliberation of a researcher and the spirit of an architect, Prof.

Nuhad Abdullah presented the exhibition of Mediterranean Towns and Architecture. Reechoing visions of cities on the east coast of the Mediterranean in the late twentieth and early thirtieth century through nearly 100 photos, carefully collected and presented in a tranquil and artistic way with historical texts- sometimes chosen from historical books and at other times rewritten in an easy smooth style to create a historical atmosphere extending beyond civilizations and nations that passed by this coast since the beginning and till now. He was very concerned about holding the exhibition within the galleries of the National Museum, that ancient building which greatly enriched the artistic frame through which the exhibition was displayed. He is a graduate of Beirut Arab University in 1970 which he left to Paris to continue his post graduate studies in L' Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux- Arts as well as the University of Paris IX to specialize in Urban Planning. This actually has given the Middle East student a great chance to meet the pioneers of Architecture at that time such as: Andre Wogenski, Andrault Parat, and specifically Georges Candilis whom he learned under his supervision. These are not the only names the CV has mentioned, but also many other great architects whom. Prof. Abdullah contacted with like Paolo Solari, Louis Khan and Hassan Fathi. In his home country, his rich journey has started as a university lecturer, an architect for many great projects, a distinguished administrator as a dean of the faculty of Architecture for nearly seventeenth years and a member of many Mediterranean foundations.

Highlighting the exhibition significance, the prominent Syrian writer ADONIS wrote in the brochure of the exhibition: " Thus, the exhibition is considered a document that illuminates the truth: Art enlightens history and expresses fully and clearly the identity. Therefore, art broadly embraces the people individuality and characteristics that uniquely distinguish him from others, casting simultaneously between them solid bridges: of openness, exchanges, reaction and fecundation.

Within this perspective precisely, lies another aspect for the importance of this exhibition. It carried us not only beyond our present but also through it, revealing some of the roots that remind us of the beginning times: the time of interrogations and astonishment, vision, meditation, research and work for the imaginative, writers, thinkers and workers.."

In a statement to Arabic News., Prof. Abdullah said: " Working on this exhibition has become an obsession since some photos were available and I was completely keen on collecting the largest photos possible of the East coast cities of the Mediterranean. Mt endeavors included even the documents of the French Foreign ministry, the Full-bright Foundation and the French Archaeology Institute of the near east and other resource." He added as saying: " It is worth mentioning too that the displayed photos are considered of the early photos shot for the cities of the east coast of the Mediterranean from the air. We might find many aerial photos dating back to the periods before the twentieth of the last century, but all of them reflect the urban and the social reality for these cities. While the photos of " the Mediterranean Towns and Architecture " cover up cities wholly, thus came the documentary significance of this exhibition, whose photos are displayed for the first time.

The exhibition includes 87 aerial photos for different cities f the east coast of the Mediterranean and they are: Antioch, Ugarir, Lattakia, Jeble, Banias, Tartous, Arwad, Safita, Tripoli, Byblos, Baalbak, Beirut and Krak des Chevaliers and nine panels of currencies which were used in the old Byblos, Beirut, Baalbak, Sidon and Tyre.

These currencies bear on their two sides pictures reflecting the characteristics and ideologies of old times architecture.

Prof. Abdullah added: " I see the east coast cities of the Mediterranean as very open minded nations especially towards the Euro- Med. Dialogue, exchanging cultures and still preserving their identities, looking for common similarities for the Med. Nations to be a basis towards the Euro Med. Partnerships. Thus the exhibition will be touring in Damascus, the French Cultural Center in Beirut, Bauhaus University in Germany, and to France where it supposed to be displayed in the Institute of the Arab World in Paris, Academia Mediterranea Halicarnasseniss in Bodrum Turkey where work as an executive member for its scientific council. The exhibition will be touring within the coming two years in the US and will be presented afterwards to the National Museum in Lattakia, to be a witness on the nature of the Urban and Architectural Arts." He explained that this de force exhibition is definitely entitled to be in the National Museum as its natural permanent place. It is an optical documentation for the Architecture of the East coast cities of the Mediterranean and a rich material for urban research and studies, enabling to make an evaluation for our achievements regarding these cities from one hand and correcting the directions of our future urban relationship with them.

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