The streets around Darb 1718, situated in the ancient city of Fustat, buzzed with the activity of innovation on Thursday night. Artisans sold jewelry, pottery and other crafts en route to a stage crowned with a triangle of uncharacteristically green grass. Concertgoers sprawled on the lawn, lounged on overlooking balconies, or took in the art exhibited and crafts on display.
Further off, children sat around a table giggling as they dabbed paintbrushes in bright colors. Others crowded around a pottery wheel, watching in rapt attention as a sculptor molded a spinning hunk of clay into a graceful vase. Alternating strains of music reverberated through the breezy summer night, and the crowd swelled to several hundred as dusk turned to darkness.
The festival behind the buzz is Artbeat. Through events in Cairo and Minya it aims to bring together a diverse community to enjoy and learn about the artistic creations being made both under their noses and across oceans.
“The underlying goal behind this event is really education and awareness,” said Akram Al Sharif, co-owner and Artistic Director of Cairo Jazz Club. “Through this event, we can expose people to something besides pop music, to sounds and sights that they might not otherwise have a chance to see.”
Acoustic Innovation, Musical Fusion
The festivities at Darb 1718 opened and closed with inspired performances by two Egyptian groups: the Al Nile Band for folklore music and El Dor El Awwal. In between, visiting bands from Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands were joined by Egyptian musicians. Together, they performed new material written collaboratively in the days leading up to the festival.
Besides facilitating education and awareness for the general community, the festival also provided a forum for exchange and creative growth for artists themselves. Just how this played out was visible during the evening’s second performance, by German band Rob and Zaebo. In addition to their own material, the band was joined by a group of Egyptian artists for a set of new music, composed during an intensive workshop held in the days leading up to the event.
“The central aim of the festival, first and foremost, is intercultural music and art exchange,” said Zaebo of German group Rob and Zaebo. “Exchange is very important for us, because we believe that music transports a lot of positive energy between cultures. And therefore, it’s a good base to build up something very exciting and special for the musicians as well as for the audience and the whole Artbeat community.”
In the case of Rob and Zaebo, the fruits of their workshop and the resulting performances with Egyptian musicians would transcend the Artbeat festival. “We are planning to make an album this year and discovered that Egypt has a lot of very talented musicians we like to work with,” said Zaebo. “The electronic music scene here is not that big yet but the people we just met since Friday are amazing and there are a lot of sound imaginations and feelings we share with them.”
Strength in synergy
Organizer Mayada Said, a CIM expert supporting Darb 1718, stressed that the mixture of music, art and crafts was also central to the event’s underlying goals of education and awareness-raising.
“Music is generally regarded as the most accessible of the three,” she explained. “You’ll get people going to a street festival to hear music who wouldn’t otherwise make it to a gallery to see an art exhibit or an artisan’s atelier to see what he or she makes and how they make it.”
In addition to music performances and contemporary art exhibition, “Uncovered,” craft workshops on pottery, jewelry, eco art, foam mosaic and modeling and gypsum painting gave children and adults alike a taste of the activities offered by Art Village (http://www.theartvillage.co.cc), which coordinated the festival’s craft workshops.
“We’re really glad that this event was able to showcase so many craftsmen at work. It gives people an idea of what they do,” said Fatima Abu Doma, Art Village’s artistic coordinator.
In Abu Doma’s opinion, the festival provided a good mix between letting people get their hands dirty while exploring their own artistic side and also exposing professional artisans at work, to understand what goes into making the crafts on display.
In fact, promoting exchange with the craftmaker community in Fustat was a key objective behind setting up the event at Darb 1718. “There are a lot of artists and artisans here who do amazing work but are not very well known, said Said. “This event is an opportunity to showcase their talent as well as to introduce outsiders to the larger Fustat community, which has been very supportive of this event.”
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Egyptian band El Dor El Awal performs at Darb 1718 on Thursday Night. (Photo by Sarah Atwood)
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