A Guided Tour: Je suis inculte! The Salon d’Automne and the National Canon

Curators 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗮 𝗚𝗮𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 and 𝗭𝗶𝗮𝗱 𝗞𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗮𝘄𝗶 are giving a guided tour of their exhibition Je suis inculte ! The Salon d'Automne and the National Canon on Saturday 16 September at 11 am.

Je suis inculte ! (I am uncultivated!) revisits the legacy of the annual juried Salon d’Automne in Beirut from the Sursock Museum’s inauguration in 1961 until the present day. The salon has played an authoritative role in the formation of a national artistic canon; it served as an appropriate exhibition model for a newly independent nation, as an academy capable of training young artists, and as a tastemaker for audiences. As a public institution, it also reflected the crises of the state, most conspicuously during the Lebanese Civil War. Yet against a triumphalist national narrative that highlights the museum’s prewar glory, wartime downfall, and postwar “renaissance,” a more persistent crisis looms large. In the museum’s archive, traces of antagonism, unsettled debates, and dissent disrupt the national myths at work in the history of the Salon d’Automne.

In English and Arabic – Duration: 1 hour
Places are limited – Booking on: [email protected]