“Migration Seasons From/To Lebanon” Exhibition by Dr. Georges Zeenny

1 May 2008, George Zeenny Studio
By Basma Abdel Khalek
LERC Research Assistant

The Lebanese Emigration Research Center, represented by Associate Director Ms. Guita Hourani; LERC Research Associate Dr. Salwa Karam, LERC Research Assistants Ms. Basma Abdel Khalek and Mr. Ali Hijazi, participated in the opening ceremony of Dr. Georges Zeenny’s exhibition entitled “Migration Seasons From/To Lebanon”, which was held at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut.

From the exhibition, a poster encouraging Lebanese living abroad
to return.

The exhibition of Dr. Zeenny, which was prepared at the George Zeenny Studio, focused on the spiritual relationship that links Lebanese migrants to their homeland. Photos of Lebanese migrants in several receiving countries were exposed in addition to paintings and sculptures. Dr. Zeenny had asked dozens of famous painters in Lebanon to illustrate migration by sketching a steam ship and these illustrations were exhibited in a very simple yet artistic way in one section of the exhibition. Visitors could grasp the artist’s strong statement about the value of the homeland through his extensive use of red Lebanese soil which he skillfully blended with the other artistic items in the exhibition. The artist drove home the idea of the incalculable value of the homeland by presenting each visitor with a sample of red Lebanese soil with a hand-written message in Arabic saying:
  "أغلى ما في الوجود" “The Most Precious Thing in Existence”.