TODAY I WOULD LIKE TO BE A TREE
| 2020-Present
“The tree is an alternative, perhaps even an antidote. It protects, though shaken by ravages. Its roots firmly embrace the earth from which it has sprung, sustained by a reciprocal life force. The tree endures and by enduring, heals” -Abed Al Kadiri
Since 2020, Today I Would Like to Be a Tree has evolved as an ongoing humanitarian and artistic initiative conceived by Lebanese artist Abed Al Kadiri in response to the escalating realities of destruction and violence. It first emerged as a direct response to the tragic Beirut Port explosion and subsequently expanded in response to the overlapping crises that have shaped Lebanon and the region, including war, displacement, and collective trauma. What began as an immediate response to a moment of rupture developed into an ongoing and long-term initiative that activates art as a space for solidarity, and community engagement in times of crisis.
Edition 4
Today I would Like to Be a Tree | Safe White Space – Lebanon, 2026
In its 2026 edition, as a response to the ongoing Israeli war on Lebanon, Today I Would Like to Be a Tree expands into a nationwide mobile artistic and psychosocial initiative engaging displaced and crisis-affected children across Lebanon, with a particular focus on remote districts, underserved communities, collective shelters, and public schools with limited access to cultural and emotional support programs. Moving across villages in Lebanon, within these environments shaped by loss, interrupted education, displacement, and instability, the project creates a safe space for collective expression through drawing, storytelling and collaborative image-making.
Hussein Massoud High School – Bchamoun - 2026
At the core of the project lies a simple but foundational gesture: drawing together. Children are at the center of this act as direct witnesses of ongoing tragedy. In contexts of displacement and war, their drawings and gestures open forms of expression that precede language, allowing experiences to take shape without formal explanation.
Using long continuous paper rolls (10m long each) that unfold across the floor, children create shared visual landscapes that carry fragments of memory, dreams, fears, imagined futures, homes left behind, and symbols of resilience. The act of drawing becomes a collective narration and presence, horizontal rather than hierarchical, open rather than directed.
Zgharta Technical School - 2026
The paper roll itself carries symbolic resonance. It echoes the rolled mattresses, blankets, and personal belongings carried by displaced families moving between temporary shelters. Like these objects, the paper becomes a fragile yet continuous carrier of memory, movement, and survival.
As the roll expands across the space, children sit facing one another rather than a fixed point of authority. There is no imposed direction, no hierarchy, and no distinction between correct or incorrect representation. This absence of orientation allows for an intuitive circulation across the surface, where emotions, stories, and identities unfold collectively. These drawings extend beyond workshop outcomes. They become living testimonies of how children navigate fear, loss, instability, and imagination while continuing to project possible futures beyond their immediate circumstances.
Since April, 2026 the initiative has worked with more than 700 children across 25 schools and shelters, distributing over 700 art kits through community-supported efforts. The first phase of the project aims to reach 1,000 children across 32 sites throughout Lebanon.
Siblin Public School - 2026
A central dimension of the project is the transformation of this material into an evolving visual archive developed in dialogue with Lebanese, regional, and international artists many of whom have personal or collective experiences related to conflict, displacement, exile, or memory.
The continuous collected paper rolls are later reconfigured into leporello artist’s books, each roll creating two books. Each book divided into two interconnected surfaces: the children’s original drawings remain preserved on one side, while the reverse side is developed through artistic interventions by the invited artists.
These artistic interventions create an intergenerational and cross-cultural dialogue, positioning the children’s works not as isolated educational exercises, but as significant cultural documents that preserve gestures, emotions, and voices often rendered invisible.
The final phase of the project consists of a public fundrasing exhibition presenting the completed Leporello Series developed throughout the second phase of the intervention.
Conceived as a large-scale visual panorama of displacement, memory, and collective trauma, the exhibition brings together the collaborative works created by children and participating artists, transforming the project’s psychosocial process into a public space for cultural dialogue, visibility, and advocacy creating opportunities for audiences to encounter the lived realities of displacement through collective artistic expression.
These Books will be sold with proceeds to support the families of displaced children engaged in this initiative.
Maarouf Saad public school - 2026
Kaifoun Public School - 2026
Maarouf Saad public school and Kaifoun Public School - 2026
Leporello Book, Wax Crayons On Paper (48 x 43cm) / Length 500cm, Children Drawing
Edition 3
Today I would Like to Be a Tree | Lebanese Valley – Qatar, 2026
“The faces of those displaced from their homes have remained with me throughout these days. Their grief and their scattered dreams became both the beginning and the end of this work—the sole impulse behind my desire to create, and to contribute. Here, the tree cannot be separated from the land—from our collective memory and our identity. Here unfold the landscapes of our homeland: its plains, its mountains, and its sea. Here is Lebanon.” -Abed Al Kadiri
In September 2024, following the escalation of the war in Lebanon, more than 1.2 million Lebanese were displaced. In response to this humanitarian crisis, artist Abed Al Kadiri initiated the third edition of Today, I Would Like to Be a Tree, created to support displaced families from southern Lebanon.
