LEBANESE PAVILION

59th INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION

LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

Press kit
English
April 2022

DANIELLE ARBID
AYMAN BAALBAKI

Curator
NADA GHANDOUR

Exhibition
23 APRIL - 27 NOVEMBER
2022

Previews days
22 - 20 APRIL 2022
The Lebanese Ministry of culture has entrusted Mrs. Nada Ghandour, Heritage
Curator, with the project of Lebanon's participation in the 59th International
Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

After a five-year absence from the Biennale, and for the second time in the
context of the Venice Art Biennale, the Lebanese Pavilion will be present at
the Arsenale to shed light on the Lebanese contemporary art scene and to
ensure the presence of Lebanon on an international level through its art and
its culture.

The Lebanese Visual Art Association – LVAA is a non-profit association

whose main aim for 2022 is to organise the Lebanese Pavilion at the
Biennale Arte.

1
THE PAVILLON
By Nada Ghandour, Curator

After a five-year absence and for the second time in its history in the context
of the Venice Art Biennale, the Lebanese Pavilion returns to the Arsenale for
the 59th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia.

I am deeply honoured to be the curator of the Lebanese Pavilion this year.

Under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture, which I thank for its trust,
I am committed to showcase the excellence of the Lebanese artistic scene.

Through the Pavilion, I would like to invite you on a symbolic journey into our
contemporary world through:
• the theme The World in the Image of Man,
• a city, Beirut
• two artists: Danielle Arbid and Ayman Baalbaki, who maintain a political
and aesthetic dialogue through two creations that are so far and yet so
close.

The works are distinct from one another, each with its own economy, subject,
history and codes. Nonetheless, face to face within the pavilion and linked by
a theme that has no borders, their works respond to one another, putting
into space the perpetual action of the human imagination on the reality of
the world.

The exhibition evolves between an imagination that has become a reality

thanks to Ayman Baalbaki’s artistic gesture and a tangible reality that has
become nothing more than a pure vision image in the eyes of Danielle Arbid.

The streets of Beirut inspired both Ayman Baalbaki’s monumental and

ambitious installation, Janus Gate, and Danielle Arbid’s turbulent video,
Allô Chérie. The two artists dialogue with the polysemic urban nature of this
city that embodies as much Lebanon as the rest of the world.
It is represented as the centre of the upheavals and emotional instability of
our technological interaction with reality.

Ayman Baalbaki has created a two-sided installation that depicts a

fragmented Beirut. Like the Latin god Janus, it constantly oscillates between
past and future, between threats and promises, between facades and
backdrops, between peace coulisses et façades, between peace and war.

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On one side of the structure, the installation takes the form of a building
façade under construction. This is illustrated by the colourful, torn-up
tarpaulins and posters. On the other side of the installation, there is a
dilapidated guard's cabin. Between these two, a door remains ajar to allow
one to pass through and shift from one side to the other.

Through the play of contrasting colours and lights, Baalbaki has divided his
installation into two zones. The luminous façade, a reflection of the
barrier/border, contrasts dramatically with the reverse side obscured in a
fluorescent green penumbra. This disconcerting colour is representative of
the night-vision binoculars used in military operations.

Echoing this notion of a fragmented Beirut, Danielle Arbid’s film Allô Chérie
portrays, in its own way, a distorted sense of space and time. Her images, shot
with a mobile phone, accentuate this and reveal the increased competition
between the physical and virtual worlds. Danielle Arbid takes us on a car ride
around Beirut with her own mother, who is in a frantic search for money.
Given the current crisis in Lebanon, it is as intimate as it is political. We can
see the panorama of Beirut through the windshield, further reinforcing the
ambiguity between public and private realms.

Both artists use these different spatiotemporal spaces and dividing lines to
immerse us in a tense and frantic narrative. This is further emphasised by
their use of a two-sided structure, or, in Danielle Arbid’s film, a split-screen.
Indeed, the use of the split screen technique, which is employed for the first
time in Arbid's work, emphasises the overlapping of sound and image
captured separately in Allô Chérie. Almost like a video game, we flip from
left to right, immersing ourselves in her work as if we were entering the
Janus Gate.

