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      Beirut Mapped



Rayya Badran
Elianne El-Amyouni
Ghida Hachicho
Hussein Nassereddine
Carla Salem

Commissioned and edited by Rachel Dedman for the V&A in 2020


Beirut Mapped is an editorial project that invites reflections on the city of Beirut from the perspective of artists and writers who live there.

Lebanon is living through a crippling economic crisis alongside the global pandemic, and coping with the effects of the devastating port explosion of 4 August 2020. Popular uprisings against government corruption began in October 2019, and the movement has continued around lockdowns.

In the midst of struggle and loss—of human life, homes, and cultural heritage—what places or objects best capture the city’s present, speak to its history, and look to its future?

Five Beirut-based artists and writers were commissioned to choose an object or place in, from or about the city, and to develop a creative text in response. Connecting these to objects from the Arab Image Foundation’s archives, and the V&A’s collection, added a further layer to the project. Beirut Mapped sought to build a partial and imperfect map of Beirut, through its material and intangible traces.

Beirut Mapped is organised in partnership with the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut, and is part of the V&A’s Jameel Programming.

Read all of the commissions here: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/projects/beirut-mapped


Snapshot at a dinner party, taken by an unidentified photographer in Syria, 1950 – 60, gelatin silver developing-out paper print, 0159ko00005, 0159ko. Haifa Kocache Collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut Clapping wallpaper by Sonia Boyce, 1994. Museum no. E.596-1996 © The artist / Victoria and Albert Museum


From Randa Chahal Sabbagh’s Souha, Surviving Hell, 2000, courtesy of Radio Karantina Sursock House, taken by an unidentified photographer, 1930 – 40, Beirut, Lebanon, 0198su00067 – Yvonne Sursock Collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut


View of the outskirts of Beirut, photographed by Fouad el Khoury, 1926, gelatin silver negative on glass, 0002kh00001. Fouad el Khoury Collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

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