Curating an Artist’s (and Parent’s) Biography
- Thursday, 25 May 2023, 10am-12noon
- Orient-Institut Beirut, Library (Directions)
- In person and virtual (live streaming link here)

LAWHA/OIB in collaboration with the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Global (De)Centre is happy to invite you to join us for a public panel discussion on “Curating an artist’s (and parent’s) biography”, with Mahita El Bacha Urieta, Manuella Guiragossian and Hala Schoukair in conversation with Nadia von Maltzahn.
The daughters of Amine El Bacha (1932-2019), Paul Guiragossian (1926-1993) and Saloua Raouda Choucair (1916-2017) – leading artists of Lebanon’s art world – will talk about the responsibility of taking care of their parent’s legacy, what challenges they face in organizing an artist estate in Lebanon and what it means to curate a biography that is intrinsically linked to their own.
This is the final event of the Moving Biography Summer School that took place in June 2022, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
About the speakers

Mahita El Bacha Urieta
A curator and cultural design and policy specialist working internationally for over 25 years, Mahita El Bacha Urieta has recently retrained as a psychotherapist and life coach, and runs her private practice out of Madrid, Spain. She is one of Lebanese artist Amine El Bacha’s three daughters, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Amine El Bacha Foundation, which is responsible for the management and promotion of the late artist’s estate.

Manuella Guiragossian
Born in Lebanon, Manuella Guiragossian received her earliest training in her father’s studio, the renowned artist Paul Guiragossian. She held her first solo exhibition in Paris in 1989 and went on to graduate from the California Institute of the Arts in 2002 with a BFA in Film and Video, specializing in Character Animation. Manuella has exhibited her works globally for over three decades. After her father’s passing in 1993, she began researching and archiving his life and works. In 2011, she founded the Paul Guiragossian Foundation with her family, of which she has been the president ever since. The foundation aims to promote and preserve the legacy of Paul Guiragossian’s work through exhibitions and publications and collaborates with other cultural organizations and institutions worldwide to showcase Guiragossian’s contribution in the development of art in Lebanon and the Middle East.

Hala Schoukair
Having grown up in Beirut, Hala Schoukair went on to receive a master’s degree in Cinematographic Studies from the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1981. She lived in Beirut from 1983-1987, where she worked in film production and window dressing. Later, she moved to the United States and became a visual artist, with solo exhibitions in Beirut and group exhibitions in the United States, Europe, United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. Hala is the daughter of the pioneer abstract artist Saloua Raouda Choucair and chairs a foundation that commemorates her mother’s art and legacy.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Nadia von Maltzahn (May 7, 2023). Curating an Artist’s (and Parent’s) Biography. LAWHA Lebanon's Art World at Home and Abroad. Retrieved April 17, 2025 from https://lawha.hypotheses.org/1104
The podcast of this conversation can be found here: https://podcasts.apple.com/lb/podcast/moving-biography-summer-school-podcast/id1706289613
Hello, I am wondering if a podcast was made from this event and, if so, where to access it. Thank you!
Dear Corinne, you can find the podcast here: https://youtu.be/B6Ogobmgf_o?si=JkjynZ4t2jwtwsZq or on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/lb/podcast/moving-biography-summer-school-podcast/id1706289613
It is part of a series, find out more about it here: https://lawha.hypotheses.org/1463
Thanks for your interest!
Hallo, habe Teile der Vorträge gesehen. Leider online kein Ton, via Telefon ja, aber zu mühsam. FRAGE gibt es einen SCRIPT zu den gehaltenen Präsentationen? Danke. Hans J Gundlach
Guten Tag, es tut mir Leid dass Sie Schwierigkeiten mit dem Ton hatten, bei anderen schien es funktioniert zu haben. Wir produzieren einen Podcast aus der Veranstaltung, den ich dann hier teilen werde. Beste Grüße, Nadia v. Maltzahn
So wonderful you could collaborate and produce such a wonderful resource of the parents legacy.
i hope i can log in and read some of those pages of your work. i will include the website for our Lebanese Association here in Australia.
we are able to share the history of our Lebanese pioneers here in Australia through the celebration of History month in South Australia this month of May. This global network has much to share and celebrate.