The Beit Beirut museum's "Tell Me, South" exhibition has had a constant stream of visitors since its opening back in May. The Sodeco district venue in the Lebanese capital has attracted almost unprecedented attention due to its display of family photos, testimonies and personal stories that have made their way to the city.
The aim is to show South Lebanon through its people, far from an image that reduces it to devastation, so that the South’s past does not slip into oblivion and war does not wear it down to death in the memories of its sons and daughters.
Despite the engagement it has enjoyed, the exhibition was not the result of months of preparation; it was born in haste at an exceptional moment. The decision to launch it was taken just three weeks before it opened, at a time when the latest war was still weighing heavily on the South.
The question the team faced from the outset was: is this even the right time to hold an exhibition about the memory of a region whose wounds have yet to heal?
After just six weeks from its opening, the exhibition has clearly left its mark on visitors, and turnout has exceeded the organisers’ expectations, revealing how many people feel a need to explore the South’s reality and stories in a different way. Before wrapping up its first phase ahead of a month long break from the start of August, the moment seemed right to pause and reflect on the show's impact so far. Has the exhibition, and the engagement it sparked, been able to achieve the organisers’ goals?
