Picturing the (Un)Dead in Beirut

<p>Martyr posters are more than obituary images – they can act as visual politics. Focusing on Rabih Mroué's play <i>How Nancy Wished That Everything Was an April Fool's Joke</i> (2007), Agnes Rameder analyses how contemporary artists question and appropriate Lebanese martyr posters. By linking the posters from the <i>Wars in Lebanon</i> (1975-1990) to contemporary posters, she shows that these images continue to the present day, that martyrs are still created and that deaths, such as those who were killed in the explosion on 4 August 2020, are still visually remembered. This study does not focus on how such pictures are perceived by a Western audience but delves into the use and abuse of martyr posters that were intended to be shown to the Lebanese.</p>