Kolloquium zur Kunstgeschichte Afrikas

07.05 2019, 18 Uhr c.t.
Mohamed El Shahed: Modern Egypt: Architecture, Design, Material Culture.

Die MZIS Vorträge finden Dienstags um 18 Uhr c. t. im Hörsaal M 014, Universitätshauptgebäude Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1 statt.

This lecture takes the 1919 Revolution in Egypt as a starting point to charting the history of modern design in twentieth century Egypt, focusing on architecture and material culture. From the 1920s Egypt experienced turbulent politics, the rise of new classes and the expansion of industry. During this time the country's modernization was crystallized in a wide array of objects and buildings which translate, capture and reflect conflicted notions of modernity and identity. Presented as a survey, the talk will shed light on 20th-century architecture and design in Egypt, highlighting several projects led by the speaker, including the Modern Egypt Project at the British Museum, and design exhibitions such as Cairo Now! and Modernist Indignation, as well as introducing the upcoming book, Cairo Since 1900.

Mohamed El Shahed. Trained as an architect at the New Jersey Institute of Technology before joining the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Art and Architecture at MIT and completing his PhD at NYU's Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Elshahed's multidisciplinary scholarship and practice focus on the history of modernism in Egypt through architecture, images, and objects. As the Modern Egypt Project curator at the British Museum he built a new collection of material culture from the past century in Egypt to be part of the museum's permanent collection. He is the curator of Egypt's medal winning pavilion "Modernist Indignation" at the 2018 London Design Biennale and the author of the forthcoming book (June 2019) Cairo Since 1900: An Architectural Guide, published by the American University in Cairo Press.