Baalbek International Festival Poster

Upon the assignment of this project, Rita, my partner, and I, decided to tackle a topic that is relevant to us both – being Lebanese, we felt it was only natural to discuss a topic that relates to our home country. Seeing the current world situation, we were especially interested in the Ukrainian refugee crisis and how this situation showed the systemic racism of the West when it comes to welcoming people who look like them and neglecting foreign people, referring to them as ‘uncivilized’ refugees. Therefore, we wanted to showcase a part of the Arab World that is sensitive to the arts to the rest of the world, to change the negative perception of Arab people, and especially Arab refugees.

We chose to create a poster for the Baalbeck International Festival, a reputed cultural event in Lebanon, that brings people together in a celebration of performative arts. Classical music, dance, theater, opera, and jazz as well as modern world music are performed each July and August in the ancient Roman acropolis. By curating a sense of community and belonging, this event aims to bring people of all generations and backgrounds together, perhaps in hopes of addressing intergenerational trauma, as the arts are therapeutic and cathartic. Our goal is to debunk the ‘uncivilized’ refugees myth by shedding light on such a relevant and cultural event of the Levantine region.

After doing some research, we narrowed down some of the elements we wanted to include in our poster, such as an orange, red, and yellow color palette; calligraphy elements; Roman ruins (echoing the Baalbeck acropolis); a symbol of the sun and the moon…

After printing the posters on a big scale, we tried to put it up first in the street. We also had the chance to showcase our posters at the Transforming Matter and Time student exhibition at Gallery D, which was a very nice opportunity as we gained experience and exposure.