Beirut Art Center is pleased to announce the opening of slow burn, a group exhibition presenting new works by twenty emerging artists from Lebanon and the wider region.
Earlier this year, an open call invited artists to explore the many potential manifestations of fire. From the countless proposals received, twenty were selected, and through months of conversation and exchange, one realization emerged: most of the works being developed were intimate, process-based, and deeply responsive to context. In the absence of stability amid ongoing crises, it became evident that these works would not remain static or unchanged in the time leading up to the exhibition.
The focus, therefore, shifted from finished work to process. Artists based in Lebanon were invited to relocate their studios to Beirut Art Center, transforming the space into an active site of exploration, collaboration, and adaptation, free from the expectation of a pre-defined outcome. Nine artists physically occupied the Center, while others worked remotely with open lines of communication. A series of public encounters, titled slow burn encounters, invited visitors to witness, engage with, and influence the evolving process weeks before the opening.
While the elemental and paradoxical forces of fire fuel the origins of the works, the exhibition ultimately extends beyond the literal. The artists take visitors on a slow burn through the interstitial moments of fire, the states where energy, heat, and light exist without eruption, where slow, profound pressure simmers over time, transforming resistance and anticipation into form.
On the ground floor, the relationship between violence and its representation unfolds through the latent power of matter and darkness. The mezzanine above opens into intimate, material practices of mourning; spaces of quiet endurance and transformation.
A slow burn is not the opposite of a blazing fire; it is latent power, quiet yet intensely alive, always on the verge of transformation. Conceived as a catalyst rather than a conclusion, slow burn invites viewers into this charged space, to bear witness to, and participate in, the forging of a new collective temperature.
Curated by Danielle Makhoul.
Press release from Beirut Art Center
Image: Awfar (Mia Baraka and Ibrahim Kombarji). Is it safe here?. 2025. Dry wall, fire-resistant coating paint, motherboards, silkscreen print, gold plated peephole, cardboard box, LED lights. 220 x 414 x 44 cm. In collaboration with Nina Abouzeid, Fadi Almelhem, HaithamBoulmona. With thanks to Kim Baraka, Jad Ghazaly, SheidaGhomashchi, Sany Jamal, Danielle Makhoul. Image courtesy of the artists
