Cultural center in Cairo demolished for highway

Works worth millions of dollars remained under the rubble.

The Darb 1718 art center, located in the historical district of Cairo, was demolished for the construction of a highway. Over the 16 years of its existence, the cultural institution has become a point of attraction and attraction. Despite this, the city authorities destroyed it without providing the directorate of the cultural center with any documents. Instead, they demanded that the building be vacated, and within 30 minutes demolition began. Local media write that works of art worth millions of dollars were destroyed along with him.

On the one hand, Cairo invests a lot of effort and money in popularizing its cultural heritage. They are about to open the Grand Egyptian Museum, which claims to be the museum construction project of the century in terms of scale and budget. Hundreds of historical artifacts will be concentrated there. On the other hand, during the large-scale reconstruction of the capital of Egypt and its environs, historical monuments and cultural attractions are mercilessly going under the knife.

Darb 1718 is the most famous contemporary art center in Cairo. It was founded 16 years ago. During this time, thousands of exhibitions, master classes, concerts and other cultural events took place there, which attracted huge audiences. You can find photographs online where, at one of these events, people occupy every centimeter of the art center’s territory, including the roof. But Darb 1718 is a non-profit charitable organization founded by artist and sculptor Moataz Nasreddin. Back in the summer, they came to him with a demand to vacate the territory, without presenting any eviction documents. They did not appear even six months later.

One “beautiful” day after the holiday they came again, again without documents, but with excavators. The employees had half an hour to evacuate. As a result, most of the exhibition and funds were destroyed along with a small building. As local media reported, we are talking about 150 works by different artists – not only Egyptian, but foreign – worth millions of dollars.

However, the problem of demolishing a cultural center is broader than this one case. The fact is that Darb 1718 is located in the historical district of Fustat. Founded in 641, the city was the capital of Egypt for 500 years. Until one day, in 1168, the vizier Shawar ordered the city to be burned so that it would not fall to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, whose troops were moving to Fustat. Later, new houses grew on the site of the burned city, but underneath them many cultural layers of different eras were preserved. In a good way, the reconstruction of Cairo needs to be carried out in close cooperation with archaeologists, who must explore every centimeter of the area before it is rolled under highway asphalt. However, this is not done.

It’s clear why. Cairo wants to undergo a renovation phase as quickly as possible to become more attractive to tourists and investors. At the same time, Egypt builds its image on centuries-old history, turning its valuable artifacts into a historical “Disneyland” with one hand, and destroying cultural heritage with the other.