Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Moment of Truth.. Farouk Hosni .. Was and Is Still!


Sun 08 Sep 2019 | 11:56 AM
Basant ahmed

Turning the Egyptian Museum, located at El Tahrir Square, into the largest and greatest academy for studying Egyptology, is one of the most important suggestions which I request to be implemented immediately because of the importance of this location and the founding of an academy at this level in Egypt to study the Egyptian roots. This suggestion was made by Egyptian artist Farouk Hosni in an interview with prominent journalist Hamdi Rizk and I agree with him.

Hosni, the former Minister of Culture, has many imprints on the Egyptian culture and Egypt's civilization and aesthetic personality. I watched his recent important interview in which he talked about the architectural taste, heritage of Egypt, and the future of tourism after opening the Great Egyptian Museum.

In fact, I have dealt with Hosni closely for many years even before being appointed as the minister of culture. He has a unique personality, he is a prominent artist, great intellectual, has a special vision; he  was able to transfer Egyptian culture to another stage during his tenure and did not stop giving. He was and is still one of the great intellectuals in the Arab world and internationally.

In a recent interview with Hamdi Rizk, Hosni addressed many points, such as a doctor who diagnoses the patient's condition and gives him medicine; he suggested ideas I think they could make a breakthrough in the cultural life in Egypt.

One of the most important suggestions  is turning the building of the Egyptian Museum at El Tahrir Square into the greatest academy to study Egyptology. This could achieve revenues.

He also talked about the high-rise buildings that have become the slums of the rich people. He was keen to highlight the beauty of the city and preserve its features. His constant vision was that each city has an independent personality, and a special aesthetic character, Giza is the Palm City, while Cairo has unique old buildings.

Former French President Jacques Chirac was impressed by Cairo and used to devote some of his time to watch its architectural character during his visit to Egypt. The Egyptian artist expressed his great sadness as he received news of the demolition of 120 thousand villas and palaces in Cairo governorate in order to build residential buildings instead, describing this step as a crime against the Egyptian civilization.

This man was seeking to upgrade the public taste; he said that despite the simple possibilities he was able to achieve huge projects, he also established 150 libraries in villages and cities from Aswan to Alexandria, but the Brotherhood and the Salafis targeted them.

Hosni talked about our aesthetic values, capabilities and architectural heritage of Egypt and our civilizational possibilities, especially the Grand Egyptian Museum, which he expected to be one of the major international museums, and the most important museum as it will achieve a cultural shift, and change the pyramids area and the map of tourism in Egypt and the world!

I express my appreciation to Hosni, the artist and the former minister who was an example of the official who gave a lot to the culture and art. He is the visual artist who is still enriching the cultural life in Egypt.