Artists’ attempt to bring life, and tourists, to Cairo’s City of the Dead
Palette of the bizarre, macabre and unexpected
CAIRO // On a winding road leading into Cairo’s City of the Dead, images of a cartoon mouse with round ears and green eyes adorn shop fronts and walls of the mausoleums where thousands of Egyptians have homes among the gravestones.
The path leads to a 15th-century complex built by Mameluk Sultan Al Ashraf Qaitbey.
It is a Unesco World Heritage site that has been revived as an artistic centre.
In a courtyard where boys play football, a mural shows Frankie the mouse putting a leash on a Pharaonic cat.
Contemporary art is bringing life and colour to the once drab necropolis, part of project Outside In: the Art of Inclusion by Polish architect Agnieszka Dobrowolska.
“What we want to do is to bring together the old heritage, the traditions of this place, with creative contemporary art and with various cultural events to promote diversity,” Dobrowolska said. “Old meets new, death and life come together in the City of the Dead, where we can exchange ideas and culture between East and West.”
What began as a conservation project for the complex – which includes a mosque and a school – grew into the initiative to invite artists from around the world to create art inspired by the local culture. It is largely funded by the European Union.
Artists have come up with murals, mosaics, sculptures, graffiti and live performances.
Frankie the mouse is the work of a Polish graffiti artist who uses the pseudonym Franek Mysza.
“Those artists, in the eyes of the community, they’re eccentric people who have come here to do something unusual,” Dobrowolska said. “But when they work here in the street, there’s a constant delivery of tea and homemade cakes. Because they work outside, they involve children and they try to contribute in any way they can.”
One visiting British artist asked children to create clay objects they would like to take on a long journey. She displayed their snakes, crocodiles and cats alongside her own work.
Some families have lived in the necropolis, away from the bustle in Egypt’s ancient capital of 20 million, for three or more generations. Residents include traditional artisans, whose work is sold in Cairo’s Khan Al Khalili tourist market.
“This art is something new, and it’s important for the children’s development,” said shop owner Mohamed El Assal, who worked with a Dutch artist on a mural featuring stencils of the children’s silhouettes. “Some of them accept it and some don’t and just want to mess around, but none of them destroy it.”
Residents hoped the art would lure visitors. Tourism, a crucial source of income for Egypt, has struggled since the 2011 political uprising.
“The artists came and offered to do this and said it would be good for tourism,” said Sameh, who owns a kiosk bearing a mural of Frankie the mouse.
“They cleaned up the area and made it more beautiful. I think that’s a good thing.”