2022 Winners & Shortlists

Cultural / Context information for the jury

On August 4, 2020, Lebanon’s biggest port was hit by of the one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, resulting in over 200 deaths, 700 injuries, and the displacement of thousands of families. The Lebanese people were promised answers five days after the explosion. One year later, with no answers from the government, they were losing hope and going into a state of learned helplessness. While they were busy rebuilding their lives from the disaster, MTV wanted to boost their morale and sense of resilience, and do its part to call for the unaccounted truth. If over 7,000 tons of glass were shattered and the government was still silent, then we decided to break the silence by breaking even more glass. MTV created #WeAreUnbreakable – a campaign that depicted portraits of victims in shattered glass. A tribute to the people’s resilience and a loud and clear scream for truth.

Tell the jury about the art direction.

The portraits were placed next to the explosion site, specifically in front of the silos. Almost everyone who visited the site saw the portraits and interacted with them. They were also featured as the main theme on one of the country’s most famous talk shows. The material used for the portraits was recycled shattered glass. The style of craft is a rare one that can only be produced by Simon Berger, the notorious Swiss artist who is known for his technique to meticulously create portraits by wielding his hammer against a slate of glass. The technique involves the smart use of negative-positive spaces. The white outlines are the positive space, and the dark background is the negative space.