Ayman Baalbaki & Danielle Arbid

After a five-year absence from the Biennale Arte, and for the second time in its history, the Lebanese Pavilion will be located in the Arsenale.

Through art, a means of expression, influence and change, the Lebanese Pavilion is a strong commitment to encourage Lebanese artists and a sign of determination to preserve Lebanon's artistic scene.

Two prominent lebanese artists represent Lebanon at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

Visual artist Ayman Baalbaki (living and working in Beirut) and cineast and video artist Danielle Arbid (living and working in Paris).

The Lebanese Pavilion presents the exhibition The World in the Image of Man, which illustrates the perpetual action of the human imagination on the reality of the world. Thus, more than ever, fiction inspires and nourishes our daily lives.

Nada Ghandour, curator of the Lebanese Pavilion, invites us on a symbolic journey into our contemporary world through a theme, a city, and two artists who maintain a political and aesthetic dialogue from a distance, by presenting artworks which are so far and yet so close.

Ayman Baalbaki was born in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon, into a family of visual artists. He lives and works in Beirut.

Ayman studied fine arts, painting and sculpture, at the Lebanese University (Beirut) before obtaining a Graduate Diploma in "Art-Space" at EnsAD (Paris) and a Diploma of Advanced Studies in “Arts Images and Contemporary Art” at the University of Paris VIII.

He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Lebanon and internationally, in Belgium, Canada, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, United States, France, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, United Kingdom, Italy and Turkey.

Danielle Arbid was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1970. A Lebanese-French filmmaker, videographer and artist, she lives and works in Paris, where she settled at the age of 17 after leaving her country to study literature and journalism.

Freelance writer for five years for the written press, she definitively stopped journalism in 1997 to make her first film. Since then, she alternates between fictions, documentaries in the first person and video essays.

Danielle Arbid also practices photography. Selected in numerous festivals in France and around the world (Cannes, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo ...), she won various prizes and several retrospectives have been devoted to her. Interested in different forms of narration, her works have been screened in several museums, notably the Mac / Vall - Musée d'art contemporain du Val de Marne (France) and the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA - Paris). She also collaborated with the 3rd stage of the Paris Opera. Her film "Le Feu au Cœur" was the subject of an exhibition at the Gaîeté Lyrique in Paris.

Danielle Arbid started in 2003, a series of videos entiteld “Conversation de Salon” for the MAK - Museum of Applied Arts in Austria. One of these video series is part of the collections of the Center Georges Pompidou - Musée National d'Art Moderne (Paris).

Born in Beirut, Aline Asmar d'Amman is the architect, interior designer and founder behind Culture in Architecture, a design studio based in Beirut and in Paris, committed to bridging cultures while balancing the past with the present.

The international firm has been at the helm of several iconic interior projects, including the re-opening of Hôtel de Crillon in Paris and the renovation of the Eiffel Tower's gastronomic restaurant Le Jules Verne.

The architect collaborated with Karl Lagerfeld on the Hôtel de Crillon's Les Grands Appartements and developed his collection of functional marble sculptures, Architectures, showcased at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery.

Recently, the Lebanese-born architect unveiled a collection of unique functional sculptures, The Memory of Stones, made by upcycling discarded fragments of marble.

Aline is currently overseeing the renovation of Palazzo Dona Giovannelli, one of the historical jewels of Venice, while pursuing cross disciplinary work ranging from interior architecture to art direction and scenography for private and public project around the world, with a contemporary approach focused on cultural conversations.

The Pavilion’s scenography has been entrusted to the architect Aline Asmar d'Amman.

Commissioner/Curator: Nada Ghandour

Exhibitors: Ayman Baalbaki