A heart to share, an illustration by the Lebanese artist Ivan Debs. (Credit: screenshot with artist's permission)
In Lebanon, the image often comes before words. A sketch appears on a phone screen just minutes after an explosion; an illustration circulates while the smoke still rises, as if trying to capture its trace before it dissipates. Chronology blurs: witnessing, processing, publishing – all merge into a nearly-instantaneous impulse. Time for reflection seems suspended, or at least put on hold. For a growing number of artists, creating is no longer a deferred act; it becomes inseparable from the experience of war itself – a way to survive as much as to endure.In studios, bedrooms or borrowed spaces – whether in Beirut, in the North or thousands of kilometers away – painters, illustrators and digital artists create without delay. Their works appear in the moment, immediate responses attempting to capture the elusive. They break the endless...
In Lebanon, the image often comes before words. A sketch appears on a phone screen just minutes after an explosion; an illustration circulates while the smoke still rises, as if trying to capture its trace before it dissipates. Chronology blurs: witnessing, processing, publishing – all merge into a nearly-instantaneous impulse. Time for reflection seems suspended, or at least put on hold. For a growing number of artists, creating is no longer a deferred act; it becomes inseparable from the experience of war itself – a way to survive as much as to endure.In studios, bedrooms or borrowed spaces – whether in Beirut, in the North or thousands of kilometers away – painters, illustrators and digital artists create without delay. Their works appear in the moment, immediate responses attempting to capture the elusive. They break the...