Proceeds will be donated to AGBU for humanitarian aid and medical assistance programs in Artsakh.

INTRODUCTION 

Many might know about Musa Dagh and its history, but very few people know about Anjar, the town which Musa Daghtsis built after they found themselves obliged to live under Turkey again. Anjar’s population boasts a history which sounds as mythological as it is surreal; seldom is it possible throughout history to encounter such stories where courage, luck, and coincidence, collide simultaneously and contribute to shaping people’s destiny and fate. Such would be the case for the Musa Daghtsis who, after twenty-four years’ odyssey, reached the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, where they would build their new Musa Dagh—their new (six) villages. 

In a series of unique and ambitious documentary projects, the authors aim at casting light on the architectural and planning legacy of the Armenian diaspora through photography and film. Anjar 1939-2019, Rebuilding Musa Dagh in Lebanon becomes the pilot project. 

The rich volume, published by Hatje Cantz in Berlin, narrates but also records Anjar’s architecture after eighty years of its founding. It includes essays about the city’s architecture but also examines the notion of forming communities in the Armenian diaspora discussed in an anthropological essay in the forward of the book. As well as historical images, the book includes over eighty photographs taken over the past few years. The film which accompanies the book aims at documenting the city with its architecture. Furthermore, it features interviews with residents of Anjar offering a subjective local view of their city.

BIOGRAPHIES

Hossep Baboyan is an architect and filmmaker trained at IUAV Università, where he specialized in documentary filmmaking under Prof. Marco Bertozzi. Over the years, he has collaborated with Latcol Associates on several urban projects, analyzing mainly the implications of these projects on the existing social fabric. In 2017, together with Giovanni Andreotta DOP, Baboyan co-directed a short documentary film on the artist Beverly Barkat. His documentary work focuses on the correlation between cinema and architecture; the relationship of a city with the social identity of its inhabitants and their history tends to be the main emphasis of his work. 

Vartivar Jaklian is an architect and architectural photographer trained at the IUAV Università in Venice. He is founder of vartivar jaklian AAP, which engages practice in the realm of architecture and urban design, architectural photography and documentation. Through photography, he has worked on the analysis and documentation of several urban and architectural projects focusing mainly on areas touched by political or social conflict. Among these, the Sanjak Armenian refugee camp in Beirut, Oscar Niemeyer’s International Fair in Tripoli, the Karm el Zeitoun Quarter in Beirut, and Peter and Alison Smithson’s Economist Building in London are photographic projects worthy of mention.

Anjar 1939-2019 Film Trailer from Hossep Baboyan on Vimeo.

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