Leningrad exposes touristic views of the city in what was once the USSR and narrates events that took place during the second half of the 20th century, based on archive material found in the rubble of a Beirut apartment.

On July 29, 2012 Gregory Buchakjian and Valérie Cachard visited plot 335, a French Mandate period (1920s-1930s) apartment building, that was abandoned after shelling in 1989. In the devastated flat of the third floor, they found and extracted written (handwritten, typewritten and printed) and photographic (postcards, slides) documents that were lying on the ground among rubble.

The Leningrad installation is based on these archives. Presented in the Pellicula exhibition (Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, 2013), it is the first public intervention part of the Abandoned Dwellings in Beirut project. The central element is a text typewritten on a vintage 1980s typewriter. This text is based on information provided by papers found that day. It attempts to establish facts that took place in Beirut during the second half of the 20th century. The other components of the installation are reproductions of postcards and slides from Leningrad that were also found there.

Leningrad présente des vues touristiques de la ville qui fit partie de l’URSS et relate des évènements qui se sont déroulés durant la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, sur la base de d’archives découvertes dans les ruines d’un appartement beyrouthin.

Présentée dans le cadre de l’exposition Pellicula, (Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beyrouth, 2013), Leningrad est la première intervention publique du projet des habitats abandonnés. Son élément central est un texte dactylographié qui, à partir de documents découverts dans un appartement abandonné, tente de reconstituer des faits. Les autres éléments sont les reproductions de cartes postales et de diapositives provenant de Leningrad, et qui se trouvaient in situ.