There is only so much emotion a person can hold within the fragile chambers of their own body. Only so much we can dig through the depths of ourselves to make sense of every emotional collision, or explain how a forgotten memory suddenly breaks the surface and slips back into our present, uninvited and unannounced.
Emotions do not simply arrive and disappear; they linger like permanent guests in the homes we inhabit, guests we never intentionally invited but who stay for reasons we still try to understand. From the minute we open our eyes to the moment we surrender to sleep, their presence is felt on the couch where we once cried, or on the bed where we spent hours breathing, meditating, and stitching ourselves back together.
Our homes hold our emotions just as tenderly as our bodies do. They remember where we broke, where we found solace, where we pieced ourselves together again, and where we bowed in prayer and pressed our foreheads to the ground. And in these homes, some rugs hold us as we cry, rest, meditate, or pray in humility.
At the opening night of Cairo Design Week last Thursday, 20 November, a design festival that runs until 29 November, Kahhal 1871, the luxury home of contemporary and heritage hand-knotted rugs, unveiled its exhibition ‘Brush it Under the Rug.’
The exhibition showcases the work of seven Egyptian designers who remind us that vulnerable emotions do not need to stay tucked away in the privacy of our homes; they can be brought to the surface, expressed openly as art on the rug itself, rather than hidden or brushed aside.
Rugs have long been vessels of heritage, carrying centuries of stories through their patterns and craftsmanship. But beyond their history, they also mirror the cultural zeitgeist and the inner worlds people are navigating today.
With mental health becoming a central conversation across the globe, Kahhal 1871 is showing that heritage spaces do not have to remain anchored in the past; they can just as powerfully open up room for dialogue around the issues shaping our present.
One standout rug by Egyptian designer Ramzi Makram-Ebeid visualizes the body’s interior through the lens of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, transforming the physical sensations of anxiety into visual form. In doing so, it encourages us to contemplate how our emotional states could be seen from the outside.
In giving the feeling shape and visibility, the rug heightens our awareness of the body’s responses, showing us how anxiety can leave marks, signals, and pathways in our bodies that we can learn to read.
“Mental health today matters deeply, especially in a world that bombards you with nonstop triggers and stimulation,” Mohamed El Kahhal, Managing Director of Kahhal 1871 and a fifth-generation member of the Kahhal family, tells Egyptian Streets. “We wanted to look at how you can keep a sense of calm while still pushing yourself forward.”
As the fifth generation assumed leadership of the brand, El Kahhal initially relied on heritage to define the company’s identity and work. Over time, however, it became clear that heritage on its own could no longer sustain the brand’s direction in an ever-changing world.
“We had to ask ourselves: how do we compete on a global level and show the world what we’re capable of? It’s not just because we’re Arab or Egyptian, it’s because we’re young, we’re fresh, and we’re ready to prove what we can do,” he adds.
City of the Sun
The exhibition takes place in Courtyard 1908 in Heliopolis, one of Egypt’s most historic cities, once known as the City of the Sun. Some archaeologists even describe the city as “the Vatican of Egypt,” a comparison rooted in both its physical layout and its theological weight, as it was historically a living temple for the worship of the Egyptian creator, Atum, and sun god, Ra.
Over the centuries, Heliopolis has continued to evolve as a mosaic of communities and faiths, home to historic churches of various Christian denominations and diverse communities, such as the Armenian diaspora, which have added layers of heritage that keep the city’s luminous legacy alive.
It is also the city that has long been home to the El Kahhal family, where their ties to Egypt’s civilization and heritage were first nurtured amid the historic streets and temples of Heliopolis.
“We chose Heliopolis because we are a Heliopolis family. Our entire family grew up here,” El Kahhal explains. “When we saw the courthouse as one of the options, it stirred nostalgia and brought back so many family memories.”
Breathing life into the character of this historic city, the exhibition highlights the diversity of identities and expressions of faith through a single, humble object: the rug. But here, heritage and faith are not presented as ends in themselves; they become a lens through which deeper layers of a person’s character and inner world can be explored.
“Usually, when we look at designers, we focus on the success they’ve achieved,” El Kahhal says. “We wanted to take a more personal approach. We wanted to explore their struggles, because we believe that the journey is just as important as how they arrived at where they are, shaped by the challenges they’ve faced along the way.”
For instance, in the piece ‘Seven Threads Beneath’ by Egyptian designer Yasmina Makram, the city’s ancient Coptic heritage is presented not just as a civilization to read about or gaze at in a museum; it is also a heritage filled with deep emotions, such as strength, pain, and courage.
Generation after generation, the emotional weight of the past is carried forward, as if woven into the very DNA of each person.
Even the palm motifs reflect human feeling, capturing burnout and resilience in a single plant, showing that emotions do not only reside in people, but also in the natural world around us.
Rituals That Anchor Us
While each rug explored different themes, from religion to ancient heritage and mental health, they all carried a shared message: the search for rituals that ground us and help us navigate life’s challenges, much like how a rug becomes the space where rituals such as prayer, meditation, and personal reflection take place.
The simple ritual of waking up each morning, even after nights when it felt like the world might end, is captured in the beautiful collection ‘Beneath the Same Sky’ by Anglo-Egyptian interior designer Emma James. The sun and the moon, even as they float in the sky, help anchor us to the ground beneath.
“What I found the most reassuring is that, somehow, there’s this constant rhythm of night and day and day and night,” James tells Egyptian Streets. “The worst day can happen, but then you’ll sleep, and it’s a fresh day tomorrow. And even in the night, you know that the next day is coming.”
With the moon depicted on the upper left of one rug, and the sun on the lower right of another rug, there is a sense of stability felt in the vast universe, even when life on our planet, and on the ground, feels chaotic and heavy.
James transforms this cosmic order into a ritual on the rug; a constant reminder that the universe is always in motion, moving forward endlessly, even if we cannot always grasp where that movement is taking us.
“Things can look so great from the outside on social media, but actually, we all have dark moments within,” James shares. “And when we’re feeling super untethered or unsure of where we are in life, we grasp onto talismans, amulets, or the hands of people we love to help us feel connected.”
To hold on to the hands of those we love, or to the objects we cherish, is one of the many rituals that anchor us in a world that often pushes us to the edges of our emotions, and quite literally, to our limits.
And yet, just as we are constantly being stretched, twisted, and pulled into different selves and circumstances, we discover one of the most honest and enduring truths: our humanity is strongest when it is vulnerable, for it is in vulnerability that we uncover our capacity to truly feel.
This truth is poetically embodied in ‘Crucial Conversations’ by Egypt’s creative zeitgeist, Mohamed Fares, described by the artist as a “living, shifting expression of the human psyche.”
The piece reflects the evolving nature of the human self, showing how even in its most restless state, it continues to form patterns and alchemize into a masterpiece, just as the rug itself becomes a masterpiece in its chaotic, beautiful entirety.
From finding beauty in the chaos to sensing stability in the wider cosmic universe, the exhibition draws attention beyond the walls of our homes and into our own inner worlds, asking the question: if there were a rug in each of our internal worlds, what would that rug look like?
Comments (0)