The Idea of Lebanon

The present in Lebanon retains the imprint of a past which is not yet past, but rather one which is lived, reproduced, and recalibrated on a daily basis. Authored and curated by Madonna Kalousian, this section of the exhibition captures the ramifications of this pervasive embeddedness of multiple layers of meaning from the past and the present as these manifest in modern-day Lebanon. It paints a picture in which the administrative, juridical, geographical, and demographic contours of what becomes Lebanon, particularly as undefined and redefined by colonial rule, continue today to plunge the country into a succession of episodes of harm, injury, and injustice.

It does so by building on an understanding of the idea of Lebanon at various stages of its history, from the late Ottoman times and the French Mandate to the post-independence era and the present-day regional escalation of violence inflicting further harm onto the post-civil war reality of a population whose injuries are not only yet to heal, but also continue to multiply.