Nordic Nights

25 – 26 October 2019

For two consecutive days in October 2019, artists from Nordic countries presented their work at Sultan Qaitbey’s maq‘ad.

On Friday, 25 October, The Swedish musical trio Jidder performed their own arrangements of traditional music from Scania, the southernmost province of Sweden and the cultural bridge between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. The delicate musical arrangements guided by a strong artistic vision were performed by three highly expressive musicians on wooden flute, fiddle and cittern (a 10-string mandola).

Also on Friday, 25 October, an exibition of works by the Swedish artist Fabian Edelstam opened. In his works, the artist breaks familiar images into pieces and then puts them back together. But, as in a childhood memory, some little pieces will always remain missing.

On Saturday, 26 October,  Marble Crowd, a collective of Icelandic artists from Reykjavik who blend choreography with storytelling and visual art gave a captivating performance bringing to the Qaitbey neighbourhood the spirit of Nordic sagas, vivid scenic movement, and an unusual sound landscape evoking the northern sea island.

As usual, artisans presented and sold their traditional crafts at the accompanying crafts fair, unhindered by some rain, a rare instance in Cairo. Among the local craftspeople, women of the neighbourhood who had been trained by our project sold their products of the MISHKĀ brand.

The events of the Nordic Nights  were organised in cooperation with our sister not-for-profit organisation, the Sultan Foundation, which operates the Maq‘ad of Sultan Qaitbey Centre, and receives funding from the Drosos Foundation.

The events were part of our programme Heritage for the Living in the “City of the Dead”, which is funded primarily by the European Union.

Project funded by the European Union