Ali Dirani

Ali Dirani is a Lebanese graphic & visual artists, musician and drummer.

Personal information

He was born in 1986 in Ryak, Bekaa, Lebanon.

Education

He graduated from the Fine Arts Institute of the Lebanese University and had his first solo exhibition at the age of 24: "FRONT ROW" Art exhibition: nitrocellulose on canvas, neo-realism introduced 11 works with a conceptual approach.

Ali Dirani

Career

Ali worked as an art director for many independent projects, production houses and commercial companies - executed a wide number of video clips and commercial adverts with 'City film, Signature, MBC, macchina, Saatchi and Saatchi, Leo Burnett and many more production houses, collectives and companies.

The artist worked on the scenography of the opening show of the 25th Al Janadria festival. The concept was to create an authentic looking desert fused with a wide theatre with Arabesque patterned edges. It included a gigantic moving falcon and a helicopter in true scale. The artist worked along with Italian international art directors who are involved in cinematic scenography and conducted a high number of awarded movies such as Star Wars and Gangs of Newyork

Solo exhibition, Front Row

Ali Dirany’s first solo exhibition, Front Row, confronts local affairs with no holds barred. You'll have the chance to see some of his best airbrushed pieces like ‘Statut Social’, an adaptation of the statue on Martyrs’ Square, with a gun in her hand, criticising the country’s sense of national. prideapproach.^[1]

Status social: Martyrs didn’t go carrying a torch, it was mostly guns. In the honor of their memory the alternative genuine (Statut Social) is presented. It’s a call for citizenship outside the confessional and typical borders of Lebanon.

Passion show.

Music

Professional Dub & jazz drummer and percussionist.

Al Janadria Festival

The artist worked on the scenography of the opening show of the 25th Al Janadria festival. The concept was to create an authentic looking desert fused with a wide theatre with Arabesque patterned edges. It included a gigantic moving falcon and a helicopter in true scale. The artist worked along with Italian international art directors who are involved in cinematic scenography and conducted a high number of awarded movies such as Star Wars and Gangs of Newyork.^[2]

Anti-sectarian campaign in Lebanon

Ali Dirani is an activist in the anti-sectarian campaign in Lebanon. In his interview with the Daily Star, he said “sectarian political leaders are trying to take advantage of the movement and adopt it, under their principles, but we have rejected such acts.”

“If they believe that [our cause] is just, let them resign from their parties and they will be more than welcomed with us as ordinary members,” he said.^[3]

anti confessional demonstration.

When the forced amnesia reigns, its only better to take a relatively modern piece of architecture and save it with its comrades, so its inhabitants don’t fall and be ready for another round. It’s only a piece of art that was collectively recomposed and sketched by the only true memory of the city.

Comic Series

Ali Dirani published a comic series in Al Samandal Magazine called "Musba7". Issue Number 2.^[4]

A revue of the magazine and the artist's work.^[5]

Triangulated City

Ali Dirani was an associate member of the Triangulated city.

Triangulated City is a live art event that investigates notions of exchange within the urban environment through the secrets, rumours, messages, myths and memories circulating in a city. Zoukak Theatre Company and Cultural Association hosted Lotos Collective (London/New York) and in collaboration with invited participants devised the project through a series of participatory workshops. Over three days, in three locations, three performances unfolded simultaneously each evening. The audience navigated the city to visit each of the sites, thus utilising the urban landscape as staging. Utilising a multi-disciplinary approach, each specific site was transformed into a place of artistic encounter, creating an opportunity for workshop participants to develop and expand their artistic interest. The workshops was a place to meet a broad range of creative people and together share, think and expand upon our perceptions of the cityscape. Through our own stories, memories, and urban legends we explored the geographical and geopolitical movement of narrative through the streets of Beirut, illuminating a new relationship and perspective to the urban milieu. Triangulated City encouraged participants and spectators to view the city as an artistic canvas, with each specific location a place of dialogue and encounter. ^[6]

References