Living Heritage Archives
- the flows of everyday life in the neighborhoods of what is generally known as Historic Cairo
A Conceptual Note:
Living Archives is about the flows of everyday life in the neighborhoods of what is generally known as Historic Cairo , an area that comprises remains and monuments from al-Fustat (circa 641 A.D.) to the neighborhoods of Fatimid al-Qahira “the Victorious” (circa 969). Several neighborhoods in Historic Cairo are living quarters that throb with life and flows - of people, trade, crafts and histories, even though they have fallen prey to a protracted process of decay caused by archaic antiquity laws, misguided conservation initiatives, wear and tear and unfavorable transitions of the urban economy over decades. The seemingly antagonistic forces of flows and decay intersect in ways that fascinate and challenge attempts to discern the city or the lives of its denizens. Capturing the gist of these flows becomes an attempt to archive the ephemeral. These attempts are complicated by the equally antagonistic discourses around those neighborhoods: from the nostalgic rhetoric of conservationists to the celebratory accounts of anthropologists and the anti-people politics of authorities.
Living Archives is an attempt to capture the flows, vibrancy and the decay in those neighborhoods through sketches, narratives and photographs of buildings, streets, livelihoods and peoples as they throb with life. The idea is not to add to an already dense repertoire of the ‘everyday’ produced by historians, anthropologists, culturalists and urbanists. It is rather to depict the ‘everyday’ at exceptionally uncertain times. The uncertainty is particularly palpable in the contexts of a real estate frenzy that increasingly grips the city and justifies evictions and demolitions of neighborhoods within heritage sites by public for private developers. A trend that oftentimes contradicts with global conservation regimes and their local grantees, pent up on consolidating heritage sites for tourism. It is an uncertainty aggravated by fiscal austerity organic to economic structural adjustment, which reduces local governments’ capacities to support neighborhoods and re-charts the social contract between citizens and the state, oftentimes projecting communities within those neighborhoods as residual and dispensable. Such uncertainty manifests in the ‘everyday’ in multiple forms such as those brought about by the flood of cheap imports that kills local industries and craftsmanship and frustrates youths into unemployment. It reveals in the precarity of livelihoods and the perceived hazards of collective activities in public spaces. Forms that force communities to eke out perilous livelihoods outside formal associations thus changing the rhythms of everyday time and space.
text by Sara Radi
الحياة في مدينة القاهرة ليست ساحرة، حدائق اللبانة تشكل التغيير الذي نحتاجه ولكن لا نراه في مدننا، الحدائق تمثل الحل الذي يجمع بين المشاكل البيئية، التراث، والقيم الحضارية، واعادة التفكير في مفهوم التنمية المعتاد، بالاضافة الى نقطة التقاء العديد من المستخدمين لتبادل العلوم والثقافات والاراء، بما أن درب اللبانة تعد مركز ينظر الى القاهرة من بعيد، على الرغم من وجودها في مركز المدينة، جامعة العديد من الزوار وتنوع فريد من فئات المجتمع، مما يجعلها ساحرة، وخلاقة. حيث ان تصميم المساحات من السقف الى الحديقة تم الوصول اليه بطرق غير تقليدية من وجهة النظر المصرية في طبيعته التي تمتاز بخفة الدم، والمرح، استمتع فريقنا بالمشاركة به.