For his part, Ayman Baalbaki multiplies the types of plastic interventions:
torn-up, burned, smashed, broken, and covered in spray paint, the tarpaulins
create trompe-l’oeil spaces. They distort all references to space and time.
On the walls, two convex mirrors, similar to car mirrors, reflect the light
emanating from Danielle Arbid's film, completing this immersion in the
urban landscape.

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Through a dialogue between two artists, Ayman Baalbaki, who lives and
works in Lebanon, and Danielle Arbid, who left her native country at the age
of 17 but has been inspired by it ever since, this exhibition also proposes a
space for symbolic exchange on the history and current society to all
Lebanese, whether they live in Lebanon or elsewhere.

In light of the current situation in Lebanon, the political aspect of these two
works are all the more justified. They both depict the contradictions and
challenges plaguing the country. The frantic race for money is inseparable
from the violence raging in Lebanon today. The real-estate speculation,
which promises dreams, hides ruin and misleads as far as merchandise is
concerned. The anguish surrounding Lebanon’s economic and political
collapse is becoming increasingly visible. In their own ways, both artists
expose the true nature of Lebanon, in all its beauty and chaos.

Lebanon did not have to wait for globalisation to be theorised before

experiencing its challenges: trade, consumption, financial transactions,
borders, wars, migration, to name a few. Lebanon has been a major territorial
stumbling block since antiquity, shaped by both tradition and modernity.
At the crossroad between East and West, Lebanon has repeatedly and
reluctantly been subjected to a slew of external strains, all of which have had
a profound impact on man’s most accomplished work: the city.

As such, Beirut, a world city, a martyred city, and a city of the future, is seen
throughout the exhibition as the embodiment of today’s political and social
perils. The two artworks, in their distinct ways, revisit the universal theme of
the human condition in the digital age by looking deeper into major issues
such as borders and each person’s struggle for survival.

This year, the Arsenale building will resonate with the economic, social, and
political crisis that has afflicted Lebanon since 2019. This is possible thanks to
the many individuals who have contributed to this magnificent Pavilion,
which is dedicated to a nation that is going through difficult times.

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Distinguished professionals devoted to the history, culture, and creativity of
our country, as well as patrons of the arts who share a love of Lebanon and
who come from all walks of life, have responded to my invitation.

I thank the members of the scientific committee for their commitment and
expertise. I would also like to express my gratitude to the members of the
Goodwill Ambassadors committee for their fervent support of the project.

I would like to pay special tribute to the Pavilion’s patrons for their pivotal
contributions that have made it possible for the Pavilion to exist and thrive.

I applaud our talented architect, Aline Asmar d’Amman, and her Culture in
Architecture team for the stunning scenography they have created that
promotes dialogue between the works and artists.

I am grateful to both the artists for their unreserved commitment to an

artistic dialogue that is marked by genuine political reflection.

May the Lebanese Pavilion’s exhibition at the Art Biennial 2022 contribute to
the creation of a programme that is permanent, passionate, honourable, and
global in scope.

5
©Ayman baalbaki

©Danielle Arbid

6
JOINT INTERVIEW
NADA GHANDOUR, DANIELLE ARBID, AYMAN BAALBAKI

Nada Ghandour: The theme that I approached you with for the Lebanese
Pavilion is “The World in the Image of Man.” How did you envision your
projects for this Pavilion in the context of this theme?

Ayman Baalbaki: My starting point was Beirut that I see as a city rich in what
Michel Foucault refers to as “other spaces”. Beirut is both a heterotopia and a
heterochrony, as if it is constantly evolving in two different space-time that
only have in common shared borders. Moreover, along the model of the word
“Lebanization,” meant to describe the fragmentation of a state, “Beirutization”
defines places troubled by barricades and borders – in other words, to speak
of the urban dismemberment of a city and its fragmentation into separated
silos. Beirut is not the only city that has suffered this phenomenon: there are
others ones in the Middle East and in the West, such as Jerusalem, Berlin
and Belfast.

I then thought of Janus, the two-faced Roman god who looks both inside and
outside, to the past and to the future. The advertising tarpaulins that we see
in front of buildings under construction operate on the same principle.
They show the completed building, a bright future, but behind it, there is a
totally different reality, that of the security guard’s station. I built a structure
in which two spaces coexist: a radiant exterior and an interior similar to all the
slums in the world, or rather to the somewhat fantasized image of these
slums or refugee camps.

