An Ageless Lebanon, 1920-2020

Clara Abi Nader, Lamia Maria Abillama, Patrick Baz, Myriam Boulos, Gregory Buchakjian, Ghaleb Cabbabé, Roy Dib, Sirine Fattouh, Soha Ghandour, Cha Gonzalez, Joana Hadjithomas et Khalil Joreige, Gilbert Hage, Ayla Hibri, Rasha Kahil, Houda Kassatly, Joe Kesrouani, Dalia Khamissy, Aline Manoukian, Rania Matar, Randa Mirza, Elias Moubarak, Roger Moukarzel, Serge Najjar, Stéphanie Saadé, Hady Sy, Lara Tabet, Camille Zakharia

This book is the fruit of an exceptional project that has involved for almost a year, the efforts of some thirty Lebanese artists, authors, and photographers of all ages and horizons. This is a challenge given the unprecedented crises affecting Lebanon, between the uprisings of October 2019 and the destruction of part of Beirut on 4 August 2020. A wave of death and destruction that has swept up everything in its path. After the despondency and anger, comes the rage to survive.

Despite these extraordinary obstacles, this book has been born, with great urgency, in order to bear witness to what these authors and photographers have to say about Lebanon. “This book comes at the right time to remember the beauty of Lebanon and its people,” one of them confided the day after the events of 4 August. An Ageless Lebanon is a collective work on the occasion of the centenary of their nation. Direct and dazzlingly energetic, all of them share all that needs to be said and seen of a country that fills them with love and despair at the same time: from millennial cedars to refugee camps, from ruins to sunsets, from crazy Beirut nights to family portraits, from
exile to return, from protest to confrontation.

Sabyl Ghoussoub’s lively text “An Ageless Lebanon” is followed by a moving sequence of photographic archives that collector Georges Boustany has selected to evoke “the crossing of the century”. After this come the contributions, images, and texts of an entire generation of photographers, whose work has been exhibited in galleries andmuseums around the world and of which Tarek Nahas, also a collector, evokes the extreme richness. These photographers are the living memory of their country.

Day after day, we were overcome by the trust they placed in us. Here was an exchange that publishers and authors rarely have the opportunity to enjoy; everyone made a generous commitment, in spite of difficulties, to the realization of this book. A book that is an unbridled declaration to Beirut, a city of which it has been said, always rises from the ashes, and to a people who have a long reputation of finding a certain strength, even in times of tribulation. Time is of the essence. It’s not just about rebuilding stones, but also hearts and minds, and of thinking about what comes next.

An Ageless Lebanon pays homage to the spirit of resistance that sparks artistic creation in a country ravaged by all kinds of evils. Through their commitment, courage, and insatiable curiosity, artists take on a peace-making role.

This country does not need to mark its centenary to grow or exist in the eyes of the world. From its creation amidst the darkest moments of its history to the tragedies that now assail it, its people continue to teach us a lesson in life. The writers and photographers of An Ageless Lebanon have never given up; we owed them this book.

With the support of the French Institute of Beirut