The Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture embodies cultural strength amid Lebanon’s ongoing trials. Adjacent to the National Museum of Beirut, it welcomes continuity and hope amidst the destruction, serving as a communal space where art, heritage, and thought converge. Its doors remain open, welcoming all who seek solace and inspiration.
The Pavilion’s creation is rooted in a vision of revitalising Lebanon’s cultural sphere. Named after Nuhad Es-Said, the pavilion acts as a tribute to a passionate art collector and fervent defender of culture. Its collaborative genesis involved support and contributions from the National Heritage Foundation, donors, and multidisciplinary experts. Architect Raëd Abillama’s design integrates with the historic Museum, honouring its legacy while infusing it with contemporary relevance. This shared space fosters cultural dialogue, supports the Museum’s mission, and sustains creative communities essential to Lebanon’s cultural identity. It plays a crucial role in the financial support of the National Museum, opening up new perspectives and broadening its scope.
From the beginning, the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture has aimed to collaborate with various stakeholders in Lebanon and has entrusted the Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA) with organizing and curating the inaugural exhibition, Portals and Pathways, A Journey Through Reality and Imagination. The exhibition embodies this vision by uniting modern and contemporary artworks that traverse history, culture, and imagination. Featuring restored works from the Lebanese Ministry of Culture and pieces from private collections, the exhibition creates dialogues between past and present, showcasing resilience through art.
Divided into four thematic sections—Memory, Myths, Perception, and Territory—it explores the essence of time, storytelling, sensory experience, and the natural world. These symbolic portals invite visitors to reflect on enduring memories, mythical narratives, perceptual phenomena, and landscapes that blur the line between reality and dreams.
Interview with Youmna Ziadé Karam, member of The Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture Committee
How does the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture enhance the dialogue between Lebanon’s past and its evolving cultural landscape, particularly in connection with the National Museum of Beirut?
The National Museum of Beirut holds great historical importance as it houses some of the country’s most treasured artefacts and offers a unique window into centuries of history and heritage.
Beyond its cultural role, which is intrinsic to all national museums, the building itself has its own historical symbolism. During Lebanon’s civil war, the National Museum of Beirut stood on the Green Line dividing the capital East and West. Throughout this turbulent period, Lebanese archaeologist and historian Maurice Chehab, the Museum’s first curator and later its first Director General of Antiquities, staunchly protected and preserved our country’s cultural heritage from greed and destruction. For fifteen years, he engineered incredible schemes to fulfil his duty and objective, going as far as burying priceless artefacts behind steel-reinforced concrete shields that blocked access to the underground floor. He also encased each of the Museum’s larger pieces inside individual structures made of wood and cement.
Another significant milestone in the Pavilion’s genesis was the decision to bring down the west-facing boundary wall which had, until this point, obstructed the view of the capital’s hippodrome. No longer secluded, the space is now open and accessible – two founding principles that guided the project’s conception and execution.
What was the inspiration behind the design of the pavilion, and how does it reflect the values of both remembrance and innovation, as well as integration with the original museum structure?
Award-winning architectural firm Raëd Abillama Architects brought the National Museum’s aspirations to life, creating a polyvalent space that can be used for exhibitions and cultural functions in addition to providing the Museum with a cafeteria that acts as a bridge between the main building and new space.
By sparking a dialogue between the Museum and the city, the Pavilion breathes new life into an established institution, offering it the means to explore new and innovative horizons.
As part of his design approach, Abillama researched the museum’s archives and discovered that the original plans for the Museum included two wings which were linked to the main building. This was the winning project of a competition organized in 1928, a design presented by Pierre Leprince-Ringuet and Antoine Nahas. Only the left wing was subsequently constructed, leaving an open space to the Museum’s right that would ultimately be filled by the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture.
This new wing was thus thought of as an extension, a reflection of the original building. It was built with the same materials used for the initial construction and stands as its organic extension, albeit in a modern idiom.
Can you share more about the future cultural and artistic programs planned for the pavilion, and how they will contribute to the pavilion’s mission of fostering creativity, community engagement, and national identity?
To create a space that honours and shares the cultural richness of Lebanon’s heritage through innovative programs, exhibitions, and community engagement; to establish the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture as a state-of-the-art hub that anchors national identity, sparks curiosity and stimulates creativity while supporting the National Museum of Beirut by generating revenues.
This space will be dedicated to the organisation and hosting of cultural and social activities such as exhibitions, conferences, round tables, book signings, and other corporate activities to financially support the National Museum of Beirut.
In addition, « The Pavilion Café », with a concept designed and managed by Chef Hussein Hadid is ready to host various events.
