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

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.

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