Tom Young's Grand Sofar Hotel exhibition harks back to Lebanon's golden age


  • English
  • Arabic

Behind rusted gates and cracked walls, and obscured by trees that have grown wild, abandoned mansions lie hidden across Beirut like long-forgotten secrets. They stand as monuments to Lebanon's glory days, and a reminder of the devastating civil war that brought them to ruin.

For Tom Young, a British artist who has lived in Lebanon for the past nine years, they are also a canvas, which he uses to delve into the past and the memories that come with it.

His latest exhibition explores a symbol of Lebanon’s golden age, when it was a playground for stars, diplomats and royalty. Built in 1892, the Grand Sofar Hotel was one of the most famous in the Middle East, visited by Egyptian singers Oum Kulthum and Leila Mourad, King Hussein of Jordan and countless western diplomats and generals who had a hand in carving up the region.

It lay on the old road to Damascus, along a railway line that ran the same route and brought wealthy European visitors from Beirut to the misty hills of Mount Lebanon. They gambled at the casino and made shady deals in the back rooms. In 1975, fighting consumed the country and the hotel was taken over by the Syrian army.

The property was used as their headquarters. The railway closed and later another highway was built linking the Syrian and Lebanese capitals, leaving Sofar cut off. The fortunes of the village fell with the hotel, which lay abandoned and in ruins for decades.

Now, its doors are open again for Young’s exhibition, which draws on that storied past and utilises the overwhelming power of nostalgia to breathe new life into its dusty hallways. “It’s about the evocation and celebration of memory,” he says, standing in a high-ceilinged reception room that looks out onto the garden. “I’ve tried to resurrect those legendary times and those amazing people who were here. And not just the famous people, but the workers; the cooks, the receptionists.”

The exhibition doesn’t ignore the decay of the building, but beautifies it – the peeling paint and crumbling masonry are as much a part of the show as the paintings. Even cobwebs are protected and manicured. All of it is supposed to give the visitor a filter with which to look back at this place: they are supposed to hear the music of those days only faintly, and see the grandeur of the ballrooms only through squinted eyes.

Walking around the hotel is like diving among the ruins of the Titanic. Little treasures that were found in basements and forgotten corners have been brought to the surface and displayed alongside the art: an old roulette table, a broken piano, a radio. Hanging on the back wall of the main room is a piece that looks like a memory made real. Oum Kulthum is in focus in the centre, to her right is Samia Gamal, Egyptian belly dancer and actress, performing for Abdel Halim Hafez, another Egyptian singer. All of them stayed in the hotel at one time or another, but the scene is imagined. The painting is covered by a haze to convey the surreality, and the decay of the walls around it creeps onto the edges of the canvas. “I brought them together in a slightly fantastical way, but it is based on fact,” says Young.

The same is true for many of the paintings in this exhibition, where time is bent and stretched. One shows a bride and groom who were married at the hotel descending the grand staircase in the reception, but the backdrop is the hotel as it is today, faded and worn. There are genuine historic moments captured, too. One of the first meetings of the Arab League took place in the hotel in 1947. Young paints the silhouettes of the gathering – Shukri Al Quwatli, then president of Syria, Amin Al Hussein, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Riad El Solh, the first prime minister of independent Lebanon and Prince Faysal, foreign minister of Saudi Arabia – the room shrouded in cigar smoke and darkness. The scene was taken from a photograph, but Young has added scaffolding that came much later, during the building's renovation, to remind us of the shaky structures that propped up these leaders.

Finding these moments and memories involved some deep research on Young’s part. He dug into archives and rifled through hundreds of dusty photographs, spoke to locals and former visitors to the hotel. “My work, in practise, is really about spending lots of time in a place to feel the atmosphere and to research the history. I’ve got to spend time listening to the place, and almost open myself up so it can tell its stories to me,” he says.

Young set up a studio in one of the rooms of the hotel and painted many of the pieces in real life. For others, he used old photographs, and often combined the two. The result is a portrait of Lebanon in sepia, an effort to use the past to say something about where the country is today.

Dusting off old mansions and the memories that go with them is a fascination for Young. This is the sixth project of his that has attempted to transform forgotten buildings with art. In 2014 he took over Rose House, a 19th century mansion in Beirut that overlooks the Corniche. When he heard the building was marked for destruction, he sought out the owners and asked them if he could hold an exhibition. That dealt with similar themes: memory, heritage, decay and survival in the face of adversity.

The Grand Sofar Hotel exhibition came about in a slightly different way. Whereas in those previous projects he had to cajole the owners or convince them of the value of re-opening, Young was approached by the descendants of the Sursock family, who built the hotel. “The building is still owned by the family who built it,” he says. “That’s a very important difference. Sometimes I get into awkward and difficult negotiations with the owners of a building because my attempts to preserve it are sometimes in opposition to the owner’s vision, or lack of it.”