Danielle Arbid: The video that will be projected facing Ayman's work is part
of My Lebanese Family, a series of nine, and soon to be ten video essays shot
between 2001 and 2022. This work, which shows a stroll in Beirut, responds
through its images to Ayman’s installation as we can distinguish different
elements that are found in his installation, or which he refers to, namely
concrete blocks, barriers that are used to divide the city, and advertising
tarpaulins, whose use he mentions.

My Lebanese Family is my way of assembling my family tree. For me, it is a

way of freezing in time Lebanon, a country that one feels could stop existing
overnight. In this creation, my character – my mother - is a mirror image of
Lebanon: she embodies it with her fatalistic mentality, her appetite for risk
taking, and her exuberance. She is caught in a frantic pursuit for money, in a
car through Beirut.

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Her struggle is inseparable from the violence that prevails today in Lebanon,
as was the case in other countries, in Europe and elsewhere.

Nada Ghandour: How do your projects translate on a formal level?

Ayman Baalbaki: This is the first time that I present such an ambitious and
monumental installation, which is about five meters high. It was also a new
experimentation from a technical point of view, as I used “flex,” which is a
material in which the colors do not cling easily. I also added posters and
many other materials taken from the streets of Beirut.

This 3D structure has a front and a back. A door in the painting-installation

allows a person to move between the two spaces. This echoes the expression
“closing the gate of Janus,” which means “making peace.” The open gate
means war. In my work, the gate is half-open or half-closed.
This ambiguity is similar to a game of heads or tails, one of the world’s first
games that Romans used to play, with coins minted with the effigy of Janus.
The alternative is thus presented, and the choice still has to be made!

Danielle Arbid: The screening of my video in the Lebanese Pavilion will be a

true revelation for me, because it is the first time that I have chosen to use a
split screen. In addition, it is a division of the screen accompanied by a
large-scale projection.

The idea was to create a feeling of immersion where one can take the place
of my character and enter her life. This is why I chose to split the video in two.
The split screen and the clipping of the sequences reinforce the feeling of
shifting, rocking. It accentuates the effect of surprise. We find ourselves
further immersed in the streets of Beirut. We are surrounded by the spaces
of this city. We drive the car, the same way we penetrate Ayman’s work.

From a thematic point of view, my videos echo the genre of the portrait in
painting or sculpture: I use one characteristic of the person so that the latter
embodies a whole, like an allegorical figure. The same way a painter would
rework a detail or a favorite theme.

With this reedition and fragmentation of the video, my work responds and
interacts with Ayman’s work. Furthermore, facing Janus Gate, and in the
light of the current situation in Lebanon, Allô Chérie has developed a whole
new meaning.

8
Nada Ghandour: Since your first meeting about this project, I had the
impression that the dialogue was initiated naturally between you.
How does it translate at the level of your creations?

Ayman Baalbaki: In reality, the dialogue between us revolves around the city of
Beirut. Danielle and I work with two different mediums, which give rise to two
different interpretations and two different languages. She is more into the long
term, whereas I am into a more global and direct vision. And in space, our
creations communicate with each other.
Once my work was finished, I added two rear-view mirrors that I will prop
on-site, at the Pavilion, in order to reflect the light that originates from
Danielle’s video facing my work. This artifice will boost this dialogue.

Danielle Arbid: For me, what makes the beauty of Ayman's work is its
grandeur. It is not something you merely notice. It is a human scale installation.
Our two creations deal with the issue of rapport. Both of us are in the street,
the spectator is in the car with me, and from there he will move into Ayman’s
skyscraper. There is an interaction.

Nada Ghandour: How do your creations relate to the contemporary world?

Danielle Arbid: Beirut is a city where people live outdoors, and where they have
this Mediterranean habit of putting a chair outside their doorstep.
For me, the city is the street. A street where there is a perpetual feeling of
astonishment, where everything can happen and where you never get bored.
You can find everything in Beirut, because Lebanese people come from
everywhere and they bring the whole world with them.

Ayman Baalbaki: Beirut has been a mosaic for hundreds of years, and a sort of
laboratory for minorities, where people live together. This city has somehow
become an example of the breakdown of globalization, an image of a
fragmented world in which our internal borders have been imposed and have
taken the place of our external borders. Otherwise, how does one justify the
reoccurrence of these borders in our globalized world?
My installation summarizes the archive work of regional geopolitics that I
started several years ago, but this time in a broader geographical context.

