Material Stories

Material Stories, on view in the Sursock Museum's Collection Galleries until 20 October 2026, turns the spotlight on a field most visitors never see: the conservation and restoration of works of art. Co-curated by Karina El Helou and Clémence Cottard Hachem, and presented with the Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA), it opened on 21 May 2026 as part of the museum's 65th anniversary programme.

The exhibition is built around ten case studies drawn from two collections, the Sursock Museum's own and the Lebanese Ministry of Culture collection now in BeMA's care. Each case study follows a single object through its condition, its damage and the choices made in caring for it.

The display unfolds in two sections. The first asks how the condition of an artwork is assessed, and which methods reveal its alterations and the agents behind its deterioration. The second looks at the reasoning behind an intervention: should restoration seek to recover an original state, or preserve the traces that bear witness to a work's history? In the museum's words, these decisions emerge from "a delicate balance between scientific rigor and interpretative judgment".

The show is also a tribute to the conservator-restorers the museum calls the "invisible hands" safeguarding Lebanon's artistic heritage. It was made with Kerstin Khalifé, Véronique Sorano, Naya Abou Rizk, Caroline Gelot, Ramia Obeid, Nathalie Hanna, Nayirie Keuteklian, Karl Kassouf and Ahmad Ghaddar.

Material Stories makes the case that caring for objects is a form of transmission, and that the work of the studio belongs in the gallery. Free guided tours run every Saturday at 3pm in Arabic and English.