From September 18 to September 24, 2013 the first ever BEIRUT ART WEEK will display Philippe Pasqua’s massive sculpture in the Lebanese capital, right in the heart of the city center, outside the main entrance to the Beirut souks and right next to “Momo”, the famous restaurant opened by Mourad Mazouz.

In his works on canvas, Philippe Pasqua reveals his talent in the dark tones and expressionism of thickly-applied paint.

Since the nineties, vanity has been a central theme of his work, which includes paintings, drawings, photographs and large-scale sculptures, such as his huge skulls in chromium-plated bronze or white Carrara marble with oversized butterflies fluttering around them.

In parallel, BEIRUT ART WEEK shall descend on the Lebanese capital from the 18th till the 24th of September 2013. This route gathers some twenty projects combining installations, sculptures and interactive performances that will take shape across Beirut landmarks such as the city-center souks, Zaitounay Bay, Saifi Village and Harbour Square.

About twenty works will be shown alongside Philippe Pasqua’s, some of which are by internationally-recognized artists such as Mona Hatoum, Xavier Veilhan and Matthew Monahan and come from the private collection of Tony Salamé.

Known all over the world, Philippe Pasqua is today considered one of the most significant artists of his generation. His works feature in prestigious French and international collections and are regularly a part of major contemporary art auctions. He is the second best-selling French artist at auction after Robert Combas (ArtPrice).

The artist proved himself with his Blocs and Traumas series of paintings in the early 2000s, laying the foundations for his future work. Physical vulnerability and trauma are the threads that run through his representation of the human body and give it its potency. His modern “Vanitas”, with their undertones of voodoo ritual, form another major part of Pasqua’s artistic output. Each of his creations is a product of the tension between what society considers it acceptable to show and what it hides away. In this way he elevates the “otherness” that we stigmatize, painting what is different or sacred in human beings.