'Eggupation' breeds revolutionary thinking in Beirut
The reputation of the Egg, a cinema in downtown Beirut, has gone from an eyesore to an incubator for new thinking.
A reminder of a war-torn past, an eyesore, a concrete landmark to unfulfilled promises and broken dreams. For people who grew up in Beirut, even a fleeting glimpse of the infamous dome-like structure next to Martyrs’ Square evoked feelings of discontent and anger. Then came the revolution.
In 1965, the architect Joseph Philippe Karam received the commission to build a cinema in downtown Beirut as part of the first shopping mall in the Middle East. When the civil war broke out in 1975, construction on the project came to a halt, leaving the egg-shaped theater unfinished and condemned to more than a decade of brutal urban-warfare and decay.
Miraculously, as the war concluded, the structure christened “The Egg” remained, a survivor amid the ruins. Closed off to the public, it continued to stand frozen in time despite recurring rumors that Solidere, the company responsible for the postwar redevelopment of downtown Beirut, would soon demolish it.
Today, amid what many call the biggest demonstrations against the political system in Lebanon’s history, protesters have reclaimed Beirut’s Egg and radically transformed the abandoned cinema into a space for public lectures, debate and all-night techno raves.
