In a two-day event organized by Mahatat, City Shadows brought its project to explore ways to revive abandoned spaces through art to Egypt’s Port Said on July 16 and 17. The creative action research project, launched six months ago, views the revival of abandoned spaces as a possible solution for both the negligence of existing buildings and the lack of spaces for youth and artists to explore their creativity. Mahatat is a Cairo-based social and cultural enterprise founded in 2011. Through contemporary art practices, Mahatat seeks to transform public spaces, create opportunities for exposure to the arts and offer needsbased learning experiences to artists, practitioners and entrepreneurs. The exclusivity of the art scene in Egypt marginalizes the majority of the population from being an art audience and centralization of the arts deprives amateurs and emerging artists outside the capital from exposure and skills development opportunities. The initiative’s role is to take art beyond decentralized channels and nurture creative expression and production of art as a visible and accessible part of our everyday life. Together with Mahatat as the producer and Rana El Nemr as the artistic consultant, visual artist Nadia Mounier…
