Curator Series: Elias Tamer
Curator of the Lebanese pavilion ('The Land That Remembers') at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025
"Culture has always been central to Lebanese identity. In the face of collapse, Lebanese artists, architects, and thinkers have historically responded with creativity and resistance. Curating this pavilion became a way for us to carry that tradition forward — a form of cultural resistance. We wanted the pavilion to send a clear message: Lebanon may be fractured, but it is not voiceless.
As a team of young curators, the project took on an even deeper layer of meaning. In a time when so many in our generation are leaving Lebanon, this was our way of staying connected and contributing. Despite the absence of state support, despite the war, we managed to bring Lebanon to Venice - and with it, a powerful, urgent message that resonated with international audiences."
Elias Tamer
"When we were designing the pavilion, we were confronted with the war in Lebanon — a war that, of course, was tragic in terms of human loss and urban destruction. But what struck us most was the sheer brutality and aggressiveness with which nature itself — particularly the olive groves and agricultural lands - was targeted. We were horrified, but also felt powerless in the face of this destruction.
That feeling of urgency, trauma, and helplessness shaped our curatorial approach. We didn't want to curate a traditional architectural exhibition. We wanted to recreate, in Venice, a visceral sense of the brutality unfolding in Lebanon - to translate that emotional and ecological urgency into the visitor experience. As soon as visitors enter the pavilion, they are confronted with raw, unfiltered images of the intentional destruction of nature in South Lebanon. These images were documented by Green Southerners and are presented through Images, laporellos and projected visuals. Simultaneously, the space is filled with the constant, haunting sound of drones recorded above Beirut — a sonic atmosphere created by sound artist Mo Choucair. This drone noise follows visitors throughout the exhibition, creating a sense of discomfort and tension that mirrors the lived experience of those affected."
"The pavilion itself is conceived as the fictional "Ministry of Land Intelligence," composed of four departments:
The Department of Ecocide Reports
The Department of Counter-Mapping
The Department of Endemic Species
The Department of Strategic Healing
The first two departments confront the visitor directly with the evidence of destruction - through maps, data, and photographs. They expose the violence inflicted upon the land. The third and fourth departments shift toward possibilities of regeneration - exploring endemic species and strategies for ecological healing. Throughout the exhibition, visitors are surrounded by mud bricks made from Lebanon's terra rossa soil — the very earth that has been damaged and degraded. These bricks are not symbolic; they are sensorial. Visitors can touch them, smell them, feel their texture — creating a direct, tactile link to the landscapes under attack.
Finally, the pavilion invites visitors, especially architects, to take an active stance. We wanted to challenge the passivity that often defines exhibition spaces. That's why we included a petition mounted next to our curatorial statement — a clear call to action. We ask visitors not only to witness what's happening but to engage, to sign, to refuse powerlessness, just as we refused to remain silent in Lebanon."
"The specific ecological concerns explored in The Land Remembers - particularly the notion of ecocide and the deliberate destruction of land — are not unique to Lebanon. While the exhibition is rooted in the Lebanese context, its message transcends national boundaries. Lebanon serves as a paradigm for a global condition. What we are witnessing there is mirrored in many other parts of the world under different forms.
The Lebanese Pavilion presents a message that, although grounded in the local, resonates with these broader global issues. One of the more unique aspects of our approach is viewing war and conflict through an environmental lens. It allows us to reframe the narrative: not only as a human tragedy but also as an ecological catastrophe. In a world that is increasingly unified in the fight against climate change — a struggle that has become a defining battle for the survival of humanity — this perspective holds particular urgency."
"The process of curating the Lebanese Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale was highly unconventional and deeply shaped by the ongoing war in Lebanon. From the moment we were appointed, we were navigating a country in crisis - facing immense uncertainty about whether we'd even be able to physically realize the project or make it to Venice.
One of the biggest challenges was that we received no financial support from the Lebanese state. With zero public funding, we had to raise the entire budget ourselves, relying on personal networks and grassroots efforts. But in times of war, most funding understandably shifts to emergency relief rather than cultural initiatives abroad. This made fundraising particularly difficult and slow.
As curators, we quickly found ourselves taking on far more than the traditional curatorial role. In addition to shaping the vision and content of the exhibition, we became project managers, fundraisers, printers, designers, builders, and communicators. We handled all logistics, coordinated with the Venice Biennale team directly, and oversaw every detail - from book production to shipping to on-site installation."
"Our curatorial vision was grounded in interdisciplinary collaboration. As a collective, we are four curators - and every decision is made collectively. This structure is one of our greatest strengths: it brings multiple perspectives to the table, encourages rigorous dialogue, and ensures that the work we produce is deeply considered and multifaceted. Of course, it also requires time, patience, and ongoing negotiation — but we see these not as drawbacks, but as part of the richness and depth of working collaboratively. It's a model that reflects our values: horizontal, inclusive, and committed to shared authorship.
For this project, we expanded the team by inviting 15 contributors and organizations from across Lebanon and its diaspora. These included Green Southerners, Jouzour Lubnan, Public Works Studio, The Other Dada, sound artist Moshe, and illustrator Odette Bounasser, among others.
Each contributor was invited to respond to the pavilion's central curatorial framework: a fictional "Ministry of Land Intelligence" composed of four departments —
The Department of Ecocide Reports
The Department of Counter-Mapping
The Department of Endemic Species
The Department of Strategic Healing
Our role was to guide the development of each contribution so that it aligned thematically and formally with one of these departments. We also ensured the visual and conceptual coherence of the exhibition as a whole - weaving together a wide range of formats, voices, and disciplines into a unified spatial and emotional narrative."
"Due to limited resources, we also built and installed the pavilion ourselves, with generous support from some of the other pavilions on site. We fabricated many of the components by hand and managed the entire installation process directly.
In short, the process was one of constant adaptation, collective problem-solving, and deep emotional investment. We often say that this pavilion is "a l'image du pays"- the process was extremely complicated because of what the country is going through, but we made it at the end and it was great!"
"At a time when Lebanon is experiencing immense suffering - socially, economically, and ecologically - and when the cultural sector has been deeply undermined, it felt urgent to ensure that Lebanon's voice was not absent from the global stage. This is only the third time Lebanon has participated in the Architecture Biennale, and the country was not present in the last edition due to financial and political instability. For us, being in Venice was not just about participation - it was about reclaiming visibility and presence in a moment of silence.
As a team of young curators, the project took on an even deeper layer of meaning. In a time when so many in our generation are leaving Lebanon, this was our way of staying connected and contributing. Despite the absence of state support, despite the war, we managed to bring Lebanon to Venice - and with it, a powerful, urgent message that resonated with international audiences.
This pavilion is ultimately dedicated to the Lebanese people. That's why we chose to make it a collective exhibition - one that included the work of more than fifteen contributors from diverse fields. It reflects not only the complexity of Lebanon's crisis, but also the richness and plurality of its cultural fabric. It was essential to us that the pavilion felt like a shared voice - layered, collaborative, and rooted in lived experience."
