'Impressions of Paradise' Explores the Image of Twentieth-Century Lebanon Through Travel and Film Posters

Web Release

21-06-2025

At the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture, vintage travel and film posters from the Philippe Jabre Art Collection unveil the construction of Lebanon's national image in popular culture and its enduring visual legacy.
The Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture invites visitors on a captivating journey with its new exhibition, 'Impressions of Paradise: Travel, Tourism, and the Visual Performance of Modern Lebanon.' Drawing from a rare selection of travel and film posters from the Philippe Jabre Art Collection, the exhibition, which runs from 20 June to 30 October 2025, explores depictions of Lebanon in the international travel and culture industry from the 1920s to the 1970s.
Curated by Nour Osseiran, with catalogue and research by art historian Marie Tomb, 'Impressions of Paradise' showcases iconic posters depicting Lebanon's iconic Cedar forests, Roman ruins, golden beaches, and charming pine-clad villages, destined to seduce tourists, as well as sleek designs promoting air travel that connected Lebanon to distant destinations.
'Posters are designed and worded to persuade and seduce in ephemeral public displays rather than collections and museums,' says Philippe Jabre, collector and founder of the archive. 'But somehow, they made their way here, proving that, far from static artifacts, they are living documents that carry memories, emotions, and a sense of identity that resonates across generations.'
The exhibition extends to the worlds of film and performance with posters from European spy thrillers referencing Lebanon, from nostalgic regional films, and from prints announcing concerts at the renowned Baalbeck Festival, which famously transformed the ancient site into a grand stage for cultural performance.
While seemingly celebratory, these posters are, in fact, highly selective depictions. They reveal how design subtly functioned as soft propaganda, circulating both abroad and domestically to shape Lebanon's global image and its self-perception.
'Impressions of Paradise retraces how Lebanon presented itself to the world as its status rose as a tourist and cultural destination in the twentieth century,' Jabre adds. 'This exhibition is, in essence, a reflection of my commitment to preserving, understanding, and weaving together the diverse threads that have shaped Lebanon's visual and cultural history over the past four centuries, from Orientalist paintings to photographs to Modern art.'
'Impressions of Paradise' also features contemporary Lebanese artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Lamia Joreige, Said Baalbaki, and Caline Aoun. These artists interrogate commercial posters' legacy, refracting their polished image through themes of intimacy, distortion, and rupture, offering a multifaceted perspective on the nation's performative identity.
The exhibition ultimately traverses both the shimmering surfaces of a bygone dream and the layered sediments it left behind, prompting reflection on how nations visually perform themselves—and how those performances fracture, mutate, yet persist across generations.
'Anchored in Lebanon but with a global reach, the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture, opened in the fall of 2024, offers a vibrant home to nurture artistic and cultural dialogue, celebrate creative expressions, and acknowledge and reflect on Memory,' states the Committee of the Pavilion. 'It carries on the Museum's mission to preserve Lebanon's heritage and infusing it with Modern and contemporary creative expressions that resonate with its soul.'
'Following this commitment, the Pavilion's second exhibition, Impressions of Paradise, explores the image of Lebanon through the lens of important historical examples of print advertisements and archival documents, and juxtaposes them with recent artworks that critique so-called 'Golden Age' utopian conceptions of Lebanon.'
Scenography of the Exhibition: atelier meem noon
Graphic Design: studio 7w20
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