The Occupation of Memory

The Occupation of Memory is a solo exhibition by the Lebanese-American artist Adnan Charara at Maya Art Space in Downtown Beirut, curated by Hana Sammak Kurdi and presented in collaboration with Sundara, from 9 to 30 September 2026.

The gallery describes the show as "a battle of the colours, mirroring the contradiction and perhaps also the harmony in its themes". Comic-book style pieces that depict violence "are indeed comical", and the eye shifts "between bright colourful motifs overlaying fantastical black-and-white worlds". Charara "ponders on the fickleness of our memories and questions their integrity and our attachment to them"; since memories can be influenced by surroundings and manipulated, "occupation" here refers to "the momentary recollection that serves our own perspective".

Among the works is Mountain of the mind (2024), in ink, prismacolor, archival pigment and gold dust on paper, measuring 172 by 304 cm. In a text published by the gallery, the work "delves into the psychological and societal turmoil sparked by the rise of AI technology and the corresponding erosion of human skills", its central image, "a chaotic, fragmented mountain", representing "the mind's landscape, distorted by technological advancement".

According to the gallery, Charara's practice is "one of personal realisation", in which identity, ethnicity, diversity, fear, love and acceptance draw on his lived experience "as a citizen of the world". Having lived in different cultures, he treats the feeling of being an outsider "as a tool of observation rather than alienation", and uses humour to make existential questions approachable.