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Protests bring Beirut's abandoned Egg back to life
In the heart of Beirut's manicured downtown, something is stirring in a bullet-pocked concrete shell of a building known as "the Egg": the visually unappealing Egg has advanced to become the meeting place for Lebanese democracy activists. Impressions by Lisa Barrington
The domed brutalist structure – once a cinema – was designed in the heady days of the 60s, badly damaged in the 1975-90 civil war, then abandoned, left to teenagers seeking a secret place for a drink or a smoke. Bullet marks and a graffiti reading "Revolution" can be seen on the Egg's exterior
Several weeks ago, protesters started pouring into the streets, raging against the political elite and reclaiming this particularly unloved corner of their capital
Demonstrators walked into the echoing hall and started staging impromptu parties, photo shoots, lectures. Older residents came in to have another look at a landmark they had long dismissed as an eyesore
Protesters turned the Egg into a meeting place, holding sessions to discuss where the demonstrations were going, what the people wanted to achieve
Small groups clambered up a precarious ladder to fly flags from a roof spiked with construction poles…
…while others sprayed the walls with graffiti and slogans calling for revolution, women's participation, gay rights. The Egg remains a venue for protest meetings and concerts
"Everyone in Lebanon feels lost, there are people not knowing what will happen. People are fearful. So we are here to talk about what we can do ... and what we can change," said Stephany Khalil during one session on Saturday. Three days later, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri bowed to the demonstrations and agreed to resign, bringing his coalition government down with him
It remains to be seen what role the protesters and their makeshift meeting place will play in the new political order. But things have already started to change
"Public spaces [are] coming back to the people," said a protester who gave his name as Haydar, sitting on a bare concrete terrace that used to hold cinema seats. "Before, walking in the street we would look at it and say: 'Ok, it's a building. We don't know what it is.' Now we can enter it, and see how people before us lived"