Artist on reviving historic mosaic art in Egypt

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An Egyptian-Italian artist and designer aims to revive the art of mosaic and encourage people to use it for decorations.

STORY-LINE:
An Egyptian-Italian mosaic artist and designer aims to spread the use of mosaics in Egypt's interior decorations in order to help revive the historic art.
Mohsen Salem inherited the business from a family that worked in mosaics for decades.
He travelled to Italy in the late 1970's and people were amazed with his work.
When Salem returned to Egypt, he realised that most of the modern decorations and designs were inspired by western styles and mostly do not represent the Egyptian society or civilisation.
Mosaic is the art of putting together small pieces of coloured materials to form pictures or patterns.
The art was developed in many ancient civilisations including the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic.
Salem believes that the art will never age and can fit with any society.
"We still get impressed when we see any old or historic work in terms of shape and quality, so why don't we recreate this type of work nowadays," he says.
"It is a kind of work that does not age and will never end, it was there and it is still here but we are the ones who left it behind," Salem adds.
A lot of mosaic work that has survived for centuries can be seen in many of Cairo's historic mosques such as the Aqsunqur Mosque, which is known for its blue mosaic tiles.

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Category
Egypt
Tags
egypt, artist, mosaic, history
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