Tahayyuz Summer Internship at Megawra

A call for artists, architects, designers and writers

1-month internship at Megawra to design a book that is not just a book, about a conservation project that is not just a job, in a tomb that is not just a grave.

We have been working on the conservation of al-Imam al-Shafi’i Dome since 2015 and on its visitors’ centre since 2021. In the process we have been given the gift of stories – of people and place, of the daily experience of 2500+ days of working on a conservation project – of history and myths – of money, power and spirituality – of the chemistry, physics, biology, and structure of a building as it comes to life – of patterns, colours and geometry – of human beings living in the cemetery and others coming to work day in day out for 7 years to work on its most important building.

Over the span of one month, we would like to work with 6-8 students fulltime and 3-4 professionals occasionally to think of how a book could encompass this experience. We would like to think of it, not as a book but as an interactive multi-sensory experience. We see it not as flat white pages but as a magical surface that holds within it a labyrinth of experiences that feel like a chamber, leading to chamber, inside another chamber, through a garden, up the stairs, down a cellar. We want to consider the potential of the virtual, but we wish for it to be very much all there. And we would like the juxtaposition of stories, experiences, information, visuals, feelings and imaginaries to be echoed in the juxtaposition of talents that put together clearly distinct parts to make a whole that is awkward and uncanny, yet surprisingly more than the sum of its parts.

The internship will be run by the Megawra team led by storyteller Chirine El-Ansary and architect May al-Ibrashy. It will be coordinated by Ehsan Abushadi.

6-8 students and fresh graduates chosen from a variety of fields, preferably (but not limited to) architecture, design, visual art, literature and creative writing, sociology and anthropology, history and heritage, will be expected to commit to a month of work, 4 days/week (Sun-Wed), from 10 am to 4 pm, between the 17th of July and the 18th of August 2022.

3-4 professionals will be invited to contribute to the process as mentors and creative consultants in their own time, at their own pace.

The language of instruction will be Arabic.

You will also have the chance to participate in lectures and meetings with two other internship programs run by 10 Tooba and Mansour for Conservation and Heritage in the framework of our joint educational program, Tahayyuz.