The Arabic Calligraphy Forum begins its activities with the participation of 153 artists

The activities of the Cairo International Forum for the Art of Arabic Calligraphy, which is organized by the Cultural Development Fund sector in cooperation with the Egyptian Association for Arabic Calligraphy, the Fine Arts Sector, the External Cultural Relations Sector, and the Egyptian Opera House, whose sixth session bears the slogan "Flag by a Pen", will start on Tuesday at the Arts Palace.

Fathi Abdel-Wahab, head of the fund sector, said that this session comes under an exceptional circumstance with the spread of the Corona virus, and the implementation of strict precautionary measures that ensued, in the interest of the safety of the participants and guests, and in implementation of the instructions of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

For his part, the writer and artist Muhammad Baghdadi Qomaiser said that this year's session honors the artists: Ibrahim Abu Touq "Jordan", Fatima Al-Baqali "Emirates", Ahmed Al-Masry "Egypt", Mustafa Al-Omari "Egypt", and among the guest of honor are the artists: Thaer Al-Atarkji. Iraq, Jasim Hamid, Iraq, Muhammad Sahnoun, Tunisia, Mustafa al-Najjar, Syria, Saeed Abdel-Qader, Egypt.

Baghdadi added: The number of participants in the forum reached 153 artists, including 93 in the official competition, in addition to 60 established artists, from 18 countries: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, the Kingdom of Jordan, the Kingdom of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, China, Indonesia, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Tanzania, Lebanon, in addition to Egypt.

In its sixth edition, the forum includes several activities, including: The scientific symposium with the participation of 27 researchers and entitled: "The Arabic Letter ... Challenges and Visions" and supervised by Dr. Ahmed Mansour, Director of the Calligraphy Center at the Library of Alexandria, in addition to technical workshops.

It is worth noting that this year’s session of the forum bears the name of the great Arabic calligraphy artist “Yusuf Ahmed” who is considered the proponent of Kufic calligraphy in the modern era, after successive generations have dealt with the Kufic script as drawings and shapes that are difficult for them to read. A new visual and plastic culture that the artistic eye was not used to before, so he created a style that bears the characteristics of the original Kufic script and its rules.