NNA - Breath is Tide is a four-day program unfolding across Beirut from 22 to 25 May 2025, featuring newly commissioned performances and artworks that take breath as a starting point—both the first and most universal phenomenon of the living. Rooted in the urgencies of our time, the program reflects on breath as a shared force and a form of resistance.
This special edition marks a collaboration between the Art Explora Festival and TAP (Temporary Art Platform )—launching the festival's opening breath in Lebanon while celebrating ten years of TAP. The Art Explora Festival is a traveling festival offering free artistic and cultural experiences aboard the world's first museum-boat, exhibition pavilions quayside, and a live programme connecting institutions and communities across 15 Mediterranean countries (2024–2027). Although the museum-boat's stopover in Beirut has been postponed to 2027 due to the recent war, the program moves forward as "opening breath" for the upcoming stopover of the festival – and an act of solidarity with the local cultural scene.
In a city still navigating the aftermath of war, where the ability to breathe—freely and fully—has been compromised. All events during the four days of "Breath is Tide" are free and accessible to all, creating space for art and culture to gather, imagine, and persist.
The program extends across public spaces such as Karantina Public Park and Beirut RiverLESS Forest, and cultural venues including the Beirut Art Center, the Nicolas Sursock Museum, the Lebanese National Library, Metropolis, and Metro Al Madina—places that are, and have long been, our shared breathing spaces in the city. These spaces open up for dialogue and exchange, offering opportunities to pause and reconnect—inviting participants to attune to their own breath and to one another's through gatherings in nature, collective workouts, concerts, and a dance party.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS BY DAY
Thursday, May 22 | Beirut Art Center
The program opens at Beirut Art Center at 12 pm with an ongoing participatory live-stream performance by Ahmad Ghossein titled 'Service Servissen' and film screenings in the auditorium by Cherine Yazbeck, Gian Spina and Zeina Aboul Hosn. Everyone is invited to take part in a collective workout session and a conversation on Breathing Spaces. The performance 'I will worry for you (as night falls)' by Annabel Daou, a participatory silent act will be followed by a book launch by the artist. Yara Boustany will present 'Plastispheres', a performance exploring uncharted places through dance and movement..
The exhibition space at BAC will be turned into a temporary haven and headquarters for TAP, furnished with a commission from Block Sfinj of a permanent outdoor seating space for the institutions and in companionship of plants and allies from the Beirut Riverless Forest in which TAP had organized Art Ecology and the Commons in 2021.
Friday, May 23 | Sursock Museum | Lebanese National Library | Metropolis| Beirut Art Center
On the second day at the Sursock Museum, visitors are invited to record their sighs as part of Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige's ongoing artistic project 'Index of sigh'.
The Lebanese National Library will open its doors for Raed Yassin's commissioned performance 'Canary in a coal mine' exploring the notion of instability through humming sounds. In the evening, Metropolis hosts the screening of Mohamad Abdouni's latest film 'Treat Me Like Your Mother'.
Meanwhile, at Beirut Art Center, the auditorium screenings continue alongside Ahmad Ghossein's ongoing live performance, Service Servissen.
Saturday, May 24 | AUBMC-ACC | Karantina Public Park | Metro Al Madina
The day starts with the unveiling of the permanent site-specific public health commissions at AUBMC–ACC, featuring works by Tamara Al-Samerraei, Catherine Cattaruzza, Hatem Imam, Lara Tabet, Rayya Badran, Zeina Badran, Nadim Mishlawi, and Sharif Sehnaoui. The program includes guided tours of the artistic interventions, a panel discussion, and the release of a film on the project.
In the afternoon the Karantina Public Park will host the interactive performance by Ghida Hachicho's 'A Room Without Walls', where children aged 8 -12 are invited to participate through headsets listening to sounds and encouraged to explore the space together.
The day concludes at Metro Al Madina with a full evening of celebration featuring a screening of Rehearsing with Shahrazad by Ahmad Ghossein, followed by two concerts by Chamoun/Sahyoun/Atoui and PRAED, and a closing party with a DJ.
Sunday, May 25 | Beirut RiverLESS Forest
For the final day we join forces with theOtherDada to celebrate the Beirut RiverLESS Forest's sixth anniversary. TAP had organized a ten day program and study in 2021 ''Art Ecology and the Commons'' and contributed to the afforestation of the site alongside public art interventions and installations. An afternoon gathering and picnic will conclude Breath is Tide in closeness with our native trees and the Beirut River.
Supporters and Sponsors
With the support of the Art Explora Foundation, the French Institute of Beirut, the French Embassy, Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish Embassy, the Municipality of Beirut, and Nahnoo — and thanks to the generous contributions of Elmir Brewery, Ivy Plants, and Ohana Yoga Space.
