Beirut And The Golden Sixties: A Manifesto Of Fragility At Gropius Bau, Berlin
Location: Gropius Bau, Berlin
Date: March 25 to June 12, 2022
Curated by: Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath
Organised by: The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the 16th edition of the Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art.
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. The exhibition showcases a heterogeneous mix of artists whose drive for formal innovation was matched only by the tenacity of their political convictions. Beirut and the Golden Sixties traces the antagonism between Beirut’s politicised cosmopolitanism and its surrounding trans-regional conflicts. With around 220 artworks by 35 artists, more than 200 archival documents and a new work by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige especially commissioned for the show, it is the most comprehensive presentation to date of a pivotal period in the history of Beirut – a city that continues to carry the burden of its irreconcilable ambitions. Presented in five thematic sections, the exhibition introduces the breadth of artistic practices and political projects that thrived in Beirut from the 1950s to the 1970s.