Spotlight: “We have one goal, and that is to uplift and support Palestinian artists”
Co-directors of Dar El Nimer Maha Kobeissy and Lama Koubrously talk about the Beirut-based art and cultural centre’s ambitions and aspirations.
Dar El Nimer Art and Culture Centre in Beirut, Lebanon, 2024. Image courtesy of darelnimer.org.
Housed in an impressive and unique building in Clemenceau, Beirut, is the art collection of Palestinian businessman Rami El Nimer. Featuring paintings, manuscripts, posters, and tools, the collection of the businessman moved into the building back in 2016. The building’s origins make it in itself an artefact, tracing back to 1930s Lebanon and built by French architect Lucien Cavro, nodding to the country’s former colonial relationship with France. Nowadays, the building has been repurposed into an arts and cultural centre that champions and preserves Palestinian heritage.
“The cultural centre was founded by Rami El Nimer when he decided to convert the building to store his collection,” says Maha Kobeissy, co-director of the gallery responsible for outreach and programs. The building, Kobeissy continues to explain, also houses two galleries and premises for workshops, conferences, and other community activities. Hailing originally from Nablus, Palestine, before relocating to Lebanon, El Nimer has been collecting artefacts from Palestine for 40 years that speak to the country’s history and traditions. As a Palestinian, the businessman felt that it was important to showcase his heritage and preserve it for generations to come. Throughout the collection, you will find both Christian and Muslim artefacts alongside items tracing back to the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
Artefacts from the collection are currently undergoing a process of being digitalised to become part of an online archive, as well as being relocated to London. “You never know what’s going to happen in Beirut, and the aim of the space is to preserve and highlight Palestinian heritage, culture and art, so we’re in the process of moving all items to the UK, just to be on the safe side” says Lama Koubrously, Kobeissy’s fellow co-director at the gallery.
During the Beirut Port explosion in 2020, the work of many creatives was unfortunately lost, including the fashion archive of renowned designer Elie Saab. Dar El Nimer is not willing to take that risk, especially considering the importance of maintaining Palestinian culture and heritage in today’s global climate and on-going situation. “When you have artefacts or a collection that shows how much Palestinian culture has been rooted in their land, it’s important to protect and present it,” suggests Kobeissy. For Koubrously, the idea of preservation is particularly important as she has a personal connection to both the cause and the gallery. Working alongside her uncle, Rami El Nimer, the SOAS Art History and Archaeology graduate decided to help establish the cultural centre. “We decided to work together to create what I see as a think-tank of art and culture. For me, the idea of just a gallery or museum felt too static.”
Speaking to Koubrously, she comes across as incredibly knowledgeable of Arab art, able to recall artists from across the region - this is unsurprising considering her previous career working in Islamic art galleries in London. Her main aspirations are evident: to protect and highlight Palestinian artefacts and aid artists as best as possible. “We all have the same goal, and that is to uplift and support Palestinian artists”. Given the current situation in Gaza, the gallery’s attention has turned to Gazan artists, and they are hoping to create an exhibition that spotlights the work of creatives from this region. Koubroulsy mentions Hazem Harb, a Gazan artist currently showcasing his work in Abu Dhabi, as one of the leading artists in Palestinian art at the moment.
Dar El Nimer is not only a place to showcase and discuss art and culture, but also a space for community. “We have free screenings of documentaries, and they’re very popular,” says Koubrously. Alongside this, Dar El Nimer offers workshops that are based on the exhibitions, and work with Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon such as Shatila and Burj Al Barajneh. “We curate and design programmes that rotate around the theme of the current exhibition and have free activities open to the public,” reveals Kobeissy, “we also work with elderly centres, so sometimes we organise a visit to the gallery or we do the workshops at the centres in the camps.”
The theme of Dar El Nimer’s upcoming exhibition - which is currently postponed because of the ongoing situation in Palestine - will focus on one aspect of the collection: religious works from Jerusalem. “The exhibition showcases icons from the Jerusalem School and the Byzantine School. There will be artefacts such as maps, religious icons, crosses and mother of pearl,” says Kobeissy. “The show was supposed to open last November, and then everything in Gaza started so we thought it wouldn’t be appropriate to have such a varied and colourful historical exhibition whilst there’s an on-going bombardment. Hopefully in the next two months it will open, but it’s all up to the political situation.” Despite current uncertainty in the centre, their intentions always stay the same. “The objective and mission of the foundation is to represent Palestinian art, and now more than ever we have to emphasise this, but we’re always thinking ‘how do we do this’,” summarises Kobeissey, “we used to focus exhibitions on one idea, so for example something historical or archaeological, but now we’re reassessing this because the priority is to present Palestine within a global context.”