The last edition of PQ ended in June 2019, less than 4 months before the nation-wide protests of October 17, the financial collapse of the country, the COVID pandemic, the Beirut Port Explosion of August 4, 2020, and the politico-socio-economic collapse that is still ongoing. Out of decency and respect to this situation, we limit the participation of Lebanon in PQ2023 to the Exhibition of Countries and Regions designed by Charbel Samuel Aoun, and the Student Exhibition designed by Mara Ingea.

A Breath Into A Hole

– The Exhibition of Countries and Regions

In the region of Mar Mikhael, the most damaged area after the Beirut explosion on August 4, 2020, stands an empty parking lot. A Breath Into A Hole questions destruction as a path for a new existence; to be space instead of being in space. An act, a few tools, and the urge to dig a space of belonging through asphalt and layers of civilization.

Charbel Samuel Aoun

Designer of the National Exhibition of Lebanon

Born in 1980, Charbel Samuel Aoun holds a master’s degree in architecture. He stared his career as a conceptual designer in several architectural firms in Beirut and explored the fields of audiovisual and theatre. In the meantime, Charbel followed his other passion for art and started creating a wild garden, collecting hundreds of varieties of plants and trees, thus combining his education as an architect, and his passion for nature by experimenting with different materials and elements, designing a system that examines and questions social and environmental realities. The choice of the medium is part of an experience: the viewer is invited to embark on a sensual journey, where the rational and the emotional are triggered through multi-sensory contact with the material. www.charbelsamuelaoun.com

The Exhibition of Countries and Regions

At the heart of the Prague Quadrennial since 1967, this exhibition is historically the most significant event of PQ, and presents the best in contemporary design for performance. Organized in collaboration with curators from 59 countries and regions, this Exhibition brings together 51 participations, and captures the essence of current trends, reflecting contemporary views, thoughts, and artistic developments in performance design through a display of national works or a commission for an installation. As the tension in the world is woven through our thoughts and our lives, it constantly reframes our realities. The threshold between the individual and the collective, the national and the international, the local and the global, the familiar and the other is going through a  complex evolution that brings both uncertainty and new creative energy. Actively experienced, the exhibition bridges imaginary and physical spaces. This exhibition is competitive, and artists are selected by the national curator.

Evolution of the Participation of lebanon in the Exhibition of countries and regions

The participation of Lebanon in the Exhibition of Countries and Regions underwent a variety of changes pertaining to the designers and to the exhibited concept.

The submitted exhibition to PQ2023 was titled “One Crumbled Soil”. Designed by Charbel Samuel Aoun, it presented an interactive field of shattered glass, which crackling sound resonates under the visitors’ footsteps. The exhibition reverberated on the Beirut Port explosion of August 4, 2020, and the cracked glass that was shattered all over the city.

However, and despite all fundraising efforts and outreach, it turned impossible to raise the necessary funds to produce the exhibition. We leveraged personal finance, and reached out to the sponsors and institutions who supported us in 2015 and in 2019. We connected with the Lebanese public institutions, knowing that despite not having the resources to fund us due to the current financial collapse, they could still put us in touch with funders. Yet, the funders were unable to favorably process our request. We also connected with the Lebanese Embassy in the Czech Republic, the Czech Embassy in Lebanon, followed up on their contacts and recommendations, corresponded with Lebanese business owners in Czechia, with Czech companies in Lebanon, and with emerging companies in Czechia. We further connected with friends we met in the frame of the Prague Quadrennial, notably Dorita Hannah, who leveraged her family connections in Lebanon – alas, all means to no avail.

Due to the impossibility of raising the necessary funds (via public and private entities, mécènes and individuals), this exhibition could not happen.

However, the commitment of Charbel Samuel Aoun to the participation of Lebanon in PQ2023 was met with the desire of PQ2023 to safeguard the participation of Lebanon. To this end, PQ Exhibitions Manager Magdaléna Brožíková offered us the option to waive our participation fees, and Charbel chose to premiere his film A Breath Into A Hole in the frame of PQ2023, a zero-cost production that reflects the economic crisis in relation to the artistic form.

This last-minute solution that was made possible thanks to the offering of the Prague Quadrennial and the agility of Charbel Samuel Aoun speaks to the relationship Lebanon has been building with the Prague Quadrennial since 2011. It promises strong continuity and broader horizons.

Hadi E. Damien
Curator of Lebanon