Nada Ghandour : Both compositions deal with issues inherent to Man.

Each one has its own subject, its own means of expression and its own codes.
Through Beirut, a world city, they highlight the challenges and the
political-social issues of our world today. They echo and complement each
other.

9
THE SCENOGRAPHY OF THE LEBANESE PAVILION

The exhibition “The World in the Image of Man” is taking place in one of the
halls of the Venetian Arsenal, a classified historical monument.
The Pavilion’s scenography answers to the curatorial notion of dialogue, a
central idea within this project.

Echoing the works by Danielle Arbid and Ayman Baalbaki, architect Aline
Asmar d’Amman suggests a wander through the heart of Lebanon which:
“takes the form of a brutalist elliptical shell evoking the eternal wish for unity.
The surrounding geometric form invites the works to engage in a dialogue of
truths, facing each other, shortening the distances, as if engaged in an innate
and natural conversation.”

The Pavilion’s raw architecture recalls the shapes of the contemporary ruins
of the Lebanese urban landscape: Joseph Philippe Karam's downtown cinema
'The Egg' and Oscar Niemeyer's 'Rashid Karamé' international exhibition
building in Tripoli.

This scenographic setting of approximately 150 m2, derived from the brutalist
architecture that flourished in Lebanon as of the 1960s, echoes a walk through
Beirut, through the eyes of Ayman Baalbaki and Danielle Arbid.
The facade is covered with curved panels coated in a concrete texture, evoking
the city, under permanent construction. The oculus of the Pavilion opens onto
the magnificent framework of the Venetian roof, as an invitation to draw the
gaze upwards.

Upon entering the Lebanese Pavilion, the visitor is first confronted with the
work of Ayman Baalbaki, and then they are drawn to Danielle Arbid’s video
projected directly on to the wall.

For Aline Asmar d’Amman: “the choice of such radical actions and
scenographic materials expresses a desire for sobriety in response to the
country's current situation.”

10
© Culture in Architecture

11
BIOGRAPHIES OF THE ARTISTS

DANIELLE ARBID

© Philippe Lebruman

Danielle Arbid draws her inspiration from a combination of cultures and intimate
stories. For her, cinema replaces memory. At the crossroads of genres and territories,
those of Lebanon or France, she documents, explores and experiments, to produce
rich, diverse and uncompromising works.

Born in 1970 in Beirut, the filmmaker and video artist moved to Paris at the age of 17.
In 1997, she made her first film. Since then, she has alternated between fiction,
first-person documentaries and video essays.

Danielle Arbid also practices photography. Selected for numerous festivals in France
and the rest of the world (Cannes, New York, Pusan, Tokyo, etc.) she won numerous
prizes and several retrospectives have been dedicated to her. Arbid’s work have been
shown in prestigious museums, including the Center Pompidou, Museum of Applied
Arts (Vienna), the MAC VAL - Museum of Contemporary Art of Val de Marne, the
Boghossian Foundation, or the Museum of Fine Arts in Rennes.

Her main awards include:Prize of the Lumière Academy of the Foreign press in
France; Golden Leopard video competition, Locarno; Grant Villa Médicis
Hors-les-murs; Silver Leopard – Video, Locarno Festival; Albert Londres Prize,
audiovisual; Best First Film Prize at Hot Docs Toronto; Grand Prix of the Milan festival;
Reflet d'Or at the Cinéma-tout-écran festival, Geneva; Bayard d'Or for best script at
the Namur festival, Belgium; Best Direction Award at Las Palmas Festival, Spain;
“New Voices, New Visions” Prize in Palm Springs, USA

12
AYMAN BAALBAKI

© Thierry Van Biesen

Ayman Baalbaki was born in1975 in Beirut, Lebanon. He studied fine arts, painting
and sculpture, at the Lebanese University of Beirut before obtaining a Graduate
Diploma in "Art-Space" at EnsAD (Paris) and a Diploma of Advanced Studies in “Arts
Images and Contemporary Art” at the University of Paris VIII.

He lives and works in Beirut and has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in
Lebanon and internationally including in Belgium, Canada, Egypt, United Arab
Emirates, United States, France, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, United Kingdom,
Italy and Turkey.

