Looking to the untrained eye like layers of snow, a seasonally fitting display to launch a winter collection, the white packets filling the windows of Milia M boutique carried, in fact, a deeper message. 1,191 white tank tops lay folded in the sleeves, one for each of those killed in the war with Israel the previous summer. Emblazoned with the scarlet message ‘Remember, Don’t Forget’ in nine languages, the tanks were at once a campaign against collective postwar amnesia and a fundraising exercise, with all proceeds donated to local NGOs working with children orphaned or affected by the conflict.
“I wanted the installation in the window to be like a strike” says Milia Maroun. “We won’t open the window until all the T-shirts are gone. It’s art in the service of something useful.”