Exhibitions
The flight of Lebanese memory lands at the Sursock Museum
Beirut is probably one of the cities that has had to reinvent itself most often in recent decades. Marked by conflicts, economic crises, and the devastating port explosion in 2020, the Lebanese capital has found in culture one of its most powerful tools for reconstructing its collective memory. In this context, the Sursock Museum once again places documentary heritage at the center of the debate with "The Butterflies and Bumblebees of Middle East Airlines: The History of the MEA Folkloric Dance Troupe and the Story Behind their Archives ," an exhibition that will be on view from June 11 to August 22, 2026.
Organized by the museum's Archives Department to mark International Archives Week and as part of the Modern Heritage Observatory (MoHO) activities, the exhibition has been curated by Rowina Bou Harb, head of the Sursock Museum Archives, and Nidale Hamouche Bou Harb. They offer a journey through the history of the Middle East Airlines (MEA) Folkloric Company, an artistic group that for years served as a cultural ambassador for Lebanon at festivals and venues around the world.
The exhibition brings together for the first time a carefully curated selection from a documentary collection of nearly 500 items, including photographs, official documents, programs, press clippings, and other materials that reconstruct the company's history. Beyond its historical value, the archive reveals how dance and the performing arts became a tool for international projection for a country seeking to showcase an image of diversity, creativity, and openness.
Preserved for decades by the Bou Harb family, this documentary collection offers an intimate glimpse into a little-known episode of Lebanon's contemporary cultural history. The images and documents trace the evolution of a group that transcended the artistic sphere to become a symbol of national identity during a period of profound social and political transformation.
The Sursock Museum's proposal also highlights the growing importance of archives as spaces for research, memory, and the creation of new narratives. Far from being understood merely as documentary repositories, archival collections are presented here as living tools capable of connecting past and present, recovering stories that help us understand the complexity of a city that has never stopped rebuilding itself.
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