Artist Ginane Makki Bacho transforms her trauma into art. Born in 1947 in Beirut, Lebanon, she started creating sculptures made from shrapnel after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which destroyed her home.

As Bacho says (video above), “I stopped thinking about my belongings because we lost everything. What was left were these pieces of bomb shell. And I don’t know how it occurred to me to gather them, as if it was a challenge because they invaded my home and destroyed everything.”

Her sculptures are powerful and rough, with jagged edges, and speak deeply about the physical and psychological damage of the war. They convey how art does not necessarily have to be beautiful. The pieces have titles such as “Exodus”, “Resurrection” and “Never for Sale”.

Her exhibition in Beirut, called “Civilization”, reflected the conflict in the region. It brought together two bodies of work by Bacho, including an installation of her figurative shrapnel sculptures. Bacho relocated to New York in 1984, and received an MFA in Printmaking and Painting in 1987 from the Pratt Institute, but her art continues to explore the interplay between her life in Beirut under siege and artistic expression.