Saikalis Bay Foundation presents, from Monday 23rd March 2026, Shifting Crossroads | Beirut Contemporary. The group exhibition is dedicated to exploring Beirut as a living crossroads of the Mediterranean: a place of encounters, cultural transmission, and lasting continuities, where histories are layered and reimagined through artistic practice; a place moving through time and memory, between archive and site, the visible and the invisible, in an ongoing dialogue between presence and absence.

The exhibition presents works across different media, from artworks on paper and banners, to ceramic and porcelain sculptures, as well as photography and video, bringing together the layered and intimate practices of Catherine Cattaruzza, Simone Fattal, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Mona Hatoum, Lamia Joreige, Omar Mismar, Rabih Mroué, Stéphanie Saadé, Soraya Salwan Hammoud, and Akram Zaatari.

Beirut emerges as a palimpsest of histories and a vital cultural hub, where traces of the past remain visible as new artistic languages take shape. Borders are not conceived as fixed contours, but as fault lines and shifting thresholds: zones of fracture and recomposition where identities, languages, and stories converge, overlap, and transform, opening spaces for exchange, listening, and continuity.

The exhibition explores power dynamics and geopolitical redefinitions: from the late Ottoman and post-Ottoman periods to the Franco-British Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) and the division of spheres of influence in the Middle East, as well as the French Mandate in lebanon (1920). Earlier historical references include Roman Berytus and pre-Byzantine schools of thought, alongside connections with the Venetian Republic and the Medici court in Florence. 

The participating artists treat inherited borders as open questions, where memory, politics and personal histories remain alive. Their practices seek not to resolve the past, but to transform fractures into thresholds from which to envision new connections, renewed solidarities, and shared futures that are still being formed.

More informations here.