Residents and culture enthusiasts of Historic Cairo received news with “deep sadness” regarding the demolition of the “Darb 1718” Center for Contemporary Art in the heart of the capital, in order to implement a road expansion project. The removal of this heritage landmark marks a new episode in a series that has previously affected historic cemeteries.
On January 6, the “Darb 1718” Center announced through a statement on its official Facebook page that its main building was demolished “without any prior notice or compensation,” amidst what it described as “deep sadness and severe anger.”
The center, located in the pottery craft area in central Cairo, has been “a haven for artists and craftsmen of all kinds for over a decade,” according to the statement.
Darb 1718 saw in the demolition of its building “a blatant reminder of the ongoing threats faced by Cairo’s heritage and history, and the displacement of its communities without any consideration.”
In the past three years, thousands of graves in Cairo’s historic cemetery, which is considered the oldest in the Islamic world and listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site, have been removed to make way for projects to develop the road and transportation network in the capital through the construction of bridges, tunnels, and railways.
Muizz Nasr Din, the visual artist who founded “Darb 1718,” expressed his surprise at the demolition in a phone interview last week on the program “Kelmet Akhira” with Egyptian media personality Lamis Elhadidi, saying, “We were shocked by bulldozers from the district after the New Year’s holiday destroying the building with its contents.”
Surprised by the decision, the artist who established the center in 2008 said there had been “a previous meeting with the head of the district and an agreement to postpone the matter for negotiations after the presidential elections.”
However, the local authorities proceeded to remove the main “Darb” building and two other buildings used for teaching pottery-making, which were a “beautiful and honorable façade” for the area, as Nasr Din stated.
Elhadidi criticized the government’s decision to implement such decisions, questioning, “How can we nominate a person for UNESCO when we hate heritage, we hate history, and we hate Old Egypt,” referring to Egypt’s former nomination of the ex-Tourism Minister Khaled Anany for the position of the UN agency’s Director-General.
She suggested that some want Cairo to “completely turn into streets and asphalt” and bridges.
Despite the surprise of the demolition, in July of last year, Nasr Din launched an online petition signed by more than 16,000 people, urging the government to find “alternative solutions to allow this vital cultural institution to continue.”
The petition states, “We recognize the importance of urban development and progress, yet the demolition of Darb 1718 would be a severe loss to our nation’s cultural heritage and its artists.”
The demolition has been criticized by many social media users, with some reminding others of the historic grave removals.
One critic of the demolition decision wrote, “The tragedy is that these same people, when they stroll through the streets of Paris, Vienna, and Rome, take pictures in admiration, but when they return to their countries, they destroy what is symbolic of the land.”
The Path of Old Egypt
In 2002, Nasr Din presented the art center project to the Governor of Cairo, who allocated a property for it in the Fustat area, known as “Old Egypt,” and specifically the pottery-making area, because of its artistic significance.
According to the center’s official site, Nasr Din named it “Darb 17 18” in memory of the January 17 and 18, 1977 protests when Egyptians mobilized against inflationary decisions during the late President Anwar Sadat’s tenure.
The center included workshops for teaching crafts and manual industries, a cultural center, galleries for art exhibitions, and spaces for musical concerts.
Nasr Din, in his talk with Elhadidi, mentioned that “works belonging to 150 foreign artists who were in Egypt, valued in millions,” were present in the building at the time of its demolition, adding, “I don’t know what I will say to them.”
He expressed shock at “this arbitrary act,” at a time when he expected “appreciation from the state for (Darb’s) important role in the Egyptian art scene.”
Egyptian architect Ayman Badr, who frequented “Darb,” told Agence France-Presse, “I saw the demolition pictures and felt a mix of frustration, anger, and severe sadness.”
Badr pointed out that he was “one of the people deeply affected by the cultural output” of the center, recounting that he met “many creatives there and attended several artistic workshops and performances.”
Removal of Historic Cemeteries
In recent years, authorities have made decisions to remove cemeteries hosting a number of writers, intellectuals, and other historical figures, despite dozens of parliamentary briefings and widespread public dissent, as documented by researchers and heritage specialists.
The government says that such traffic axes and new roads, as well as the ongoing expansions, are necessary to solve the traffic congestion problem, reduce travel time, and connect Old Cairo to the main roads leading to the new administrative capital.
Additionally, neglect was one of the reasons that led UNESCO to consider removing the historic area from the World Heritage List and transferring it to the list of endangered heritage, according to local newspapers and websites.
The history of the City of the Dead—spanning 12 kilometers and covering an area of about 1,000 hectares—dates back to the Islamic conquest of Egypt. It houses prominent Islamic figures such as Amr ibn al-As, who led the conquest and governed Egypt for years, as well as the graves of many famous literary and political figures.
