Programme - Nature and culture

Nature and Culture

Mosaics from the Library of Alexandria in Egypt

Exhibition
Opening 10 October 6.00p.m.
Location: Cloisters of the Cloisters of the Classense Library Via Baccarini 3
Opening Hour: from monday to Saturday 3.00p.m. to 6.00p.m.
Period: 10 October - 20 November 2009
By: AIMC and The Classense Library Institute
From 10 October to 20 November 2009

From Alexandria in Egypt, the city in which one of the most ancient libraries in the world once existed and from a workshop run by Egyptian mosaicists in cooperation with the AIMC (International Association of Contemporary Mosaicists), an exhibition will come for RavennaMosaico, financed by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.
Mosaic represented a cultural characteristic of fundamental importance for ancient Egypt.
Alexandria was a famous centre for the production of mosaic tesseras, a fact confirmed by the mosaics of rare beauty attributable to the various historic periods represented in the Greco-Roman museum of the city.
The Egyptian artists Mahmoud Hagrass, Khaled Sami, Mohamed Banawi, Marwa Kandil, Aziza Fahmi and Mohamed Salem have tried to make a connection, through the creation of three dimensional mosaics, between the ancient cultural roots of their country of origin and the art of contemporary mosaics, and have sought a meaningful balance between sculpture and mosaic.
It is this original mosaic language that conveys the strong desire to introduce the culture, mentality and interior meanings connected with the eastern world and to demonstrate the desire to go beyond the simple production of already existing copies and pictures and the desire not to be limited to the simple creation of architectural ornaments.

Prof. Mohamed Salem