APJ

Impressions of Paradise: A visual memory of Lebanon between dream and reality

At the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture in Beirut, the exhibition Impressions of Paradise revisits the construction of Lebanon’s national image through a medium often dismissed as merely decorative: the poster.

Drawn from the rare archives of Philippe Jabre—including travel advertisements, airline posters, vintage film and festival designs—the exhibition offers a visual journey into Lebanon’s collective imagination, as it was shaped, projected, and often idealized throughout the 20th century.

Lebanon as a promise

Golden beaches, cedar forests, Roman ruins, hilltop villages: the imagery in the exhibition’s early rooms reflects a deliberate mythology. Designed between the 1920s and 1970s, these posters constructed an idealized vision of Lebanon as a land of beauty, harmony, and openness. They depict not so much a place as the promise it carried—for foreign visitors, but also for Lebanese citizens themselves.

This “postcard Lebanon” was a strategic showcase. Yet embedded within it lies a deeper narrative: one of a nation presenting itself to the world at the height of its modern ambitions.

A contemporary reading

Curated by Nour Osseirane, with content edited by historian Marie Tomb, the exhibition pairs this visual archive with a critical, contemporary gaze. Lebanese artists Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige, Lamia Joreige, Said Baalbaki, and Caline Aoun revisit and deconstruct the graphic codes of advertising and mass communication.

Their works do not illustrate—they challenge. The stylized image of Lebanon is refracted through new lenses, exposing tensions between fantasy and reality, memory and myth, visual seduction and political complexity. Beauty becomes a language for loss, fragmentation, and resilience.

Posters as shared memory

For Philippe Jabre, a long-time collector of cultural memorabilia, these posters were never just ephemera. Originally created to grab attention in public space, they now serve as living documents—embedded with emotion, history, and identity. By bringing them into the exhibition space, the show reclaims their narrative power.

Organized into four thematic sections, Impressions of Paradise becomes less a history lesson than a meditation on how images shape the way nations are seen—and see themselves. Between what is shown and what is lived, a silent tension runs through the exhibition, inviting reflection rather than resolution.

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Who is Philippe Jabre?

Philippe Jabre is one of the most prominent collectors of artistic works related to Lebanon’s cultural memory. A Lebanese businessman based abroad for many years, he began in 1989 a passionate search between Paris and London to document Lebanon as it was perceived by the world before the outbreak of the civil war in 1975.

Over the decades, he amassed an extraordinary archive of promotional posters, paintings, photographs, and rare books that capture the country’s cultural and touristic golden age. What began as a personal passion evolved into a shared artistic endeavor with his friend Gaby Daher: together, they set out to trace, acquire, and classify the earliest promotional posters created for Lebanon abroad. To them, these posters are not just graphic relics—they are unique artistic documents that express how Lebanon was etched into global visual memory.

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The exhibition is open until October 30, 2025, at the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture, within the National Museum of Beirut.