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Archaeological site Museum of Baalbek, Lebanon

Under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture of Lebanon, Baalbek Municipality, Ministry of Tourism of Lebanon, Unesco Beirut Office

For the first time, the UNESCO world heritage site of Baalbek will host a contemporary art exhibition in its museum and the Temple of Bacchus. Composed of a triad of temples (Jupiter, Venus and Bacchus), the site dates back to 27BC and is located 90km from Beirut, Lebanon. Historically known as Heliopolis during the Hellenistic period, it is considered to be one of the most important Roman sites in the Middle East.

The exhibition sheds light on the importance of on-site Museums and explores in the context of Baalbek, how monuments and artifacts become symbols of an obsolete past, subject to destruction during war and victims of iconoclasm. The erosion of objects also caused by longterm exposure to atmospheric factors raises issues of preservation, ethics, and questions about how best to keep the vestiges of the past existent.

The silent archaeological findings are echoes of a lost time, while contemporary artworks echo the archaeology displayed in the Museum.

Foundation by Ai Weiwei invites the public to establish a forum, sitting on the old column bases and consider the ruins of the lost harmony as the foundation for an optimistic future. Marwan Rechmaoui explores the notion of future archaeology through fictional landscapes and crumbled architectures, monuments of war or erosion of time; the surviving structures ultimately become time capsules. Perpetuum Mobile by Cynthia Zaven sponsored by Baalbeck International Festival, is a multi-channel sound installation on the passage of time. Ziad Antar’s concrete sculptures displayed in the gallery of the cities of the dead reference the transitional state of public sculptures when being restored and show a state of in-between. Soleil Noir film by Laurent Grasso invites viewers to journey through the apocalyptic Roman ruins after the eruptions of volcanos in Pompei and Stromboli.

Theo Mercier displays experimental archaeology through an installation of sculptures in polystyrene which he placed in a grotto for two years, thus forming a layer of calcareous. Paola Yacoub’s research on the different strata of Beirut excavations in the 1990’s show the complexity and multiple layered nature of historical account.

Susan Hiller breaks the silence of the dead with recordings of extinct or endangered languages in The Last Silent Movie to preserve immaterial heritage. Danica Dakic staged photographs of migrants without documents to reference the loss of identity on the background of Hubert Robert’s painting of the Louvre’s La Grande Galerie, imagined in ruins.

curated by Karina El Helou and co-organised by Diane Abela

This exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of many sponsors and partners mentioned on our sponsors page as well as thanks to the personal contribution of Sheikha Khalida and Lubna Al-Thani.

Parallel program:
19 September 2016: Conference with international speakers at Sursock Museum
15 October 2016: Theatre performance by Zoukak organised by APEAL.

Team:
Press manager: Rana Najjar
Exhibition coordinator: Nathalie Ackawi
Scenography: Antoine Maalouf & Christian Sapet

Committee members: Naji Attar, Samer Dada, Nour Salamé, Alex Paulikevitch, Dr Hamad Hassan, Peter Hoffmann, Rabih Chaddad

Institutional Partners:

APEAL
Embassy of Germany in Beirut
Embassy of Switzerland in Beirut
Lebanese Russian Cultural Center

Contributors:

Beirut Art Fair
Palmyra Hotel
Mymoune
Kurban Travel
The Smallville hotel
21db
Antoine Maalouf Architects

The Silent Echo PDF

The Silent Echo Catalog

Conference PDF