Murals for Hope: Lebanese Reconciliation through Youth Graffiti Art

Abstract

Lebanese history contains both violence and sectarian tension which permeates Lebanese society and hinders reconciliation for the many ethnic groups in the country. Although the older generation lives with the memories of the civil war, the younger generation has instead developed memories of the war with perspectives that normalize both the social tension and lingering past stories. However, these negative perspectives are transmuted as the younger Lebanese generation reflects their hopes and dreams of the world through the public domain using graffiti as a medium. Although criminalized globally in the past, graffiti art has the potential to repaint walls of society with opinions and art, especially in the Middle East. This textual analysis paper examines the graffiti artwork of five young Lebanese artists, who did not experience the civil war, but grew up in its aftermath and whose perspective add the religious and social aspects needed to authenticate a reconciliation narrative. Using theoretical discussion of both reconciliation and of Ricœur’s hermeneutic phenomenology one can interpret the Lebanese narratives of reconciliation through the images of acknowledgment and acceptance of a collective past, the image of reparation of destroyed relationships through similar cultural symbols, and a commitment to a future of coexistence and peace.