Following the same humanitarian direction as the previous editions, the project took the form of a large-scale site-specific mural at Katara Art Center in Doha, developed over fourteen days through a sustained process of perseverance and dedication. The mural was later sold in fragments, with all proceeds donated through the Qatar Red Crescent to support more than 200 displaced families.
Conceived amid scenes of violence, loss, and displacement, the project transformed the tree into a symbol of endurance, resistance, identity, and belonging. Depicting nine villages from southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley, the mural reflects the enduring connection of the Lebanese people to their land, even under the weight of destruction.
This third edition continues that journey, expanding the project into new communities while preserving its humanitarian mission through art, participation, and collective memory.
Abed Al Kadiri, Today I Would Like to be a Tree | Lebanon Valley (2024), Charcoal and Pastel on Paper, 280 x 500 CM (comprising 40 drawings, each 70 cm x 50 cm)
detail
detail
Edition 2
Today I would Like to Be a Tree | The Red Olive Tree – Paris, 2023
“Today, I needed to be surrounded by my trees again, my trees, around which no matter how I turn now I see blood, body parts, and terrifying scenes of violence and destruction. With the massive amount of death, and daily killing, my trees gradually started to turns red… A red olive tree, stands as a witness of the horrific images we’ve been exposed to. I spent the last two weeks underground compulsively drawing trees, to go back home at night to be haunted by the visuals of the massacre that I am still unable to comprehend.” -Abed Al Kadiri
The second edition of Today I Would Like to Be a Tree, titled The Red Olive Tree, was conceived as a site-specific mural for Abed Al Kadiri’s solo exhibition, Genealogy of Repair, at Dumonteil Gallery in Paris. Invited by the gallery to create a work in situ during the ten days preceding the exhibition’s private viewing on 7 October 2023, Al Kadiri began developing a new iteration of the project centred on the tree as a symbol of endurance, memory, and resilience.
As the days unfolded, the escalating violence in Gaza transformed the direction of the work. By the time the exhibition opened to the public on 17 October 2023, the mural had become The Red Olive Tree—a tribute to Palestinian children living through the devastating realities of war. The olive tree, a timeless symbol of rootedness, belonging, and resilience, was painted entirely in red, standing as both a witness to violence and a refusal of erasure. It became a living memorial to childhood interrupted by conflict and an act of artistic solidarity with those enduring unimaginable loss.
Following the architectural composition of the original 2020 murals, fragments of works on paper were assembled to form the tree, extending the project’s visual language into a new historical moment. The project also extended beyond the exhibition through a fundraising initiative, with proceeds donated to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) to support children affected by the war. The Red Olive Tree marked a significant evolution of Today I Would Like to Be a Tree, demonstrating how the project continues to respond to moments of collective rupture by transforming artistic practice into acts of remembrance, care, and solidarity.
Work in progress
Installation Shot, Genealogy of repair, Dumonteil Gallery, Paris - 2023
Red Olive Tree Pastel on paper 268 X 261 cm (20 drawings 66 x 61 cm each) Edition 1
Today I Would Like To Be A Tree / A Reaction To Suffocation | Lebanon 2020
An artist’s project in response to the 4th of August explosion to help rebuild Beiruti homes.
On July 27, 2020, Galerie Tanit inaugurated the show Remains of the Last Red Rose” by the Lebanese artist Abed Al Kadin.
On August 4, 2020, a horrific explosion at the port of Beirut tumed the city into rubble. The gallery was destroyed, Al Kadiri’s works were buried under the shattered glass and the knocked down walls
This project attempts to counter the devastation we feel after the Beirut port explosion. At once a tribute to our friend, the late Jean-Marc Bonfils, architect of the East Village building, who passed away in his apartment in that same building, and a contribution to rebuilding lost homes.
The work, which already started, consists of two murals divided into eighty 100x70cm drawings on cardboard, painted by Al Kadiri.
All proceeds directly benefit Bassma, an organization committed to rebuilding the homes of Beirutis most affected by the destruction. 51 apartments were renovated from the proceeds of the project.
This body of work is a tribute to the memory of the architect, our friend, Jean-Marc Bonfils who played a major role reviving Lebanon’s heritage, and built landmarks in our beloved Beirut. It is also a tribute to all the people and friends who fell victim to this massacre.
"Remains of the Last Red Rose" destroyed. 
Making of “Today, I Would Like to be a Tree”
Mural 1, 2020, Charcoal and acrylic on acid free cardboard 370 x 700 cm
Mural 2, 2020, Charcoal and acrylic on acid free cardboard, 400 x 770 cm
Gallery View “Today, I Would Like to be a Tree” as displayed at Galerie Tanit, Beirut, Lebanon, 2020.
