"We are not going to be silenced" say Lebanese Pavilion curators

The curators of the Lebanese pavilion have explained why they fought to be at the Venice Architecture Biennale despite the challenges of life under conflict, including the killing of one of their colleagues just two weeks ago.

The Lebanese pavilion is one of the few overtly political national contributions to the biennale, tackling the theme of ecocide as a weapon of war under the title The Land Remembers.

The country has been the subject of airstrikes and an aerial bombing campaign by Israel since the Gaza war reignited conflict with the militant group Hezbollah in October 2023.

Speaking at the pavilion's launch last week, the curators from the Collective for Architecture Lebanon (CAL) said that they had been motivated to come to Venice in the face of hardship to deliver a "strong message".

"We are not going to be silenced," said co-curator Elias Tamer. "As architects, it's our role to talk about the land and talk about the tragedy that is unfolding in Lebanon, but also to talk about the healing process that needs to happen... and engage architects to be part of this healing process."

"So we are in Venice. We have made it. It was extremely difficult, but we're here."

Among the challenges the curators have had to confront was the death of one of their collaborators, Osama Farhat, a civil defence paramedic and coordinator for the environmental NGO Green Southerners who took many of the photos in the exhibition.

He was killed in a drone strike on his hometown on May 1, amid concerns that Israel is deliberately targeting healthcare workers and journalists.

The curators also faced the obstacle of how to fund the pavilion, given that the Lebanese government is effectively broke due to an ongoing financial crisis.

The culture ministry could only support the project in principle, and instead the funding was cobbled together from 30 private donors, all of whom had to weigh up other causes.

"We know that a lot of the money was going to humanitarian aid that was extremely needed in Lebanon, but some still believe that culture needs to happen and that Lebanon needs to show to the rest of the world, in such a key international event, what is happening and the real conditions that we are living in," said Tamer.

With The Land Remembers, which is located in the Arsenale exhibition space, the curatorial collective aims to catalogue what it sees as acts of ecocide, or deliberate environmental destruction, by Israel.

These acts include the devastation of agricultural fields and groves and the use of toxic white phosphorous, which the curators say have the effect of decimating communities, ruining livelihoods and threatening the country's "very essence".

"In past years, we've had many instances of environmental devastation, but what is happening today is actually the peak of the crisis, and it's due to the conflict with Israel," said co-curator Shereen Doummar.

"You can look at some maps and cartographies that are being constantly updated that can show you how Israel is trying to create a sort of no man's land between our territory and their territory. And this act of erasing the natural environment is not just to destroy the environment," she continued.

"When we destroy the land, we're actually destroying the people that thrive from this land."

In addition to the documentation of destruction, The Land Remembers proposes routes towards healing, using strategies such as bioremediation, where plants and bacteria break down toxic contaminants.

The curators hope to strike a hopeful note with the exhibition, which is built from compacted soil bricks embedded with wheat seeds that will sprout over the six months of the display. It also features the sound of both drones and drone bees – symbols of "nature trying to thrive and to heal itself", according to Doummar.

The collective argues that architects should play a more "activist role" in the face of environmental devastation and be aware that, in times of conflict, they play "a pivotal role in shaping how we rebuild for future generations".

"Architects today need to take a more active role with our engagement with the natural environment," said Doummar.

Israel has a permanent pavilion at the Giardini della Biennale in Venice, but chose not to participate in this year's event.

Some of Dezeen's highlights this year have included the pavilions from Estonia, Denmark and Serbia, while Bahrain won the Golden Lion with its take on cooling architecture.

The Venice Architecture Biennale takes place from 10 May to 23 November 2025. See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest information you need to know to attend the event, as well as a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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