Light and Dust
A Site-Specific Installation Marking the Eighth Centenary of the Death of Saint Francis of Assisi
Presented by the Italian Cultural Institute of Beirut and the Silk Museum of Bsous
Under the Patronage of the Embassy of Italy in Lebanon
*Silk Museum of Bsous, Lebanon*
*16–30 July 2026*
Eight hundred years after the death of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Italian Cultural Institute of Beirut and the Silk Museum of Bsous present Light and Dust, a site-specific installation conceived for Lebanon. The project marks the Eighth Centenary through the language of contemporary art, inviting visitors into an experience of perception, listening and contemplation.
It begins with a simple question.
What remains of a human life eight centuries later?
The answer lies in traces.
A fragment of stone.
A suspended veil.
A passage of light.
The sound of footsteps.
Dust.
Silence.
Based on a concept by Dr Angelo Gioè, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Beirut, with spatial development by Soula Saad and project management by Dana Mikhail, Light and Dust transforms the gardens and historic spaces of the Silk Museum into an immersive environment where matter, light, sound and silence become the language of the work.
Saint Francis is present through the enduring questions his life continues to raise: humility, hospitality, fragility, peace and our relationship with creation. These themes emerge through raw materials, engraved texts, discreet sound and natural light, leaving every visitor free to shape a personal encounter with the installation.
Lebanon is the reason this work came into being. In a country where beauty has repeatedly survived fracture, where memory inhabits landscapes as much as people, and where coexistence remains both a daily reality and an ongoing challenge, the installation finds a cultural and human resonance that belongs to this place.
Light and Dust has been realized through the collaboration of Lebanese artists, artisans, musicians and designers, whose different practices converge in a single sensory environment. Stone, wood, paper, iron, untreated fabrics, sound and light preserve memory and invite reflection.
Its visual language draws inspiration from the spiritual austerity of Assisi and La Verna while echoing Giotto's profoundly human vision, where transcendence emerges through ordinary gestures. From these distant echoes, Light and Dust finds its own contemporary voice in Lebanon.
The exhibition unfolds through a sequence of spaces that invite visitors to slow their pace, sharpen their attention and embrace uncertainty. Nothing is imposed. Nothing is concluded. Each visitor discovers a personal path through matter, light and silence.
_Press Office_
_Italian Embassy in Beirut_