In 2015 – 2016, ARCHiNOS carried out work on conservation and adaptation of a grand reception hall built in 1474 by Sultan al-Ashraf Qaitbey as part of a palace within his huge funerary complex in the Eastern Cemetery in Cairo. ARCHiNOS is currently conserving other parts of the complex. It was an entire “royal suburb”, including various charities and providing housing for the many people employed there – the “City of the Dead” was always also meant to be a city of the living. Nowadays too, the neighbourhood is home to a numerous community, mostly low-income.
The Sultan’s hall and a neighbouring oratory have been adapted for use as a cultural and educational hub serving this unprivileged community, and ARCHiNOS and its not-for-profit sister organisation The Sultan Foundation have organised numerous cultural events in the neighbourhood. As part of this effort, contemporary artists of different nationalities come to work in the neighbourhood and often leave behind their works. Watching the progress of their creative work always captivates the local inhabitants, and in many cases, the artists also carry out creative workshops for the local children and youth.
The projects “Outside In: the Art of Inclusion” (2015 -2016) and “Heritage for the Living in the City of the Dead” (2018-2022), and “Heritage Preservation and Social Development in the City of the Dead” (ongoing) carried out by ARCHiNOS Architecture have been financed primarily by the European Union. The programme of artists’ residences continues.
Project funded by the European Union
Choose from the list to learn more about the visiting artists and about the sponsors who made their presence in Cairo possible:
Iman al-Banna and ‘Amal Akhnukh
Egyptian, glass mosaic
July-August 2020
Raffaele Fiorella and Alessandro Vangi
Italians, 3D mapping installation
October 2018
Marco Colazzo
Italian, painting
September-October 2017
Stefania Fabrizi
Italian, painting, mural painting
Sept.-Oct. 2017 and Oct. 2018
Raffaele Fiorella
Italian, painting, sculpture, installation
September-October 2017
Giancarlo Limoni
Italian, painting
September-October 2017
Claudia von Funcke
German, installation: simultaneous projections
February 2017
Lindsay Sekulowicz
British, sculptural work in various techniques
January – February 2017
Esther Aldaz
Spanish, installation / live performance
December 2016
Franek Mysza and Ajron
Polish, graffiti artists
November 2016
Roy Hiller-Gießing
German, sculpture in stone
November 2016
Paolo Peroni
Italian, installation in different materials
October 2016
Iman al-Banna
w. students of the Badr University, Egyptian, Mosaic October 2016
Bettina Ammann
Swiss, mural painting
April 2016
Beata Rostas
Hungarian, sculpture in brick and stone
February 2016
Lydia Smith
American, mural painting
January 2016