He is included in many prestigious collections internationally such as: Tate Modern,

British Museum London, UK; Farjam Collection, Dubai, UAE; Institut du Monde Arabe
Paris, France; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar; KA Collection;
Ramzi et Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation; The Mokbel Art Collection Beirut, Lebanon.

From June 20 to September 2022 ,25, Ayman Baalbaki will participate in the
exhibition Treasures of the Farjam Collection at the Institut du Monde Arabe.
The spring issue of Selections magazine dedicated to art and culture with a focus on
Arab countries is devoted to the artist Ayman Baalbaki and his work.
https://selectionsarts.com/

13
BIOGRAPHY OF THE CURATOR

NADA GHANDOUR
Curator of the Lebanese Pavilion and
President of the Scientific Committee

© Milad Ayoub

Doctor in History of Art and expert in modern and contemporary art, Nada Ghandour
is a heritage curator in the “museum” field.

She holds four Masters: Museology (École du Louvre), History of Art (Sorbonne Paris
IV), Preventive Conservation of Heritage (Paris 1), Digital Humanities (Sciences Po
Paris).

Nada Ghandour is an independent curator specializing in cultural management

and digital technology. She has worked in some of the largest European and North
American museums, notably the Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal), the Musée
National Picasso-Paris (France) and the Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris).

Thus, she has participated in large-scale exhibitions such as: Catherine the Great.
An art for the Empire (2006-2005); Cuba: Art and History from 1868 to the present
day (2008); Picasso! The Anniversary Exhibition (2016-2015); Icons of Modern Art.
The Shchukin Collection (2017-2016).

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BIOGRAPHY OF THE SCENOGRAPHER

ALINE ASMAR DʼAMMAN

Architect, Founder of Culture in Architecture in Beirut and Paris

© Marco Zorzanello

Born in Beirut, Aline Asmar d'Amman is the architect, interior designer and founder
behind Culture in Architecture, a design studio based in Beirut and in Paris,
committed to bridging cultures while balancing the past with the present.
Approaching each project with an evocative and narrative force, Aline Asmar d'Amman
constructs an intricate dialogue between the raw and the precious, heritage and
modernity and poetry and materiality.

The international firm has been at the helm of several iconic interior projects, including
the re-opening of Hôtel de Crillon in Paris and the renovation of the Eiffel Tower's
gastronomic restaurant Le Jules Verne.
The architect collaborated with Karl Lagerfeld on Hôtel de Crillon's Les Grands
Appartements and developed his collection of functional marble sculptures,
Architectures, showcased at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery.
Recently, the Lebanese-born architect unveiled a collection of unique functional
sculptures, The Memory of Stones, made by upcycling discarded fragments of marble.

Aline is currently overseeing the renovation of Palazzo Dona Giovannelli, one of the
historical jewels of Venice, while pursuing cross disciplinary work ranging from interior
architecture to art direction and scenography for private and public project around
the world, with a contemporary approach focused on cultural conversations.

Web: cultureinarchitecture.com
Instagram: @alineasmardamman #alineasmardamma
#cultureinarchitecture

15
THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

The Scientific Committee has an advisory role. Made up of national and

international specialists, its purpose is to provide recommendations and to
create an environment for reflection, exchange and discussion with the
artists and the architect-scenographer.

JEAN-FRANÇOIS CHARNIER

General Curator of Heritage, Scientific Director of AFALULA

Jean-François Charnier is a national general heritage and art curator.

He graduated in Art History and Archaeology from the Ecole du Louvre and
in Anthropology from Université Paris X-Nanterre. His first role was in the field
of preventive archaeology and heritage coordination. He then became
director in charge of the project of the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and
the Mediterranean (MUCEM).

After a mission at the Ministry of Culture, he joined in 2008 Agence

France-Muséums to coordinate the expertise of French national museums
including the Louvre, Pompidou Centre, Orsay etc. for the creation of the
Louvre Abu Dhabi.

He was appointed Scientific Director of Agence France-Muséums in 2013:

he created the contents of the museum and led the teams responsible
for the museography, art acquisitions, programming and publications of the
Louvre Abu Dhabi which opened in November 2017.

He joined Afalula Agency in August 2018 as Scientific Director.

16
LOUMA SALAMÉ
Director of the Boghossian Foundation, Villa Empain in Brussels

© Laetizia Bazzoni

Louma Salamé graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
(Paris) and from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (Paris).

