TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Tripoli is known not only as a city of scholarship and for the occasional spate of violence, but also as a hub for artistic expression. The Saba family, who moved from the rural village of Rahbeh to the city decades ago, exemplifies this hidden facet of the country’s second city. The city is a source of inspiration for today’s painters and designers, who are often drawn to its gorgeous architectural and cultural heritage. But the work of Ghassan Saba, and his late brother Mario, represents the Tripoli of yesterday that only he is able to invoke – by molding, melting and sculpting – because he lived through it.
Saba’s art pieces might seem unconventional in Tripoli’s traditional context.
Ghassan’s work was largely a continuation of his brother Mario’s, who died aged 49. Inspired by Tripoli’s history and its artistic heritage, Ghassan is known for his statue called “The Tornado,” located in Al-Mina. The work is made of old computer parts piled up to resemble a tornado.
Ghassan came from an artistic family: His father Christo, a leftist, was known for his wild imagination and was a noted painter and sculptor. His uncle Antoine was a gifted musician, remembered for his talent playing the oud and nay.
The Saba family had set the standard for modern art in Tripoli. But their dreams would be dashed with the onset of the Lebanese Civil War.
Mario left Lebanon for the Soviet Union in 1980 and was pressured by the family to study art. Ghassan continued his studies at Tripoli’s Malaab High School. However, because of the war, Lebanese children rarely attended schools. While some of his classmates joined local militias, Ghassan preferred to fish. During that time, armed gangs destroyed much of Tripoli’s architectural heritage.
At the time of the Israeli occupation of 1982, Ghassan was 18 years old. One day his father told him he no longer could remain in Lebanon, he had to study abroad. Ghassan left for what was then East Germany within a week of their conversation. The majors available at universities there at that time included engineering, medicine, printing press or dentistry.
Ghassan chose dentistry, thinking the career would afford him the ability to practice freely. He returned to Lebanon to put his degree to use. Mario’s death later prompted Ghassan to return to art and carry on his brother’s legacy.
Those who know him said Ghassan was a natural rebel with a strong desire to change society for the better and who longed to break the rules of convention.
Ghassan listens to music when working. Steel, he said, is his material of choice becauseit is both durable and pliant when melted. As for wood, Ghassan said it’s like “a sexy woman as it needs constant care to soften.”
“I prefer the toughness of steel,” the artist said, “it’s like a woman on a motorcycle who does not care about her looks.”
Ghassan’s latest piece depicts a coffee house where “cultured people” come together, inspired by scenes from his childhood in Tripoli. He said being a child of Tripoli has endowed him with a wealth of history to draw upon again and again for his artistic work.
The scenes depicted in his artwork, Ghassan said, draw on Tripoli’s past. “I want to live the rest of my life doing what I like most in the city that I love,” he said.
Apart from creating work, Ghassan also finds the time to teach. His pupil, Sahar Younes, has been influenced by his work since taking one of his courses in college.
A shy student, Younes said she wants to start her own business, and opened her own workshop two months ago with Ghassan’s support and guidance. She uses mostly glass, clay and wax in her pieces.
“Tripolitans are used to the idea that red clay is only used to make pots, but I think it has many other uses, and I am working hard to transform this substance into many creative pieces.”
Younes said she hopes one day to work in Beirut, but acknowledged no matter where she goes her heart will remain in Tripoli.
“In any other city I’d be lost, but here I’m constantly inspired.”
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