A tiny, knocksabout churches-and-clubbing town is being rebuilt by sheer dint of its existence. Even decades of political conflict, economic devastation, and August 2020 terrorism in a blast could not stifle Beirut. And now, the city is undergoing a cultural renaissance on the bases of strength, imagination, and collective rebuilding. The capital city of Lebanon, which used to be victimized by superficial official city culture, is presently basking in the midst of vibrant arts and artistic citizens, a good lesson of revolution for the city.
There were a significant number of art spaces that sprouted all over Beirut, most of them occupying rehabilitated properties like rehabilitated apartments and warehouses. They are not even exhibitions but sanctuaries where arts and imagination can flourish freely. Such places like Beirut Art Center and Marfa’ Projects are now the hub of the exploded art that is held in the city. Their open studios are locality and universality-themed exhibitions that cover a figment of imagination with social public narratives. They are walked through by creatures from every aspect of life with sense and ability in the confinement of adrenaline inflated with strength and spirit of revolt to be reborn again.
Music too turned into one of the strongest propellers of Beirut’s return to life. Throughout the city, Lebanese folk rhythms are slowly blending into ever-more-fine-timed versions of electro-pop music, an ever-unraveling clash of tradition and contemporary culture. Mashrou’ Leila and The Beirut Groove Collective are just two of the bands that have gained enormous cult followings, producing music so universally enjoyed by Lebanese and expats alike. These performances are sites of refuge, self-production, and coalition–not denial, but empowerment.
This cultural renewal has also been described as a bid for healing from massive trauma. Music and cultural socialization were encompassed under city therapy. Classes of art and music therapy are composed to work with individuals confronted by loss and psychic trauma, particularly following the port blast. Day and night endeavors of volunteers and professionals go into setting up safe, imaginative spaces through which healing is facilitated by creating and doing.
Large cultural festivals such as the Beirut Design Week and Beirut Art Fair are also unfolding the city’s creative economy. The festivals are presenting global markets to the city artists and facilitating cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary flow. The festivals are hallowing the city culture of creativity and how the culture is re-constituting society.
The mission of this revolution is to preserve Beirut’s living heritage and re-chart the future. The musicians and the artists are not looking at their struggle as an elegy of despondency but as an opportunity to sing a defiant chant of Beirutien pride. Art is not being re-written as hedonism or escape but as city life—a vehicle of hope, common memory, and identity.
And here, Beirut’s cultural revival is as crying determination as defiant rebellion. Design, music, and visual arts are not sanctuary but the tool with which a shattered social map can be recast. When the city comes to a standstill in mourning, it is being recast in the resilience, empathy, and imagination of its citizens.
