Beyrouth : Les Temps Du Design

Exhibition at the MUDAC, Lausanne, 7 April - 6 August 2023

Since 2000, in a situation full of paradoxes, a design scene has been developing in Lebanon, rapidly hailed by all those involved in the sector. This effervescence of design in Lebanon is an exception in the region, and can be explained by the long-standing cultural relations with Europe, France in particular, but also with the Emirates and their ancestral culture of know-how, which contribute to the originality of the country's designers' proposals. Aware of its unique position between Western heritage and Eastern identity, with one foot on the Mediterranean and the other in Asia, Beirut is building its design and transforming its multiculturalism into a creative force.

This catalogue of the first retrospective on design in Lebanon, from the 1920s to the present day, brings together the work of over 50 designers, revealing this major design scene in the Middle East. It analyses the specific situation that simultaneously combines economic and architectural reconstruction, social awareness and international development.

Based on a wealth of documentation, while taking into account certain lacunae caused by the disappearance of whole sections of the archives during and after the civil war, this research is also based on a study of the socio-political and cultural context that has contributed to making Beirut a creative city today, despite a frequently troubled context.