Hala Salem was invited to participate in the second edition of We Design Beirut, a multidisciplinary design festival hosted at Villa Audi. Her contribution, Presence of Absence, was a large-scale totemic sculpture created in glazed ceramic and engraved copper. The work explored collective memory, absence, and material storytelling, drawing inspiration from Beirut’s fractured architectural textures and the words of iconic Lebanese poets. The totem was exhibited throughout the duration of the festival and has since entered a private collection.
