Words By Allegra Salvadori
For the first time since 2012, acclaimed Lebanese artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige return to Beirut with a major solo exhibition at the Sursock Museum. Remembering the Light traces nearly a decade of their collaborative practice, spanning film, photography, sculpture, and installation. Together, the works weave a fragile yet luminous journey through memory, loss, and the worlds hidden beneath our feet.
Known for their research-driven approach, Hadjithomas and Joreige delve into the unseen—the erased, the latent, the stories buried in cities and landscapes. From underground strata and archaeological fragments to poetic reflections on beauty and resilience, the exhibition unfolds as an archaeology of emotions and materials. Works from three major projects—Unconformities: What Lies Beneath Our Feet, I Stared at Beauty So Much, and Museum Melancholy—converge alongside earlier research, forming a fragmented map of time and place.
In a city marked by upheaval, Remembering the Light becomes more than an exhibition; it is a gesture of connection and continuity. “We hope the show offers a space to reconnect with the visible and invisible layers of our histories,” the artists share. “It resists erasure, holding traces of what has been lost, and invites new visions.”
Through flickers of poetry, darkness and radiance, the exhibition invites visitors to slow down and engage with Beirut’s fractured yet enduring narratives.
Remembering the Light is on view at the Sursock Museum, Beirut, through September 4, 2025.
