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At the heart of Nervesa della Battaglia, Laure Keyrouz, a multifaceted artist and fervent ambassador for Lebanese culture, tirelessly continues her unifying creative work.

Keyrouz resides in the “House of the Cedars” and happiness, an hour away from Venice, with her Italian spouse and their two children. This house, surrounded by wine shoots and greenery, overlooks the Piave valley, through which the northeastern Italy River flows. As a native of Bsharri, the birthplace of Gibran Khalil Gibran, Keyrouz vibrantly echoes the Saint Valley and its resilient inhabitants in Veneto. This singular woman—a painter, poet, university professor of Arabic literature, and architect of her multifaceted artistic destiny—has recreated an unprecedented artistic hub in the village of Nervesa della Battaglia.

The belief that faith can move mountains is demonstrated by monks who have carved their monasteries into the rocks of the holy valley. Does Keyrouz’s belief in art echo that of the steadfast children of Qadisha? Observing this serene and smiling young woman, it seems plausible. She begins her mornings at dawn, bustling through the three levels of her house, considering family, daily meals, household pets, and thyme galettes to bake, all before catching the train to Padua to teach her class, returning home to hastily organize literary cafes where every role, from mediator to photographer to talented poetry reader, is meticulously assigned.

Keyrouz is fundamentally a creator of projects, welcoming both established and emerging artists into the gallery she founded beneath the mural-decorated entrance wall of the House of the Cedars. Holder of a master’s degree in Arabic literature and a student at the School of Fine Arts in Beirut, she further honed her artistic skills in Italy, in Udine, the capital of Friuli. It was there she met her husband and began her artistic journey, teaching painting at a library near Udine, exhibiting her works, and undertaking a traineeship in Rome, where she embraced the challenge of teaching Italian to foreigners through artistic expression and creativity.

During her Master’s at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, she met Professor Luigi Viola, who introduced her to modern painting and the new technologies being adopted in the art domain. Veneto became the birthplace of her initial projects. Having been a poet for many years, her adolescent anthology “Hajar wa hibr” (Stone and Ink) has been translated into eight languages and read in various Venetian locales, highlighting the beacon role poets hold in the East. Nature is regarded as a receptive auditor of poetic thoughts, to which humans often remain indifferent. This journey of articulating poetry through nature culminated in a pilgrimage to the island of the Armenians off Venice, where young cedar saplings from Mount Lebanon were planted as a gift to future generations, overlooking the grand blue sea.

In 2018, Keyrouz constructed an original installation from her collections at the Institute of the Arab World titled “I want to connect with the world through books.” Each event she organizes congregates artists, spectators, and listeners in a celebration where art is honored for its cathartic and unifying role in human society and diverse communities. However, challenges remain, as Keyrouz notes the difficulties of persisting without funding and the imperative of championing art’s unifying societal role in an era of individualism.

At the Spinola Foundation in Turin, she experienced the evolution of an artwork, bringing together a microcosm of voluntary artists and indirectly involved actors on a single project. This experience nurtured an idea that eventually led to the inception of the “Front of Art” foundation and the “Inchiostro e pietra” (Ink and Stone) journal in 2012. In the bucolic setting of Nervesa della Battaglia, far from the large cities, the foundation grows, attracting both well-established and novice artists, drawing schools and associations, and creating workshops and exhibitions in Keyrouz’s gallery.

Several remarkable editions have been noted, including a project that linked the Qadisha Valley with the Piave River Valley, incorporating the “Wahyet yallé raho” initiative, where testimonies from the inhabitants of Bsharri village were meticulously gathered as precious heritage memories. This initiative involved numerous Italian and Lebanese artists of all communities, including the presence of Professor Elias Dib.

In the Cedar House, Keyrouz planted roots brought from Qadisha, creating a space for exchange and evolution. Founded by Beatrice Monastero a year ago, the Radica association dedicates itself to art students and artists. The “Laure Keyrouz Arts Gallery” has hosted several exhibitions, including the unforgettable “Women in Revolution,” dedicated to Beirut (post-August 2020 harbor explosion). The latest exhibition, “Vette Vertici” (Mountains and Human Rights), launched on Saturday, September 9, and is set to continue throughout 2023–2024. The curators include Anna Orlando, a theater actress and poet. The exchange will be coordinated by journalist Gino Zangrando, featuring international artists, authors, and poets, and hosting round tables with lawyers (including Yolla Keyrouz) and environmental experts (like Giancarlo Gazzola or Yolanda Da Deppo), alongside planned creative workshops.

Returning to the basics, the “Vette Vertici” exhibition envisions bringing artists together through dialogue and creativity, with a renewed focus on nature and the earth. The exhibition’s kickoff involves a forty-person walk along the Piave River, featuring Lebanese artists such as Arige El Bahri, who will send one of her paintings, and others including Rana Tannous (a poet), Maria Sarkis, and Mona Sayegh (artists and authors). Egyptian doctor and author Ashraf Yaacoub will also be present. A discussion on human rights is scheduled for 6 PM, with journalists from France 24 covering the event onsite.

Like the cedar tree growing before the gate of her gallery, Keyrouz has rooted herself in Veneto. In 2021, her first French-language anthology, “Le chemin des orages” (The Path of Storms), was published by L’Harmattan, following “Ink and Stone” in 2013.

“I unite my blood with the sap
And carve solitary mountains
In the shadow of the sunny slope…”
(The Path of Storms, Laure Keyrouz)