Where Do I Go?

The Project Space opens with Where Do I Go?, an exhibition by acclaimed photographer Rania Matar featuring more than forty photographs drawn from nearly two decades of work.

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the start of the Lebanese Civil War, the exhibition explores identity, memory, displacement, and belonging through intimate portraits of women photographed throughout Lebanon. The title comes from Arabic graffiti Matar discovered on a damaged wall inside an abandoned building in Lebanon. The words, Where Do I Go?, became a central question throughout the series, reflecting the emotional reality of many Lebanese people confronting questions of home, displacement, and uncertainty.

Matar, who left Lebanon during the civil war in 1984, approaches the work from a deeply personal perspective. Her photographs connect her own experience with that of a younger generation of women navigating many of the same questions about home, identity, and resilience.

Her background as an architect also informs the way she photographs her subjects. Abandoned hotels, theaters, and damaged modernist buildings become more than settings — they provide context and history for the women portrayed. Among the locations featured are Beirut’s former Holiday Inn and Piccadilly Theater, as well as other sites shaped by war and economic hardship.

Yet the work is ultimately not about destruction. Matar’s photographs center on the strength, beauty, and presence of her subjects. Within spaces marked by loss, they reclaim their surroundings and create moments of connection, resilience, and hope.

TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION