On display from 19 September until 18 October 2025 at Shababik, 10 Rue Benoît Bunico, 06300 Nice.
Shababik means windows in Arabic and SHABABIK is meant to be a window, a gateway to the world of the SWANA region (Southwest Asia and North Africa). For a first Shababik exhibition, I have thus decided to play with this symbolic window — Windows & Worlds.
A group of international artists and designers were asked “to open a window” onto a world of their choosing — a familiar or an unknown one.
In a collaborative process, the designs were then sent to the tentmakers of Cairo’s Khyamiyya market. Located just outside Bab Zuwayla, one of the gates of Fatimid Cairo, it still houses the city’s greatest — yet constantly declining — concentration of tentmakers.
The aims of this exhibition are 1. to create a contemporary design-based dialogue, 2. to rivitalise this art form through a fresh persperctive, and 3. to support the tentmakers’ work and thereby contribute to the survival of their craft.
About the craft
Khayamiyya or “tentmaking”, from "khayma" (=tent) is the art of overlaying sailcloth with colourful patchwork and embroidery. Its origins go back to the times of the desert caravans when nomads put up tents to take shelter from the glistening sun. With time, the craft evolved into producing intricate ceremonial tents from decorated cloths for big events and festivities.
Today, some continue to make — mostly funerary — tents, but the focus of work has shifted towards home decor items, such as bedcovers and cushion cases, as well as wall art. Designs are usually inspired by Islamic or Pharaonic imagery. Calligraphic and natural motifs, especially of birds and flowers, as well as street scenes, have also become popular in recent years.