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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 June 2000 Issue No. 484 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 June 2000 Issue No. 484
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Heritage Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Something old, something new
By Amira El-NoshokatyStrolling the narrow streets of Al-Azhar district in Cairo, one could comfortably walk away the hours admiring the architectural features of the area's old houses and meditating on their histories engraved in stone, wood and metalwork.
Some of these buildings are still functional and used as cultural centres for the staging of exhibits or plays, while others have been restored and added to the growing list of protected monuments in the so-called Fatimid city. But many beits, or houses, remain in a sorry state of disrepair.
Of the latter category there are, unfortunately, too many, but when I stumbled upon one of these ostensibly forgotten beits last weekend, I found a house that had been transformed. Al-Khatoun is a 19th-century building that became a masbagha (dying shop). The building barely survived into the 20th century, subsequently becoming a mazbala (dump). Now it has been renovated and converted into a crafts centre that bears the name of Al-Khatoun Gallery.
Between Al-Khatoun's days as a masbagha, then a mazbalah and finally a local gallery, lies a tale of an old building and an industrious group of artists.
Beit Al-Khatoun, left behind in the recent refurbishments of Old Cairo, has flourished in the hands of its new owners, an ambitious group of artists
photos: Amira El-Noshokaty
I happened on Al-Khatoun by chance, while walking down the narrow Mohamed Abdu road that coils around Al-Azhar mosque. The building is double-storied, with two large square windows and a brown wooden folding door. From the rectangular shoraa (peep-hole) in the doorway, and beyond the iron bars in front of the windows, a soft light reflected on blue and green glassware piled on iron shelves, somewhat reminiscent of my grandmother's afternoon tea glasses. To the right of the doorway I spotted a wide variety of handmade objects: original textiles, charmingly decorated notepads made of recycled paper, iron lanterns, pottery and much more. Across the room, a wooden partition overlooks an open courtyard and, to the left, an old stone staircase leads to the roof.
Four resourceful and innovative artists, Hani El-Bora'i (who owns an iron workshop), Ayman El-Azabawy, (who owns a gallery in Maadi), Mustafa Khalil (an artist) and Suzanne El-Masri (a manufacturer of silver jewellery) undertook to renovate the old house after "cutting a fair deal with the previous owners."
I was invited into the central courtyard where, as I sipped mint tea with my host, I learned the ambitious story behind the renovation of this much-neglected but beautifully-proportioned house -- the story of a dream fulfilled.
The tale begins with a group of artists who in the 1970s combined their resources in an effort to preserve their heritage and, at the same time, provide a service to the community. Al-Khatoun, by this time a mazbala, came to the attention of the four friends when the owner died. El-Bora'i and his friends took it over and, in the course of three months, managed to restore it without changing its architecture or its spirit.
The group turned the house into a crafts gallery, but the venue is not only designated for the revival of Egyptian traditional crafts -- there are enough of such places. Rather, Al-Khatoun was conceived as a way to encourage artisans to come up with new and innovative ideas inspired by the rich heritage Egypt's crafts industry has to offer.
"The house was known as a dump by the local community because the area in front of it was actually used for garbage disposal," El-Bora'i said. "The local community kept disposing of their rubbish there and we kept cleaning it, until the day came when they stopped. Now the previous owners of the house are those who provide us with tea and coffee."
The group were encouraged to revive age-old crafts, ranging from Arabic calligraphy on textiles to shawls woven in the traditional weaving techniques of Upper Egypt and Al-Arish. The gallery offers artistic guidance and provides an outlet for the work of new and out-of-the-way artists, such as the pottery manufactured by youngsters in Fayoum. "Its a way to help them survive," said El-Bora'i.
On exhibition in Al-Khatoun are fabrics adorned with Arabic calligraphy, original leatherwork and ornaments made of clay, glass and other mediums. Wrought iron, worked into decorative patterns, makes for bases of modern lamps.
"Our aim is to encourage others to follow in our footsteps and try to conserve our historical monuments, while encouraging the continuation of our artistic and cultural traditions," El-Bora'i explained.
The renovation of Al-Khatoun, which officially opened in mid-December 1999, was a privately funded endeavour. It is not regarded as an art gallery, but rather as a handicraft gallery, in that it provides an outlet for the works of villagers in Upper Egypt, Fayoum and elsewhere. It is also a place where visitors can spend a few delightful hours looking at craftwork that has continued, little changed, throughout the ages in a building that transcends time.
"We are a bunch of crazy people," El-Bora'i said. From his smiling face, you could see the glow of a "crazy" dream that just came true.
