The 1980s in Lebanon were dominated by war, destruction, and displacement, but they were also a time of continuities and new beginnings. Defying the Violence: Lebanon’s Visual Arts in the 1980s, Manazir Journal 7 (2025), edited by Nadia von Maltzahn (OIB/LAWHA), explores how Lebanon’s artists, cultural players and institutions navigated the decade of the 1980s in the midst of civil war. While violence fragmented the country and uprooted lives, many continued to create, exhibit and reflect. Galleries like Galerie Damo and Épreuve d’Artistes opened in defiance of the conflict. Cultural activist Janine Rubeiz transformed her home into a cultural space and organized exhibitions in different locations, notably Beirut Tabaan in cooperation with Dar al Nadwa in 1989. The Sursock Museum resumed exhibitions in 1982 after years of closure.
 
Artists responded in complex ways. Some, like Jamil Molaeb and Amine El Bacha, turned to printmaking and tapestry. Others, like Fadi Barrage and Mona Hatoum, reflected on belonging and exile through abstraction, performance or video art. Amine El Bacha’s picnic scenes can be read as quiet acts of resistance. Greta Naufal’s work strongly engaged with her surroundings. Each processed their experiences in different ways. Even when not directly depicting war, the art of this period responded to the context in which it was created. This was not a lost decade, but a formative one, where displacement could also be generative, shaping new communities. Art provided a means to endure, connect, and make sense of a fractured world.
 
Join us for the launch of this special issue and accompanying display of archival material from the archive of art critic Joseph Tarrab, generously donated to the OIB, in addition to material given by Galerie Damo, the Sursock Museum, Mohammad El Rawas, Greta Naufal and Kufa Gallery. Two videos give insights into the impact of forced displacement on a personal level, and the lived reality of artists who remained in Lebanon in the late 1980s. By returning to the 1980s, this issue and display shed light on a chapter often overlooked in Lebanon’s (art) history, all the more relevant today. Manazir Journal 7 includes contributions by Monique Bellan, Ashraf Osman, Flavia Malusardi, Cigdem Ivren, Jessica Gerschultz, Nadia von Maltzahn, Joan Grandjean, as well as an interview with Greta Naufal and a roundtable discussion with Mohammad Rawas, Rose Issa, Nadine Begdache and Saleh Barakat.
 
The launch-vernissage will take place on Thursday, 8 January 2026, 5-7pm at the OIB. The editor and some of the contributors will introduce the issue and accompanying display in OIB’s exhibition room on the ground floor. All are welcome. 
 
The display of archival material and the screening of two videos in the exhibition room of the Orient-Institut Beirut will be accessible on weekdays from 8 to 15 January 2026, 10am-4pm.

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