8vo, 79 pp., Arabic and English text, extensive illustrations, illustrated cardboard covers with flap as published, edited by M. Alafouzo, published by Nabu Museum, 22 September, 2018.

Synopsis

First catalogue accompanying the opening of the museum and it’s first exhibit. Introduction by Jawad Adra to introduce the Museum and it’s goals, another text by Pascale Odile re the antiquities collection.
Why “NABU” ? Badr El Hage, Fida Jdeed and myself are childhood friends, who have shared laughs and sorrows, dreams and failures, but more importantly we all share a passion for history, art and culture. The three of us have always dreamed of creating something for the community, in order to help and give back from the local to the international. […]. Badr introduced us to his friend Dia Azzawi, who in his turn shared our vision and went on to design the façade of the museum. Azzawi introduced us to Mahmoud Al Obaidi, who has worked on several museum projects, and also shared our dream and vision and decided to embark on this journey with us. In the context of the region, the layers of complexity from political, social to economical have been the major influences that are still shaping the landscape today. The project imparts a shared perspective of what is a rigid cultural and historical tradition, the importance of arts and culture, and the role of modernity in the region.
“NABU”, is named after the Mesopotamian patron god of scribes, literacy and wisdom, an important symbol of our cultural heritage and history. The initial idea was to create a research and training centre with the goal of preserving our rich heritage and encouraging academic research. Our combined efforts and ideas materialised into the creation of a new museum, in the North of Lebanon in my hometown of El Heri. Instead of being another private project, which we have been witnessing since the early 1900’s, we hope that our project will serve as an example to be emulated.
[…] We have much to learn from the stoics, as they can help us tackle new areas of challenge for moral debate, it emboldens us against the worse that faith can throw at us, they suggest the place of humanity and the natural environment and the responsibility this places on us. In this logic, art and artistic production becomes not only an embodiment of these realities and suffering, but a form of resistance against exile, resistance against the wars of destruction and uprooting, which may help us establishing a new place for belonging and more importantly making the homeland we dream of out of words and images. Jawad N. Adra [from the introduction]