De l’historien au citoyen : une nouvelle génération d’artistes libanais à la conquête de la réconciliation d’après-guerre

Abstract

Twenty-eight years after the ceasefire, the Lebanese civil war remains a constant theme for Beirut art works and speeches whereas society and institutions made a taboo out of it. Art constitutes a fortunate entrance for apprehending the social world and its evolutions in a context of long post-war period. The effectiveness of reconciliation process, even its takeover by artworld actors, can be measured through unofficial paths. Moreover, the transformation of war social representations within the artworld, between a war generation and a post-war generation, reflects a redefinition of both the artist figure and function in its relationship to politics: formerly a historian artist, the current citizen artist figure reveals a significant change in the social conception of Lebanon, which henceforth lays on detachment of urban communitarianism and identity labels.