Another Memory – Tajaddod Youth & Radikal Ungdom Join Forces
May 4th, 2012| Saturday, 12 May, 2012 10:00 am | to | Monday, 14 May, 2012 8:00 pm |
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Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people. Hundreds of thousands of people were injured, internally displaced or migrated from the country in search for safer grounds. Until today, tens of thousands are still missing. Lebanese attitudes vis-à-vis the war have been paradoxical ever since the the 1989 Taif agreement that officially ended the conflict and the 1991 amnesty law that forgave all crimes committed during the war in the hope of focusing on reconstruction. On one hand, the scars of the civil war are still present; sectarianism still prevails in people’s mentalities, and political parties that played a strong role in the war through their militias still dominate the country’s political scene. On the other hand, there has been no memory work to heal the wounds of the war and lay the foundations for a sustainable reconciliation process based on truth and forgiveness. Lebanese students do not even have a common history curriculum which presents a unified narrative of the country’s past. The only stories about the war come from their parents or their peers, who very often provide them with particular perspectives that do not take into account other people’s versions of the same events. Civil war narratives also often ignored the heavy socioeconomic and psychological suffering of women, due to the disappearance or death of male relatives during the war, the scars of which are still fresh today. More than 20 years after the end of the civil war, these aspects of Lebanese political life are still lingering in the population’s collective memory and are blocking the process of social healing required after a violent conflict such as the Lebanese civil war.
We believe that for real reconciliation to take place one has to be confronted with other narratives of the war than one’s own. In Lebanon the narratives are passed down by family and community and, particularly with young people who didn’t live the war themselves, are limited to one inherited version of events. Our hope is that knowing and trying to understand each other’s perspective on the past is the first step of working together on creating a common future.
What?
An interactive exhibition about the Lebanese Civil War hosted by Tajaddod Youth, in cooperation with Radikal Ungdom, the Social Liberal Youth of Denmark. Located in a stunning warehouse setting, the exhibition will showcase front pages of newspapers covering the most important days of the Lebanese civil war. Participants are asked to express what these events mean to them as they walk through the exhibition by writing and sticking Post-It™ notes next to the pages, creating a mosaic of perspectives.
This is an invitation for you share the stories that you’ve been told or the experiences that you yourself have gone through in an open anonymous space. This as an opportunity to get to know new sides of the civil war or maybe even new sides of an event that you have a personal relation to.
When?
12, 13, 14 May between 10am and 9pm
Where?
Solea V, Jisr el Wati, Sin el Fil (Facing the Beirut Art Center and near the Jaguar building)
Who?
This event is organised by Tajaddod Youth an emerging Lebanese Youth political movement and Radikal Ungdom, the youth branch of the Danish liberal democratic party.
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