Ramzi Mallat

And that’s a wrap! Thank you to everyone that came to see Atlas of An Entangled Gaze in the Arab Hall at Leighton House ().

What an incredible opportunity it has been to contribute to the layered history of this iconic space during such a hallmark moment as the museum’s centennial. And what a special way to mark my first institutional commission in the U.K, this is definitely one for the books!

A special thanks to the stellar museum team, passionate volunteers, and amazing studio assistants, you know who you are. I truly could not have made this vision come to life without all your efforts and dedication.

Here’s to another 100 years and many more site-specific interventions in the Arab Hall!

© Ramzi Mallat.

Atlas of An Entangled Gaze (2026) is on view at Leighton House Museum’s ()Arab Hall until 14 May.

This major site-specific installation marks the artist’s first institutional commission in the United Kingdom, while launching the museum’s centennial programme.

The installation transforms the historic interior with a suspended canopy of thousands of luminous blue ceramic ‘eyes’, weaving together Levantine folklore, Islamic craft traditions, and the space’s architectural language to create a contemporary meditation on perception, protection, and cultural transmission.

Images courtesy of the artist.
© Ramzi Mallat.

Only a few days left to catch “Not Your Martyr” at V&A South Kensington () before it ends on Sunday 19th October.

Composed of a variety of colorful traditional Lebanese shortbread pastries made of glass, called ‘ma’amoul’ (معمول) and synonymous with Easter and Eid festivities in the Levant and a symbol of unity, the work draws on shared food heritage that transcends religious difference. This memorial is an ode to the intangible loss suffered by this tragedy and a celebration of the lives lost.

This work is not monumental in scale, but in intention, seeing as the artist aims to establish an intimate experience for the viewer to bridge a horrific past with a hopeful future. Its small scale and approachable form resists the rhetoric of nationalist grandeur often associated with state-commissioned memorials, offering a space for mourning that centers tenderness over heroism and multiplicity over a singular narrative.

Described by the artist as a “migrating memorial”, this powerful counter-monumental gesture is a political metaphor for the vulnerability of peace. The displayed artwork refuses the static fixity of traditional memorials and instead travels, shifts, and adapts—mirroring the diasporic Lebanese experience and echoing the instability of memory in the region.

Images: Ramzi Mallat, Not Your Martyr, 2023. Glass, 144 x 144 x 33 cm. LDF 2025 at V&A South Kensington, London.

Courtesy Peter Kelleher and the V&A South
Kensington.

© Ramzi Mallat

Not Your Martyr (2023) stages an intervention against the erasure of traumatic histories by state powers, and contests the culture of performative resilience, which often substitutes forgetting for healing.

Through this title, the artist urges us to resist the ritualistic impulse—deeply ingrained in SWANA cultures—of turning victims into martyrs at the risk of silencing their humanity beneath the weight of symbolic sacrifice, and dulling public outrage at the injustice of their loss.

Mallat places Levantine heritage on the global stage at a moment of deliberate and urgent significance, confronting a moment of critical historical reflection.

The display will be showcased at the V&A Museum () until 19 October 2025.

Images: Ramzi Mallat, Not Your Martyr, 2023. Glass, 144 x 144 x 33 cm. LDF 2025 at V&A South Kensington, London.

Courtesy Peter Kelleher and the V&A South
Kensington.

Ramzi Mallat

Join me at the V&A South Kensington () on Friday, 19th September from 18:30-22:00 for this month’s Friday Late, where I’ll be showcasing my short film “Sobhiye” (2022) in the Medieval and Renaissance Gallery, Room 50B, The Paul and Jill Ruddock Gallery, as part of “Caring in Common”.

Shot between October 2019 and August 2021, this video documentary is an amalgamation of the series of events which occurred in Lebanon, revealing an open-ended economic crisis compounded by corruption, negligence and inaction. The short film follows the daily life of five individuals located in Tripoli, Bekaa and Sour to shed light on the various personal hardships caused by the tumultuous socio-political crises that have unravelled in the country.

Friday Late: Caring in Common

How can we foster care, restoration, and resilience during challenging times?

This year for V&A × LDF, artists and designers have created installations that respond to the most urgent global crises—from natural resource extraction, to at-risk cultural heritage, geopolitical conflicts, and the rise of AI. Caring in Common will explore these themes through music, performances, workshops, and talks. Together, we’ll reflect on how we can manifest mutual support and solidarity, starting with ourselves and extending outward to the world.

Not Your Martyr is now officially open to the public at the V&A South Kensington () as part of LDF () in the Medieval and Renaissance Gallery.

Exhibiting this memorial in the Medieval and Renaissance gallery means entering a dialogue with centuries of European memory-making and asking what gets remembered, and what gets erased. This visual dissonance is a deliberate juxtaposition.

Inserting Levantine heritage among works that speak to an established Eurocentric canon becomes a discursive act of embracing multiplicity.

Thank you to Rachel Dedman () for curating such a meaningful display in a time of censorship and erasure, and to Kristian Volsing () for curating a dynamic lineup of exhibitors for this year’s iteration of the London Design Festival.

Special thank you to the powerhouse that is Mira Hawa Projects () for supporting my endeavors throughout the years and for believing in a shared artistic vision.

🗓️ Saturday 13 September - Sunday 19 October 2025
10:00 a.m - 17:30 p.m

Free event

V&A South Kensington
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2LR

Image: Not Your Martyr, 2023. Glass, 144 x 144 x 33 cm © Ramzi Mallat

Some BTS shots of yesterday’s night at the installing “Not Your Martyr” in the Medieval and Renaissance Gallery as part of .

The display will be open to the public on Saturday 13 September and will run until 19 October.

Photo credit:

Honored to announce that my work “Not Your Martyr” (2023) will be exhibited at the V&A South Kensington () as part of the London Design Festival ().

Curated by Rachel Dedman (), the V&A’s Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East, the work will be on display in the Medieval and Renaissance Gallery from 13 September until 19 October 2025.

Not Your Martyr is a commemorative memorial created in honor of the victims
of the 4th August 2020 Beirut Port blast which claimed over 250 lives, displaced thousands, and devastated the city.

This opportunity carries profound personal meaning. It comes just after the fifth anniversary of the August 4th Beirut explosion, and in the same year that marked 50 years since the Lebanese Civil War began. These anniversaries remind me of the fragility of memory, the necessity of culture, and the responsibility we hold as artists to carry narratives forward with both compassion and a conviction.

To be given a platform of such international significance, and to stand alongside other artistic voices from the Levant which I deeply admire, is both humbling and thrilling. I am deeply grateful to be part of this dialogue where heritage, design, and lived experience converge to foster critical responses to crisis and urgent issues.

“Not Your Martyr” is shown alongside an installation by Lebanese artists Rana Haddad () and Pascal Hachem () entitled “Debris of Text and Eyeglasses”, in a display titled ‘Counter-Monuments, Beirut’.

The display is supported by LDF and the V&A’s Jameel Programme.

“Suspended Disbelief” (2025) gestures toward a reimagining of traditional narratives, offering new interpretations that honor heritage while embedding critical contemporary relevance.

The artist urges viewers to consider how belief systems—whether cultural, personal, or societal—influence our understanding of reality. The installation becomes a site of both personal introspection and collective renewal, asking us to reflect on the invisible forces that shape our lives, whether through the protective gaze of the talisman or through the act of forging fictions that become themselves inherent truths.

Ultimately, “Suspended Disbelief” merges mystical symbols with modern concerns of perception and sociopolitical discourse while examining the ways in which we navigate a world that is in constant flux.

Image: “Suspended Disbelief” (installation detail), 2025 © Ramzi Mallat