After working as a Research Officer at Solomon R. Guggenheim museum in

New York in 2007 and Luxembourg’s Mudam in 2009, she worked from 2009
to 2013 as Communication manager at Abu Dhabi’s Louvre Museum. She then
worked on a mission as Director of Communications and Audiences at Mathaf
(Doha, Qatar) from 2014-2013 before moving to Paris’ Institut du Monde Arabe
in 2015.

She has curated independent shows including: Chemins de Traverses

(St Denis) in 2015 and Mental Map (Paris) in 2012.

Since January 2016, she has been the General Director of the Boghossian
Foundation – Villa Empain (Brussels) for which she conceived the exhibitions
Frontières Imaginaires (2017), Melancholia (2018), Flamboyant (2019), and
The Light House (21-2020).

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ANNABELLE TÉNÈZE
Chief Curator of Heritage and Director of the Abattoirs,
Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse

© P. Nim

Annabelle Ténèze is Chief Curator of Heritage and Director of the Abattoirs,

Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse. She was curator at the Musée national
Picasso-Paris (2012-2006) and director of the Musée d'art contemporain de
Rochechouart (2016-2012). Her research interests include what defines
historical and current scenes, and the reasons for visibility and invisibility.

She has thus curated group exhibitions of French women artists such as
Peindre, dit-elle, in 2015 and 2017 (Musée d’art contemporain de Rochechouart,
Musée des Beaux-arts de Dôle), as well as African women artists (L’Iris de Lucy.
Artistes africaines contemporaines, in 2017-2016; Musac, Leon, Musée d’art
contemporain de Rochechouart and CAAM of Las Palmas of Gran Canaria).
She has curated historical exhibitions: Medellin: a Colombian Story from the
1950s to the present; Picasso and the Exodus; A Spanish History of Art in
Resistance; its regional counterpart I was born a foreigner (60 artists, 29
nationalities); and Au-delà des apparences. Il était une fois, il sera une fois at
the Abattoirs.

She has also curated a number of monographs of remarkable artists that

emerged in the 1960s, such as Carolee Schneemann (2013, Rochechouart),
and at the Abattoirs of Toulouse Daniel Spoerri (2017), Hessie (2017), Jacqueline
de Jong (2018), Peter Saul (2019) and Marion Baruch (2020).
For the 2017 Venice Biennale, Annabelle Ténèze participated in the French
Pavilion jury and wrote for the catalogues of Laure Prouvost (French Pavilion)
and Joël Andrianomearisoa (Madagascar Pavilion).

18
THE CATALOGUE

Skira publishing house accompanies the Lebanese Pavilion at this 59th

edition of the Biennale di Venezia.

With contributions from Nada Ghandour, Pascale Cassagnau, Jean-François

Charnier, Louma Salamé, Maria Sukkar, Nayla Tamraz, Annabelle Ténèze and
Marion Vignal.

The World in the Image of Man

Catalogue du Pavillon du Liban, 59e Exposition Internationale d’Art –
La Biennale di Venezia

21 x 27 cm
192 pages
Paperback cover with flaps
100 color images

Retail price : 39€

19
THE PARTNERS

The Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF) is a Beirut-based cultural institution home
to an extensive collection of modern and contemporary visual art from the Arab World.
The collection comprises different media, including painting, drawing, print, photography,
ceramic, sculpture, and installation. The foundation assumes the role of a cultural mediator; it
aims to provide a comprehensive survey of visual art that reflects the diversity, boldness, and
creativity of artists and the complex realities of the region.

DAF is dedicated to preserving and making its vast permanent collection accessible to a local
and international audience through scheduled tours, in-house and videoed exhibitions, art
talks, publications, weekly posts on social media, and updated information on its website;
www.dafbeirut.org. The foundation provides loans to local and international museums as well
as international art fairs and biennials, sharing its expertise in its in-house collection with the
art institution’s representatives and curators. An advocate for knowledge production, DAF also
welcomes scholars and researchers from the social sciences, arts, and humanities to access its
archive, library, collection management system, and in-house research.

