When reality fails to live up to the dreams of Old Cairo's children, spontaneous creativity comes to the rescue, writes Hicham Safieddine It is showtime for Mahmoud Ahmed Hussein. His hair is neatly cropped, and his clean hands reach out with a personal invitation card for an exhibition of his artwork at the Al-Fustat Marketplace, Old Cairo. His work, and that of dozens of other children, many of whom come from underprivileged families, will be on display for a couple of weeks for all to see. Even better, on the opening night, Hussein will have the chance to do what he loves most: to sit down with a pair of scissors, coloured stickers and blank paper, and let his imagination bring about a new piece of work. For the past three years or so, the Spontaneous Creativity Classes, held twice a week at the market under the supervision of artist Mohamed Abaza, have helped Hussein and his young neighbours to express themselves freely -- a little world of happiness parallel to the unforgiving one out there. "The two hours of class for these kids are the two happy, free hours in the midst of the remaining 22 -- suffused as they are with pollution on all fronts, from educational to social to economic," explains their instructor Abaza. Armed with a passion to spread the gospel of creativity among young and old alike, Abaza has been working with children on this project for almost 10 years. He has taught in several rural and urban areas of Egypt, the last of which is Al-Fustat. He has also given seminars on his style of teaching in Los Angeles, the US. Dozens of art works, made up of mostly colourful auto-adhesive stickers cut and pasted in different shapes and sizes, are the fruit of the classes, in which girls and boys aged seven to 16 take part. The workshops really have improved these kids' lives; they stand as a testimony to the fact (expressed by a friend of Abaza's) that "time given to art is not time wasted." Many of the children now want to become full-fledged artists, while others envisage science-related professions with time to nurture their artistic talents as a hobby. "Every kid is a natural born-artist," says Abaza. "I don't interfere with what they do, I just make sure they have the space and clean their minds form all the outside influences that might inhibit their creativity." "This is why improvisation is important, especially when in school, at home, and on the street they are constantly being told what to do and how -- something that can harm them psychologically as well as artistically." Hussein, for one, seems to have assimilated Abaza's philosophy: "When we start our piece, teacher Abaza always tells us to close our eyes and take a few minutes to think over what we want to do, and to make sure it comes from the inside, not from the outside." The works showcased tackle a variety of themes ranging from portraits of people, to urban life such as cars, to houses of worship. Abaza points out that the environment does influence the work. He points out that kids in rural areas focus on portraying animals and farming life, whereas people of the cities are more interested in coming up with sketches of people, cars, traffic signs, etc. He says the cut-and-paste medium seems to be the most popular. "There is something like an artistic libido characteristic of this technique," Abaza says. "Something special about not having to think too much before you cut and paste the sticker, and not being able to change too much in what you are doing." Most kids seem to like the medium. They say the difficulty resides in working round corners and rendering textured shapes, like the contours of a face. Hussein's favourite subject is clowns, and he got right down to it during the opening ceremony, which included a live oud show for the kids to enjoy. Aside from the large cut-and-paste displays spread across the walls of the marketplace, with each work bearing the name and age of its author, a collection of wooden sculptures adorn the central courtyard of the complex. Here the dominant theme is horse and donkey carts -- a selection from the oeuvre of Hossam Hassan Amin, one of the older students of Spontaneous Creativity classes. "I love working with wood and colour," says the 17- year-old, a factory worker in the paint industry. "The hardest part is gluing all the pieces together, but I have learned a lot in the past five years working with this project." For the ever-humble Abaza, the learning process is not one way. "The kids are great source of ideas," he says with a smile. "They too have taught me a lot." The exhibit is organised by Travco Group and runs until 26 December from 11am to 7pm daily.
