A New Sculpture Brings A Message Of Unity To Beirut

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Beirut's Barakat building has gained a new visual marker: a stainless steel sculpture titled SAWA, installed on the facade of Beit Beirut by the father-and-son artists Pierre Koukjian and Cedric Koukjian.

The 2026 work takes its name from the Arabic word for“together,” a choice that resonates sharply at a site defined by rupture and repair. Beit Beirut occupies the Barakat building, a structure designed by Youssef Aftimus in 1924 and expanded by Fouad Kozah in 1932. Heavily damaged during the Lebanese Civil War, the building stands along the former wartime division line known as the Green Line. Restorations began in 2009, and the site now functions as a museum and cultural center.

The Koukjians have collaborated since 2017, developing sculptures that range from intimate works to large public commissions. Their practice combines industrial construction with compositions that appear to defy gravity, and their stainless steel pieces are made in-house from sketch to completion. In that sense, SAWA extends a method that is as much about process as it is about form.

The installation is not the duo's first large-scale public sculpture in the region. Last year, they unveiled Chaînes de Lumière in Bikfaya, about 30 minutes from Beirut. Measuring roughly 15 feet high and composed of seven oversized stainless steel links, that work also centered on unity, connection, and resilience.

A spokesperson for the artists said SAWA“embodies the values of connection and hope” and complements the museum's mission of preserving history while encouraging reflection and dialogue about the city's future. The statement places the sculpture within a broader civic frame: not as decoration, but as an intervention in a place where memory remains visible in the architecture itself.

For Beirut, SAWA adds another layer to a building already dense with meaning. For the Koukjians, it confirms an ongoing commitment to public art that speaks in the language of togetherness - and asks what that word can still hold in the present.

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