Since 1998, « Groupe VITAL » is accompanying companies who wish to delegate their IT
management. Service-oriented, Groupe VITAL has built a strong partnership with its clients
thanks to the commitment of its employees and the unique personality of its President, Nidal
ZEIDAN.
This commitment is reflected in the regular renewal of its customers' trust and has ensured the
company's constant growth for over 24 years.
With a turnover of 34M€ in 2022 and 130 clients throughout France, Groupe VITAL has become
a major player among IT Service Companies sector.
Convinced that the company has a major responsibility in social, cultural and environmental
sectors, Nidal ZEIDAN manage his company with a particular focus on developing human
relationships and family spirit. For its employees on the one hand, with for example, an internal
training policy for people who are far from employment or by redistributing profits through an
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continuous support of NGOs, associations or sports structures.

From Lebanese origins, the President of Groupe VITAL naturally decided to develop its social
responsibility axis with the creation an IT Service Center in Beirut in 2021, and through its
support the Lebanese Pavilion, participating this year in the Venice Biennale.

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Elie's passion is to make art more inclusive and more accessible for everyone, to support
emerging artists and the art ecosystem in the Middle-East and globally.

The collection brings together both young and established international names and a diverse
range of mediums, inviting kaleidoscopic perspectives and artistic languages that collectively
offer a nuanced, multifaceted reflection of the modern world.

Catawiki is a leading online auction marketplace to buy and sell special objects. We employ
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La Fondation Boghossian

Created in 1992 by Robert Boghossian and his two sons, Jean and Albert, jewellers of Armenian
origin, the Boghossian Foundation’s primary objective is to contribute to development and
education. Throughout its first fifteen years of existence, the Boghossian Foundation mainly
focused on the task of helping to improve the living conditions of young people in Armenia and
Lebanon in order to cultivate their potential to give them a better future.

Convinced that their Foundation’s work needed to extend beyond the humanitarian approach
and dedicate itself to humanist values, Jean and Albert Boghossian launched the Foundation
towards a new phase in its evolution.

The Boghossian Foundation purchased the Villa Empain, an Art Deco masterwork, in 2006.
After four years of restauration, the Foundation opened the Villa to the public in 2010 as a center
for art and dialogue between East and West. Led since 2016 by Louma Salamé, it has welcomed
more than 700.000 visitors and is known as one of the most outstanding art centres in Belgium.
Curators include Tino Sehgal and Dorothea von Hantelmann (Decor), Hans Ulrich Obrist
(Mondialité), both with artistic director Asad Raza, Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath (Dansaekhwa,
Ways of Seeing), Alfred Pacquement (Mappa mundi), and Henri Loyrette (Icons).

21
PRESS IMAGES

In situ images of the installation will be available from 20 Avril 2022.

France and International:

Joonam Partners
lebanesepavilion@joonampartners.com

Lebanon and Middle East:

MIRROS Communications
Joumana Rizk : joumana@mirrosme.com
Cynthia Geagea: operations@mirrosme.com
Tracy Baaklini : coordinator@mirrosme.com

Ayman Baalbaki, Janus Gate, 2021,

mixed media, detail
© Ayman Baalbaki

22
Ayman Baalbaki, Janus Gate, 2021,
mixed media, detail
© Ayman Baalbaki

Ayman Baalbaki, Janus Gate, 2021,

mixed media, detail
© Ayman Baalbaki

Ayman Baalbaki, Janus Gate, 2021,

mixed media, detail
© Ayman Baalbaki

23
Ayman Baalbaki, Janus Gate, 2021,
mixed media, detail
© Ayman Baalbaki

Ayman Baalbaki, Janus Gate, 2021,

mixed media, detail
© Ayman Baalbaki

Ayman Baalbaki, Janus Gate, 2021,

mixed media, detail
© Ayman Baalbaki

24
Danielle Arbid, Allô Chérie,
2015-2022, video still
© Danielle Arbid

Danielle Arbid, Allô Chérie,

2015-2022, video still
© Danielle Arbid

Danielle Arbid, Allô Chérie,

2015-2022, video still
© Danielle Arbid

Danielle Arbid, Allô Chérie,

2015-2022, video still
© Danielle Arbid

25
Danielle Arbid, Allô Chérie,
2015-2022, video still
© Danielle Arbid

Danielle Arbid, Allô Chérie,

2015-2022, video still
© Danielle Arbid

Danielle Arbid, Allô Chérie,

2015-2022, video still
© Danielle Arbid

26
Aline Asmar d’Amman,
scenography Lebanese Pavilion,
59th International Art Exhibition,
La Biennale di Venezia
© Culture in Architecture

