For two and a half years, Kristine Khouri and Rasha Salti have been working on an archival project that aims to explore the story of the lost International Art Exhibition For Palestine, which took place at the Beirut Arab University in 1978.
Entitled Past Disquiet: Artists, International Solidarity and Museums in Exile, the exhibition— which kicked off on 26 July at Beirut’s recently-renovated Sursock Museum–will run until September 24 and aims to reincarnate the now-iconic exhibition, which, despite its grandeur in scale and scope, seems to have disappeared completely from art history.
Research for the exhibition was thorough and saw the curators, Khouri and Salti, scour through the former exhibition’s original catalogue and comb through a long list of contributing artists and institutions that made it possible. The investigation eventually guided them towards other “museums in exile,” like the International Museum of Resistance Salvador Allende, and Artists Against Apartheid. Past Disquiet will feature archival material, documentary reportage and contemporary interviews.
The first incarnation of this exhibition was produced by the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona in 2015, the second was held at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin in 2016, and the subsequent Spanish version was opened courtesy of the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende this year.
Past Disquiet: Artists, International Solidarity and Museums in Exile runs until 24 September at Sursock Museum, Beirut