Interview with the Co-Directors of BEMA Taline Boladian & Juliana Khalaf, & the Curator of the Portals & Pathways exhibition Clémence Cottard Hachem
How did the vision and architecture of the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture influence the curation and structure of “Portals & Pathways,” and how do the four thematic portals reflect the pavilion’s mission of connecting past and present?
The story of Beirut’s National Museum is as tumultuous and beautiful as the country’s history. Maurice Chehab, the museum’s first Director, amongst his many foresights, protected the museum’s antiquities by creating a concrete wall, later revealing four wrought iron portals, showing the extent to which he barricaded the entrance.
It was also immediately clear to us that Raed Abillama, the architect of the new pavilion, wanted to show a direct connection between Chehab’s doors and the new space by mimicking the four doors in an elegant and modern way. So, for its inaugural exhibition, BeMA wanted to continue that thread and pay homage to the already established and strong narrative. Portals & Pathways takes the connection between the historical doors of the museum and the new doors of the pavilion and brings it to life in reality and through our imaginations, forming connections between old and new, our heritage and what is to come.
On the first floor, visitors will be immediately struck by Alfred Tarazi’s installation, Hymne à l’amour. It allows the audience to meander through the literal portals, finding relics from the past, igniting a memory, and questioning our perspective of time, space and geography. Always steeped in the socio-political history of Lebanon, Tarazi invites his viewers to consider the presence of familial material objects and consider their weight in our own histories.
On the floor below, visitors will enter a curated exhibition that pairs together contemporary artists with restored works from the Ministry of Culture, to show four shared themes that have been prevalent in the oeuvres of artists over the last century. Here, the pieces offer a conceptual portal into Lebanon, conflating reality and the imaginary, coming together to form a magical journey.
What was the process of selecting and restoring modern works from the Collection of the Lebanese Ministry of Culture, and how do they dialogue with the contemporary pieces on loan from artists and private collections?
The Ministry’s Collection is vast and offers so much to choose from. Once we established the theme of the exhibition and what we wanted to convey, we thought it important to juxtapose historical works with new ones. It is amazing to see that artists in Lebanon over the last hundred years have shared many of the same inspirations for their works. For example, when you look at the works in the exhibition depicting the Falaise de Blanche by Caroline Tabet, Aref el Rayess and Omar Onsi, although each artist conceived the work almost 50 years after the next, they all look as if they were sitting side-by-side. The themes were selected because they were identified as invisible threads that tied so many of the artists together.
How does the exhibition balance the themes of memory, myth, perception, and territory, and in what ways do these concepts invite the audience to explore the intersections between reality and imagination?
Memory, Myth, Perception and Territory were chosen for their capacity to cover a century of exploration and Lebanese dynamics which inspired the imagination of and presented themselves as sources of interest for artists in Lebanon. Linking and weaving the artworks together, they offer a picture of Lebanon, perhaps of a reconstructed reality and perhaps of an embellished fantasy. We will let the viewer decide.
Collective Note Against the Unimaginable shared by the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture & the Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA):
‘The Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture, whose official inauguration was scheduled for September 18, 2024, has chosen to open its doors to visitors and remain accessible to audiences wishing to discover its spaces, its Pavilion Café and its inaugural exhibition designed and organized by the Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA).
Together with the National Museum of Beirut, and in the face of the unimaginable violence, destruction, and suffering being inflicted upon our country, the pavilion stands as a space of support, influence, and continuity to culture and heritage. It welcomes all those seeking to gather in a place fully dedicated to art and thought – a space for breathing and reflection- however momentary and symbolic this may be.
The inaugural exhibition Portals and Pathways, A Journey Through Reality and Imagination, conceived and curated by BeMA, embodies its true and primary objective: opening doors and creating passages to immerse the public in a journey through culture and imagination. Today, it is more than ever a testament to the strength, richness, and diversity of artistic practices in Lebanon, instilling in every visitor a sense of pride and a glimmer of hope. Far beyond what we had imagined, this exhibition stands as a benevolent and silent bridge connecting people, and shielding them against time.
Since March 2024, we have spent time and effort to bring to life a space and inhabit it with culture, with the sole purpose of offering the Lebanese a meaningful experience. At a time when our country is being bombarded daily, our people are suffering, our land is being ravaged and entire families are being displaced, the doors of this pavilion and those of the National Museum of Beirut remain open to guarantee the continuity of Lebanon’s cultural heritage.
Today, staying open is a way to defend and preserve the links and the places that bind us to the present and the future, as well as all the cultural practices and professions associated with them. Indeed, let us not forget, that it is not just objects that are at risk, but entire creative and cultural ecosystems that shape thought, as much as all the individuals who embody and nurture these aspirations of transformation and hope; it is mainly for them, that we keep our doors open, at their request and that of the public’s.
The teams of the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture & the Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA), October 2024′