TO ENCOURAGE THE DIVERSITY, SPECIFICITY AND VIBRANCY OF EGYPT CULTURAL SCENE AS A STRATEGY TO COUNTER CULTURAL UNIFORMITY, CONSUMERISM AND AN INCREASING INTOLERANCE FOR THE MARGINAL.
TO PARTICIPATE IN SAFEGUARDING EGYPTIAN CULTURAL MEMORY BY RESEARCHING AND DOCUMENTING ITS INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE AND BY ENCOURAGING THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF POPULAR TRADITIONS AND SOCIAL FESTIVALS.
TO CONTRIBUTE TO DIALOGUE AMONG PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT CULTURES THROUGH AN INTENSE PROCESS OF ARTISTIC PRODUCTION.
TO PRESENT EGYPTIAN ORAL AND TRADITIONAL ARTS AS THEY ARE NOW, RARELY, PRACTICED TO A WIDE AUDIENCE.
Makan Fayoum Residency
125 Km from Cairo
6 rooms
1 separate playing room
Available for workshops & concerts
The Society for Ethnomusicology has awarded ECCA the triennial Lois Ibsen Al Faruqi Prize, 2005
Because the value of cultural diversity to the human community, like the value of biological diversity to continued life on this planet, cannot be underestimated. As the world shrinks, dominant ideologies, religions and cultural expressions overwhelm the margins and we lose essential elements of the creative process: our appreciation of difference, our freedom to choose, to experiment and to dream of alternatives.
ECCA aims to record and present traditional music and musicians in Egypt as vibrant and renewable cultural resources that bridge Mediterranean and sub-Saharan African cultures. ECCA further encourages efforts to re-awaken the multi-layered complexity of Egyptian culture of music and arts, to return the music to the critical role it has played in the daily life and imagination of the Egyptian people, to counter the trend to isolate it from its original communities, to share this rich resource with the world community and, by presenting it in new contexts to encourage perception of this music as a resource for creativity.
Completed Projects
Videos
Music Concert
Audio
Systematically recording, documenting and archiving current practice so as to make it available to scholars, musicians and to an increasingly broad-based audience. ECCA has developed a data base of archived material, using software specially developed for that purpose. Additionally, ECCA is developing its documentation policy in support of an ethical code that negotiates with performers as respected individuals having names and right.
Providing increased and diverse performance possibilities for its practitioners, thereby expanding the audience for this tradition, renewing the lively performer-audience relationship and increasing performers’ opportunities for financial sustainability. ECCA’s commitment to high technical standards of documentation, whether photographic, film or audio recording, also facilitates the distribution of material beyond local audiences to television stations, festivals and photo exhibitions.
Promoting an audio aesthetic that respects the integrity of the instruments and voices, an alternative to the aesthetic that imposes echo, reverb and other effects dominating the popular market.
Organizing encounters among a range of performing artists (musicians, poets, dancers, storytellers), as well as sound, video and light technicians involved in the performing arts, bringing them together in the context of workshops, rehearsals, facilitating their participation in festivals or just socialising. Makan offers these artists and technicians the basic and necessary infrastructure, together with an ambiance and spirit that can inspire the creation of new forms and traditions as a strategy for self-sustainability.
Expanding its already substantial network of contacts in order to further cooperation and the establishment of partnerships with a wide range of cultural organizations and scholarly institutions from all over the world.