Echoes of Existence

Echoes of Existence is on view at the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture, in the grounds of the National Museum of Beirut, from 22 July to 21 October 2026. Initiated by the Embassy of Italy in Lebanon, presented under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and curated by Muriel Asmar, it brings together the Italian artist Enzo Cucchi and the Lebanese-Italian painter Gilbert Halaby around the pine tree, which the pavilion calls "a shared symbol deeply rooted in both Italy and Lebanon."

The show is laid out over three levels. The upper level opens with a wall installation by Cucchi of sketches, drawings and fragments of works, framed by two sculptures, facing Halaby's Sannine, a large canvas painted in Rome at Palazzo Nardini, and a tondo three metres across laid on the floor. On level minus one, Halaby's pine forest unfolds across paintings of different sizes hung side by side, in dialogue with Cucchi's drawings.

The same level sets these works beside landscapes with pines by the Lebanese modern painters Omar Onsi, Moustafa Farroukh, César Gemayel and Aref El Rayess, a section developed with research by Saleh Barakat. The lowest level, made with the Carabinieri Biodiversity and Forestry Units, presents ten wooden sculptures, each carved from a different tree species found in Italy, with panels on forest protection. Three books edited by Marie Tomb accompany the exhibition, one on each artist and a third, Pine Landscapes of Lebanon, on modern Lebanese painting.

Enzo Cucchi is an Italian painter and sculptor whose work draws on signs, gesture and fragments of images. Gilbert Halaby studied archaeology at the Lebanese University and has lived in Rome since 2003. "The pine tree is a sentinel for the memory," he told Selections, adding that he hopes the exhibition "brings awareness" of the need to safeguard forests.

Muriel Asmar describes the project as reaffirming "the power of art to create bridges between cultures, histories and territories". By placing contemporary work next to modern Lebanese landscape painting and a conservation display, the exhibition links the pine as a pictorial motif to the current threats facing the tree in both countries.