03/04/2025
Join us this for the opening and launch of two interrelated projects guest-curated by Amin Alsaden. The exhibition, 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐲𝐦𝐧: 𝐀𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐦, presented at AUB’s Rose and Shaheen Saleeby Museum, sheds light on a barely examined tendency within Lebanese modernism. It brings together artists whose practices have drawn on the Arabic language, or the calligraphic possibilities of the Arabic letter more specifically. A speculative survey, it elucidates the impressive breadth of Beirut’s discursive experiments, which challenged Western hegemony during the second half of the twentieth century.
The exhibition serves as a historical backdrop to a new wave of interest in the Arabic script, with contemporary lettering artists gravitating toward the language’s arresting appeal and building on the explorations pioneered by their predecessors. The second project,𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝 , is an exhibit-in-a-booklet that pays tribute to Beirut at a particularly challenging time. Commissioning a group of contemporary Lebanese artists and designers who tackle the complex meanings invoked by the city today, it also underscores the unique aesthetics, expressive capacity, and astounding versatility of the Arabic script.
📍Rose and Shaheen Saleeby Museum, Sidani Street, Hamra. (AUB off campus women’s dorms)
🕓 Exhibition Opening: 5:00 to 8:00 PM
Welcoming Remarks: 5:45 PM
Booklet launch, and curator’s discussion with participating artists: 6 pm
museum .aub
.makarem.cultural.center
