Fire is often imagined as an instant catastrophe — loud, bright, and destructive. But in slow burn, the group exhibition curated by Danielle Makhoul at Beirut Art Center, fire becomes something else entirely: quiet, patient, and terrifying in its persistence.
Rather than presenting finished artworks alone, slow burn transforms the act of creation itself into part of the exhibition. Selected artists moved their studios into the gallery space, allowing visitors to witness works being shaped, altered, and sometimes damaged by time, emotion, and external events. Here, art is not fixed — it is vulnerable, like the country that surrounds it.
The concept of fire in this exhibition is deeply tied to Lebanon’s reality. Economic collapse, the Beirut Port explosion, war, and ongoing political instability have left scars that refuse to heal. These crises do not erupt once and end — they linger, smoulder, and resurface. This is the true meaning of slow burn: a state of becoming, where destruction never fully disappears.
At the heart of the show, fire is portrayed as both energy and erasure. Shimmering surfaces reflect sunlight like weapons. Clouds of smoke freeze moments of environmental disaster. Landscapes glow with ashes instead of hope. Some works confront the viewer directly, while others whisper grief through fragile materials that may not survive beyond the exhibition.
The ground floor is charged with violence and rupture. Flames, smoke, and ruins dominate the visual field, reminding us that destruction is rarely a single moment — it is a process. Upstairs, the narrative turns inward. Light, sea, memory, and mourning take center stage. The body becomes a vessel for collective grief, while fabric, paper, and shadow carry stories of loss that words alone cannot hold.
What makes slow burn powerful is not only its political urgency, but its emotional honesty. It refuses spectacle. Instead, it invites us to sit with discomfort, to feel time passing, and to recognize that survival itself is a form of resistance.
In a city that continues to rebuild while burning, slow burn stands as a quiet but unrelenting reminder: some fires do not explode — they wait.
The group exhibition slow burn will be on view until 28 February at Beirut Art Center.
