Until January 17, 2027, the Institut du monde arabe-Tourcoing will host the exhibition Le Liban de Serge Najjar, a collection of photographs that resemble abstract paintings. The project, named Bicentenaire de la photographie by the Ministry of Culture, draws comparisons to artists like Piet Mondrian, Kasimir Malevich, Vassily Kandinsky, Victor Vasarely, and Aurélie Nemours. However, unlike their painted works, Najjar’s photographs use real-world elements—colors, lines, shadows, and especially light—to create the illusion of abstraction. Born in Beirut in 1973, Najjar grew up surrounded by geometric abstract art. His father, a collector, introduced him to Parisian galleries, where he encountered European abstract masters. These early experiences shaped his sensitivity and intuition, influencing his approach to photography. The exhibition offers a different perspective on Lebanon, one that contrasts with the media’s frequent focus on crises and ruins. Najjar’s Lebanon is a contemporary landscape, inviting viewers to see beyond the usual image of the Arab world. The prints reveal a country in construction, where light interacts with forms to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. There is no retouching or staging—only the framing and luminous variations that capture the essence of a place. The exhibition emphasizes the beauty in overlooked spaces, presenting them as mazes of absurd colors and forms. The main subject of Najjar’s photos is the construction site, including modernist buildings, concrete structures, and anonymous facades. These spaces, usually ignored, become surreal landscapes. For Najjar, architecture represents freedom, with reflections of glass creating a sense of floating out of time and light constructing images. He believes photography arises from the encounter between place, light, and the moment. The tension between reality and transcendence challenges the spectator, yet everything is rooted in time, serving as a testament to society and a city. These images retain the traces of contemporary Lebanon, a country in constant construction, between past wounds and future promises, where the construction site is central. When a silhouette appears, it is often that of a construction worker, isolated in the space, without staging, yet adding a human depth. The buildings are not only forms but inhabited and constructed spaces, reflections of a history. Approaching these images, windows become planets, shadows constellations, and architecture becomes a celestial space. The idea of "the decisive moment," inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson, influences his work daily. His characters do not pose; they walk and become protagonists of a future exhibition, capturing a fraction of a second. Lebanon appears in this exhibition as both real and imaginary, concrete and abstract, fragile and powerful. It is a country of colors and lights. The images invite viewers to look differently at daily life, which the ordinary eye no longer knows how to see. Najjar’s objective is to teach how to see the world, not to teach the world itself.