Exhibition Concept Vision:

“Vital Lebanon: capacities of people; capacities of cities” is an imagined RELIEF exhibition which will experientially showcase the work and output of the first phase of RELIEF centre, as we transition into PROCOL.

The exhibition will offer insights into localised scales of livelihood and prosperity various Lebanese communities construct in times of uncertainty. We understand prosperity as dynamic and processual. Prosperity is dynamic in that it means different things to different people and places. How then, can we tell one story of prosperity inside a multiple, volatile Lebanon?

It is clear that prosperity in Lebanon can be told through various pathways of how people and environment live together, and form livelihoods utilizing capacities of people and capacities of city. Why don’t we all perceive the same form of prosperity & livelihood (in Lebanon)?

We believe we do not all perceive the same form of prosperity and livelihood in large part because of three key elements in “how and why” Lebanon actively endures. Those elements are; uncertainty, sociality and vitality. Fundamentally, those elements contribute to how we imagine and form livelihoods in Lebanon, while dependent on individual and communal perceptions.

“Uncertainty” is commonly perceived as a negative condition, yet, inside Lebanon’s context, many perceive it as a positive-potential. This is because uncertainty in fundamentally a lack of knowledge, which our brain constantly fills with priors. The more priors individuals and communities carry, the less ambiguous and more positive the state of uncertainty is. “Sociality” is then the potential act between people, at different scales, in which people communicate how they perceive the situation-reality, to then be able to collaborate and cooperate to improve that situation. “Vitality”, is that certain energy (élan vital) which allows not only resistance in uncertain Lebanon, but also growth (livelihoods).