Aline Asmar d’Amman,

scenography Lebanese Pavilion,
59th International Art Exhibition,
La Biennale di Venezia
© Culture in Architecture

Aline Asmar d’Amman,

scenography Lebanese Pavilion,
59th International Art Exhibition,
La Biennale di Venezia
© Culture in Architecture

Aline Asmar d’Amman,

scenography Lebanese Pavilion,
59th International Art Exhibition,
La Biennale di Venezia
© Culture in Architecture

27
PRESS CONTACTS

France and International

Joonam Partners
Roya Nasser : +33 6 20 26 33 28
Andréa Azéma : +33 7 76 80 75 03
Clara Meysen : +33 6 34 27 13 64
lebanesepavilion@joonampartners.com

Lebanon and Middle-East

Joumana Rizk : joumana@mirrosme.com

+961 3 29 83 83
Cynthia Geagea : operations@mirrosme.com
Tracy Baaklini : coordinator@mirrosme.com

To follow the Lebanese Pavilion:

www.lebanesepavilionvenice.com

Facebook/Instagram :
@LebanesePavilionVenice2022
#LebanesePavilionVenice2022
#TheWorldInTheImageOfMan

28
CREDITS

General Commissioner
Nada Ghandour

Curator
Nada Ghandour

Exhibited artists
Danielle Arbid
Ayman Baalbaki

Scientific Committee
Nada Ghandour
President of the Scientific Committee
Art historian and Heritage Curator

Jean-François Charnier
General Curator of Heritage Scientific Director Afalula

Louma Salamé
Director of the Boghossian Foundation, Empain Villa in Brussels

Annabelle Ténèze
Chief Curator of Heritage, Director of the Abattoirs,
Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse

Writers of the catalogue

Nada Ghandour, Jean-François Charnier, Louma Salamé and Annabelle
Ténèze wrote for this catalog along with:

Pascale Cassagnau
Art historian
General Inspector of Artistic Creation
Head of the Video Collection of the National Center for Visual Arts

Maria Sukkar
Co-chair, Middle East and North Africa Acquisitions Committee, Tate Museum

Nayla Tamraz
Art critic and curator

Marion Vignal
Curator and writer

29
Editing
Nathalie Leleu
Works with Words

Translation
Works with Words

Scenography
Culture in Architecture

Aline Asmar d’Amman

Architect Scenographer

Laetitia Wertheim
Director

Assistant Curator
Dina Bizri

Legal and Fiscal

Charles Simon Thomas

Communication Coordinator
Nadine Katabi

Webmaster
Philippe Assouad

Fundraising Lebanon and Europe

Chérine Soubra Assouad

Scenography Coordinator
Farida El Solh

Scenography consulting and production

Weexhibit SRL
Davide De Carlo
Project Manager
Laura Valentino
Production Coordinator
Nicolas d’Oronzio
Production Coordinator

30
Editorial Manager
Lara Nader Mouawad

Graphic Design of the catalogue and website

Lara Nader Mouawad

Media & Communication Consultant

Visionbuz
Dania Haffar Bazzi

Press agencies
Joonam Partners (France and international)
Roya Nasser
Andréa Azéma
Clara Meysen

MIRROS (Lebanon and Middle East)

Joumana Rizk
Cynthia Geagea
Tracy Baaklini

Legal Consultants
Araygi & Maalouly, Nicole Araygi
White & Case, Charles Abou Charaf

Transportation
Capit logistics (Lebanon)
Elie Abi Akar
General Manager

Pierre Chkeir
Head of the Fine Art Department

Insurance
Commercial Insurance Co.
Coralie Zaccar
Fine Arts Insurance
NASCO France

Organizer
Lebanese Visual Art Association – LVAA

31
Exhibited works

Danielle Arbid, Allô Chérie, 2015 - 2022,

video, color, sound , 21’, Lebanese (subtitled in English)

Ayman Baalbaki, Janus Gate, 2021,

acrylic, spray paint, wood, metal, resin, poster, Plexiglass, rope, ex printing, television,
sheet metal, antenna, satellite, plastic, neon, mirror, traffic cone, scaffolding, car
wheel, cloth, chair, table, bucket, teapot, bird’s nest, water tank, LED light, mattress,
braided mat, 4.85 x 11 x 2.9 m

32