Lebanon’s history of violence has made the search to uncover, reassess or move beyond the past a highly politicised endeavour. The lack of a coherent memory at a national level has resulted in the exploitation of collective memory through dominant memory cultures and competing sectarian regimes of memory, each vying for interpretative power. The absence of state-led memorial projects has led to privately funded museums and archival projects actively shaping post-war discourses on the Civil War and responding to the country’s ongoing political realities. Lebanon is haunted by the fragments, architectures and stories of past conflicts, while also experiencing the realities of persistent post-war failings: hyper-politicisation of sectarian tensions, political corruption, economic devastation and regional turmoil.
This exhibition, The Intersection of Lived and Imagined Memories, deepens the current socio-political discourse by engaging with the fluid, fragmented and evolving nature of memory. It engages with Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory, exploring how a generation of Lebanese artists, growing up in the aftermath of the Civil War, navigate both the weight of inherited trauma and the subsequent realities of the 2019 economic and financial collapse, the catastrophic port explosion of 2020 and, most recently, the war in Southern Lebanon. Postmemory is defined as a residual type of memory, or imagined memory. It is a recollection of an event not personally experienced but socially felt. For Hirsch, postmemory is powerful because the connection to its object or source is mediated through an imaginative creation. Through works that explore past and present trauma, imagined futures and the transitional space of where to?, this exhibition navigates the country’s unresolved histories and uncertain prospects. The exhibited artists revisit moments from the Civil War onwards, reinterpreting and reimagining histories as acts of remembrance and reconstruction. Their works engage with forgotten stories, abandoned photographs and archival footage, recontextualising them within contemporary realities to connect subsequent generations to their collective past. In doing so, they situate themselves in a liminal space, between past and present, memory and its re-creation. The notion of postmemory emphasises that traumatic historical events cannot simply be buried, erased or forgotten. Instead, they are continually reworked and renegotiated through artistic practice, public discourse and everyday encounters.
The location of the exhibition, The Egg, is an architectural symbol of Lebanon’s violent past and present. Built during Beirut's Golden Age of the 1960s, Lebanese architect Joseph Philippe Karam designed The Egg as a cinema, part of the ambitious Beirut City Centre complex. However, the outbreak of the Civil War in 1975 halted construction, leaving The Egg as a stark reminder of unfulfilled dreams. During the conflict, it found itself on the demarcation line, between East and West Beirut, serving as a battle barricade for militants from various religious confessions. Despite post-war reconstruction efforts to redesign Beirut's cultural centre, including the ambitious Solidere project to rebuild Downtown Beirut, The Egg remains untouched, protected by the Ministry of Culture. Over the years, The Egg has been repeatedly reclaimed by the public, including during the 2019 protests, where it became a hub for talks, events and performances.
Now, in 2025, amidst ongoing economic devastation and regional conflicts, The Egg, a spatial remnant of conflict, stands as a testament to Lebanon's enduring spirit of resistance and strength.
BAC would be the ideal sponsor for this cultural event as it is committed to pioneering cutting-edge exhibitions rooted in the Lebanese experience. While deeply tied to Lebanon, this exhibition also resonates with those from other regions marked by displacement, war and political instability, as well as people of all ages and backgrounds seeking to reconstruct their memories and histories. This exhibition, as with many that BAC sponsors, is a tribute to the cultural resistance led by artists, cultural workers, and citizens in the challenging environment Lebanon continues to face.
