Anjar, a town of several thousand inhabitants, is located Lebanon’s Bekaa valley.  It was conceived, designed and initial construction begun between the end of the 1930s and the early1940s. Anjar was built from scratch by its majority Armenian population, survivors of the Armenian Genocide, originally from Musa Dagh in present-day Turkey.   

In collaboration with Anjar City Municipality, Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society, the Centro Studi e Documentazione della Cultura Armena, Hossep Baboyan and Vartivar Jaklian are developing a documentary project on Anjar. They are creating a documentary film and a book about its urban planning and architectural heritage. The film includes footage of interviews with Anjar residents as well as the cityscape taken over the past few years. One hundred photographs, documenting the  architecture of Anjar along with essays and drawings will make up the book. 

 This ambitious and unique project represents groundbreaking multidisciplinary work.  The presentation will include a preview of the photographs to be exhibited in Anjar in September 2019 as well as an excerpt from the film. 

Admission: £5 to include a wine reception

Architect and film-maker, Hossep Baboyan trained in Architecture and Fine Arts at the Institut des Beaux Arts in Beirut, continuing his studies in architecture in Venice  at IUAV Università where he specialised in documentary film-making.  He has collaborated with Latcol Associates on several urban projects.

Architect and architectural photographer, Vartivar Jaklian trained at IUAV Università in Venice. In 2005 he started his practice with Professor M Carapetian, co-founding Latcol Associates and in 2012 founded the architectural practice vartivar jaklian AAP. His interests include studies of urban analysis and architecture, among these, Oscar Niemeyer’s International Fair in Tripoli, and Karm el Zeitoun Quarter in Beirut.