Fatima Atfa (Abu Dhabi)
The Al-Hosn Festival continues to present its various programs in the arts of creativity, heritage and culture within the walls of the palace. For the second day, the “Al-Ittihad” toured the House of Craftsmen and the Cultural Complex and overlooked the squares surrounding these heritage and cultural monuments. It receives thousands of visitors every day to enjoy the beautiful and multiple arts of the festival.
On a visit to the House of Arabic Calligraphy and its participation in the festival’s activities through workshops to teach calligraphy arts, Al-Ittihad met in this workshop Emirati calligrapher Mohammed Mandi, director of calligraphy at the Cultural Foundation.
And about this ancient art, which is considered one of the most beautiful and finest ancient Arab cultural arts, the artist Mandi says: “Every year we participate in this festival and diversify our participation. This year, we entered with the decoration of an Islamic piece designed by the calligrapher Ali Mamdouh from the Calligraphy House, and we printed it on a collage in multiple colors, and whoever participates among the children cuts this geometric shape and pastes it on the cardboard, and it is an act that moves the hand in children and reveals their talents, then we wrap the piece and present it as a gift to the child who worked on it.
As for whether teaching the child the method of cutting and pasting is better than the pen and feather, Mandy explains that, saying: This method is suitable for the ages of students from 12 years and younger, and working on it is better than other tools such as the “iPad” and the computer. Because it is done by operating the hand and the mind together, and by the method of accurate cutting, we offer him an encouraging gift from us, so that when he enters the school he has experience and not only knowledge of Arabic calligraphy, but that he gets to know the Islamic decorations and the decorations of the walls of mosques, and he showed us that he chose a piece with geometric shapes, and the important thing is that The Calligraphy House is actively participating in cultural and artistic activities at the Al Hosn Festival.
Mandy indicated that this year they had a beautiful location and attention from Salama Al Shamsi, Director of Qasr Al Hosn: for this platform to be attractive, every hour 12 students enter it, and there are five workshops on the art of Islamic decoration.
As for the calligrapher who specializes in Islamic decorations, Ali Mamdouh Abdel Halim, who also works in the “Khatt House” in the Cultural Complex, he said: We liked to use Islamic decoration in the Al Hosn Festival as an introduction to these arts. Because we don’t want it to perish. And since children are turning to technology, we have dedicated a cultural activity workshop for them, through which they learn about the original heritage of Islamic art, so that it remains ingrained in the memory of generations.
And the artist Abdel Halim confirms that the idea is simple and filled with colors so that it is a souvenir from the festival, pointing out that there are workshops with them to teach Islamic geometry in the calligraphy house, and this is an advanced work for children. And about the colored piece that was chosen for the children to cut and paste, the artist explained that it suits the child’s mind, and it is one of the hexagonal geometric shapes found in the decorations of the Old Fort Palace, Sheikh Zayed Mosque, and the Cultural Complex. The artist confirmed that he is very pleased to develop new talents in children. Because the piece remains with them as an artistic memory from the Al Hosn Festival that they do not forget, because the festival presents the integrated heritage of the Emirates, and therefore the presence of the calligraphy house in the festival is of great cultural importance.
And from the Department of Culture and Tourism, Department of Education, Fatima Omar said: The Calligraphy House is a center for teaching Islamic art and Arabic calligraphy with the artist Muhammad Mandi who teaches all artistic lines, in addition to some Islamic lines as well, and Ali Mamdouh teaches Arabic calligraphy and some Islamic arts, and this workshop teaches Islamic decoration is an art based mainly on the wood inlay technique, but because wood inlay is a difficult technique, we replaced it with colored paper in the same way that was used in the past. In this workshop, suitable for children over 8 years old, they come alone, and less than 8 years old, accompanied by their parents. We have a great demand for this workshop, whose program we chose for geometric Islamic decoration, because Islamic art is divided into geometric and floral decoration, and we chose geometric because the children enjoy it very much.
Zainab Al-Amiri, who accompanied her children to teach them the art of calligraphy and decoration, believes that it is very important for the child to learn such arts, as it is a new art and artistic inscription that they may not learn in schools, and it is something new that develops children’s talents.
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