SIGNS OF CONFLICT

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INTRODUCTION

ONLINE EXHIBITION

ONSITE EXHIBITIONS

Beirut

Home Works IV: A Forum on Cultural Practices

Apr, 2008

Exhibition organized in collaboration with Alia Karame.

Produced by Ashkal Alwan, the Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, in the framework of Home Works IV, with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Middle East.

Photographs by Agop Kanledgian, courtesy of Ashkal Alwan.

Selected reviews:

Pierre Abi Saab "Zeina Maasri tu'id kira't al-harb min khilal al moulsak" (Zeina Maasri re-writes the civil war through its posters), al-Akhbar newspaper 12/04/2008, p.12

Hassan Daoud "1975-1990 sanawatuna al-ghariba anna" (1975-1990 our estranged years), Nawafiz supplement in al-Mustaqbal newspaper, 27/04/2008, p.9

Chad Elias, Review "Signs of Conflict: Political Posters of Lebanon's Civil War", Journal of Visual Culture, 2009; issue 8; p. 116-120.

Maya Ghandour Hert, "Des Affiches de guerre comme 'Signes de Conflit'", L'Orient le Jour, Beirut, 17/04/2008

Jim Quilty, "Graphing the ever-mutable image of Lebanon's Civil war", Daily Star, 19/04/2008

Omran al-Kayssi "Al-mulsaq al-syassi yuwabikh al-harb" (The political poster condemns the war", al-Khalij, 26/04/2008.

Cited in:
Robert Fisk, "Lebanon does not want another war. Does it?", The Independent, UK, 11/05/2008

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Signs of Conflict exhibition traces the deployment of political discourse in visual culture characteristic of Lebanon’s wartime conflict(s). It examines the political posters that were produced by the various warring factions, political parties and movements in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. It is premised upon the idea that the posters unfold the narratives of the prevailing political conflicts while providing insights into modern Arab visual culture.

Lebanon’s civil war is a complex case where local socio-economic and sectarian struggles, linked with regional politics, characterized political discourses and distinguished the numerous warring factions. That, in turn, materialized in the production of an equally complex plethora of political posters, with antagonistic discursive frameworks, conflicting significations, as well as distinct aesthetic practices.