'Carousel' at Villa Paradiso, Beirut (May-June 2013)

I searched for an inspiring new venue for my work- away from the normal white cube gallery space.

As chance would have it, I saw the derelict mansion in the early morning hours of New Year's day, 2013. This fateful moment was the genesis of a project that would span 6 months, culminating with a self-curated on-site exhibition called 'Carousel' that was held from May to June 2013.

At the heart of the exhibition was my investigation of memory and longing prompted by my own engagement with the villa and the remnants left by the former owners - the Baloumian family.

The House

'Villa Paradiso' is a house that was built in different stages- the ground floor was mostly built in the classic 19th Century Ottoman style, some of it possibly being much earlier. The first floor was an early 20th Century addition- built in the 'French Mandate' style. The front coloured window panels show a strong influence of Art Nouveau on traditional Lebanese three window design.

From the 1950's to the 1970's, the house was inhabited by a wealthy Armenian family, the patriarch of whom- Mardiros Baloumian- had made a remarkable escape from the Armenian Genocide in 1915. He eventually ended up in Beirut as a successful construction contractor, tradesman and writer. He lived here with his wife, son and 7 daughters until the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. The house was damaged during the conflict. Over the next few years, the family fled the country. Only Mardiros stayed on living in the house. He died in 1983, aged 88.

The Baloumian family kept possession of the house during and after the war. It was temporarily occupied by a militia, and after the war, fell into a state of disrepair and ruin.

7 years ago, the Feghali family bought the house from the Baloumian family. The Feghalis set about restoring the house- putting a new roof on the building and making interior new spaces whilst carefully restoring its authentic features.

On January 1st, 2013, I saw the house and had an idea- to use the house as a venue for an exhibition. I got in touch with the Feghalis. They immediately approved the idea, and we set about restoring the house at a faster pace- with the intention of transforming the place into a permanent social and cultural space.

Part of my intention for the timing of this exhibition was to open the exhibition in the spring- symbolising the house's rebirth after a very long winter.

I wished certain elements of disrepair and age to be kept as they are- to form an appropriate backdrop for the exhibition, which explores layers of history, absence and the seeds of renewal. I intended to blur the boundaries between 2 dimensional painting and 3 dimensional space, so that the paintings seem to belong to the space.

The Feghalis will resume the renovation of the house during the summer, and will have an official opening of the building in a more complete state in September 2013.

Carousel

The name of the exhibition is taken from the shop that Barouir Baloumian owned in Ain Mreisse, Beirut in the 1960's. I found an invitation card to the shop's inauguration amongst the belongings that the family left behind when they fled the house in 1975. The painting 'Still Spinning' is clearly inspired by the title. I see the Carousel as a symbol of childhood memories, the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity, and the potentially unhealthy amnesia that is often required to keep going after and during traumatic events.

'Carousel' is an exploration of loss, and of the transformative power of painting in confronting that loss. This theme has been a consistent undercurrent in my work since my first visit to Lebanon in spring 2006. The exhibition featured large-scale paintings, and installations of found objects which honour the former residents of the house.

I discovered many objects in the house, including numerous classical piano scores. For the opening evening, a pianist played these scores a grand piano- echoes of the beautiful music that once filled the house.

The exhibition also included previous works inspired by my travels: dying sunflowers in France to bullet-scarred stilettos in Cuba, wind-swept skies and white cliffs in England to dilapidated palm groves and vast deserts in Oman. Much of my earlier work has been topographical. With this new work, I paint universal themes and feelings which are common to many places, whilst paying particular attention the character and history of this house. Found objects in the house are used as objects to scrape the paint with, and to frame paintings ('L'Ascenseur', 'Breakthrough', and 'Paradisco').

The themes of detachment, memory and longing are explored on many levels: I delve into the inner workings of how mythology is created by painting from old photographs of beaches and dancers found in the house ('Golden Age', 'Halcyon' and 'The Beat Goes On'), and explore the contemporary distance created by modern technology: impersonal images found in the media, such as an iconic snapshot of the 2011 England Riots ('Homecoming') are used, as are the pixelised screen images taken from Skype calls: the person is there, yet somehow its not enough, particularly with the low internet speed in Lebanon ('Static 1' and 'Static 2').

An underlying theme of the exhibition, however, is a sense of renewal. Some of the major works on display explore the coexistence of joy and pain, and how the seeds of new life often come from a traumatic event. I feels this symbiotic cycle of life and death most acutely in Lebanon. Paintings such as 'Cedar Roots', 'Gunflowers' and 'Still Spinning' deal specifically with this. Indeed, the house itself, the former resident Mardiros Baloumian, and what the Feghalis are doing with the house now are testaments to unwavering hope and resilience.

Tom Young