Sofar is littered with abandoned old homes and relics that hark back to better days. The train station, which sits across the road from the hotel, still has its original sign. The track is gone and weeds have taken over, but a straight line of trees reveals the path the trains used to take. The town’s former glory seems to lie just beneath the surface, Young’s aim is to bring a bit of it back. “It’s in an area that was once very cultural and cosmopolitan but has become quite rundown. This is the first time I’ve tried to revive something in an area that has a distinct lack of cultural places to visit,” he says. “It needs it more than Beirut.”

The idea, Young says, is to turn it into something that can be used for everyone – a public space, in a country where there is little of it. The owners haven’t yet decided what the building will be used for, but they think it will be focused on education, and it will likely not be renovated to its former glory.

In any case, Young wants to continue to push people to look back into the past, and at the good and the bad. In Lebanon, where the past is so divisive that the civil war is not taught in schools, these conversations are vital.

“There are so many layers of hidden history in Lebanon, which to some extent have been forgotten or erased after the traumatic years of the civil war,” Young says. “Art is a great filter through which people can experience the history of their country and their culture in a peaceful and creative way; and in a way that acknowledges pain and loss, but that transforms it into something useful.”

_______________________

Read more:

Review: Remnants, Green Art Gallery, Dubai: 'thematically knotty and immensely rewarding' 

10 hidden treasures to seek out when visiting Louvre Abu Dhabi

Santiago Sierra's new work in Tel Aviv is every bit as provocative as you'd expect

_______________________

Tearful appearance

Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday. 

Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow. 

She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.

A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.

Gothia Cup 2025

4,872 matches 

1,942 teams

116 pitches

76 nations

26 UAE teams

15 Lebanese teams

2 Kuwaiti teams

Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021

Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.

The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.

These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.

“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.

“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.

“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.

“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”

Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.

There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.

“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.

“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.

“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”

List of alleged parties

 May 15 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at
least 17 staff members

May 20 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'bring your own booze'
party

Nov 27 2020: PM gives speech at leaving do for his staff

Dec 10 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary
Gavin Williamson

Dec 13 2020: PM and Carrie throw a flat party

Dec 14 2020: London mayor candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff party at Conservative
Party headquarters

Dec 15 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz

Dec 18 2020: Downing Street Christmas party

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nag%20Ashwin%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPrabhas%2C%20Saswata%20Chatterjee%2C%20Deepika%20Padukone%2C%20Amitabh%20Bachchan%2C%20Shobhana%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%E2%98%85%E2%98%85%E2%98%85%E2%98%85%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Playing records of the top 10 in 2017

How many games the top 10 have undertaken in the 2017 ATP season

1. Rafael Nadal 58 (49-9)

2. Andy Murray 35 (25-10)

3. Roger Federer 38 (35-3)

4. Stan Wawrinka 37 (26-11)

5. Novak Djokovic 40 (32-8)

6. Alexander Zverev 60 (46-14)

7. Marin Cilic 43 (29-14)

8. Dominic Thiem 60 (41-19)

9. Grigor Dimitrov 48 (34-14)

10. Kei Nishikori 43 (30-13)

Huroob Ezterari

Director: Ahmed Moussa

Starring: Ahmed El Sakka, Amir Karara, Ghada Adel and Moustafa Mohammed

Three stars

How to apply for a drone permit
  • Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
  • Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
  • Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
  • Submit their request
What are the regulations?
  • Fly it within visual line of sight
  • Never over populated areas
  • Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
  • Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
  • Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
  • Should have a live feed of the drone flight
  • Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJune%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMohammed%20Alnamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMicrofinance%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E16%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFamily%20offices%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Ukraine

Capital: Kiev

Population: 44.13 million

Armed conflict in Donbass

Russia-backed fighters control territory

SERIES INFO

Afghanistan v Zimbabwe, Abu Dhabi Sunshine Series

All matches at the Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Test series

1st Test: Zimbabwe beat Afghanistan by 10 wickets
2nd Test: Wednesday, 10 March – Sunday, 14 March

Play starts at 9.30am

T20 series

1st T20I: Wednesday, 17 March
2nd T20I: Friday, 19 March
3rd T20I: Saturday, 20 March

TV
Supporters in the UAE can watch the matches on the Rabbithole channel on YouTube

The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Twin-turbocharged%204-litre%20V8%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E542bhp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E770Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEight-speed%20automatic%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh1%2C450%2C000%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Without Remorse

Directed by: Stefano Sollima

Starring: Michael B Jordan

4/5

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Know before you go
  • Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
  • If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
  • By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
  • Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
  • Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.