Zbigniew Kosc
The textile bazaar, Islamic Cairo, Egypt 1998
The textile bazaar, Islamic Cairo, Egypt 1998
members.chello.nl/zkosc/islamic%20cairo.html
Islamic Cairo is a very old area, surrounded by walls dating from the middle-ages, and was once the cultural, religious and intellectual center of the entire Arab world. Monumental buildings, palaces, many famous mosques and madrasas (religious schools), numerous markets and the oldest university in the world (al-Azhar) still stand witness to a glorious past. But, in the twentieth century Egypt has become a poor third world country and at present Islamic Cairo has fallen into decline, it is full of ruins and has degraded into a living and working neighborhood for the very poorest. The entire neighborhood has become a big bazaar, a labyrinth of dirty, stinking and dusty streets, with thousands of old-fashioned workshops where many crafts are still practiced at a very high level. Two million people live close by in what used to be the burial ground for the very rich: the City of the Dead. Entire families have taken possession of old sepulchers. Surrounding it are schools and stores, the center of an extremely lively social life.
The lot of the inhabitants is not just poverty; religion is also very important to them, namely the Sunni Islam. Daily life is interrupted five times a day by the call from the mosques that is heard everywhere and the people go to pray to Allah. The visitor can experience: the ramadan (a period of fasting), the hadj (a pilgrimage to Mecca), and exuberant weddings and funerals one after the other. Islamic Cairo is grandeur and decline, work and poverty, religion and tradition in confrontation with the modern world, as a great stage where everything takes place in an eternal scenario.
The series of black and white panoramic photographs - made in the period 1986-2001 - has been made with support of the Foundation Found for Visual Art, Design and Architecture (Amsterdam) and Agfa Gevaert (Leverkussen). Some of the work has been on show before at the Amsterdam Center of Photography (1996), Berlage Institute (1998), SBK Gallery Amsterdam (1998) The International Institute of Social History Amsterdam (2000),
the Noorderlicht NAZAR exhibitions in Leeuwarden, Prague, Stuttgart and Berlin (2004-6) and EWerk Freiburg (2006)
The textile bazaar, Islamic Cairo, Egypt 1998
The textile bazaar, Islamic Cairo, Egypt 1998
members.chello.nl/zkosc/islamic%20cairo.html
Islamic Cairo is a very old area, surrounded by walls dating from the middle-ages, and was once the cultural, religious and intellectual center of the entire Arab world. Monumental buildings, palaces, many famous mosques and madrasas (religious schools), numerous markets and the oldest university in the world (al-Azhar) still stand witness to a glorious past. But, in the twentieth century Egypt has become a poor third world country and at present Islamic Cairo has fallen into decline, it is full of ruins and has degraded into a living and working neighborhood for the very poorest. The entire neighborhood has become a big bazaar, a labyrinth of dirty, stinking and dusty streets, with thousands of old-fashioned workshops where many crafts are still practiced at a very high level. Two million people live close by in what used to be the burial ground for the very rich: the City of the Dead. Entire families have taken possession of old sepulchers. Surrounding it are schools and stores, the center of an extremely lively social life.
The lot of the inhabitants is not just poverty; religion is also very important to them, namely the Sunni Islam. Daily life is interrupted five times a day by the call from the mosques that is heard everywhere and the people go to pray to Allah. The visitor can experience: the ramadan (a period of fasting), the hadj (a pilgrimage to Mecca), and exuberant weddings and funerals one after the other. Islamic Cairo is grandeur and decline, work and poverty, religion and tradition in confrontation with the modern world, as a great stage where everything takes place in an eternal scenario.
The series of black and white panoramic photographs - made in the period 1986-2001 - has been made with support of the Foundation Found for Visual Art, Design and Architecture (Amsterdam) and Agfa Gevaert (Leverkussen). Some of the work has been on show before at the Amsterdam Center of Photography (1996), Berlage Institute (1998), SBK Gallery Amsterdam (1998) The International Institute of Social History Amsterdam (2000),
the Noorderlicht NAZAR exhibitions in Leeuwarden, Prague, Stuttgart and Berlin (2004-6) and EWerk Freiburg (2006)