Doha, Qatar,
Mathaf | Arab Museum of Modern Art
dal 17 Marzo al 5 Agosto 2023
Following then 16th Biennale de Lyon, the new exhibition at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (17 March 2023 – 5 August 2023) Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility focuses on paintings, sculptures, multimedia works and archival materials that revisit a turbulent chapter in the development of Modernism in Beirut.
The exhibition traces a brief but rich period of artistic and political ferment. Following Lebanon’s independence from French-mandated colonial rule in 1943, Beirut became a destination for many intellectuals and cultural practitioners from the Middle East and Arabic-speaking North Africa. With revolutions, coups and wars unfolding across these regions over the next three decades, the influx of new inhabitants into Beirut continued throughout this period.
Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility revisits a turbulent chapter in the development of modernism in Beirut beginning with the 1958 Lebanon crisis and ending with the 1975 outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War. It examines this romanticised era of global influence in Beirut to highlight how collisions between art, culture and polarised political ideologies turned the Beirut art scene into a microcosm for larger trans-regional tensions.
Beirut and the Golden Sixties revisits a turbulent chapter in the development of modernism in Beirut beginning with the 1958 Lebanon crisis and ending with the 1975 outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War. Through 230 works by 34 artists and more than 300 archival documents, the exhibition examines this romanticized era of global influence in Beirut to highlight how collisions between art, culture and polarised political ideologies turned the Beirut art scene into a microcosm for larger trans-regional tensions. As a city that is arguably in and of itself a manifesto of fragility, Beirut continues to evoke both vulnerability and determination – or at least traces of it – and conjure forms of resistance, called forth by the urgency of the moment and the desire to be remembered.
