More than half a century ago, a Swiss artist named "Evelyn Bure" visited Egypt to live with her father who works there. She later married the poet and songwriter Syed Hijab and completed decades of her life in Egypt.
As fate would have it, Evelyn visited the village of "Tunis" located on the banks of Lake Qarun in the Fayoum governorate (100 kilometers southwest of Cairo). This visit would become a milestone in the life of the lady who studied applied art at the University of Geneva and a turning point for the very village whose people have always proficiently practiced agriculture like the rest Villages of Egypt.
Although Evelyn later separated from a veil, she decided to reside in the village and transfer her artistic expertise to her people to start the journey of professional change, as many people there learned the profession of painting and making pottery after Evelyn established a school to learn the craft there called the "Petah Association for Training Urban and Rural Children" On Pottery, which has led to the village of about 3 generations of craftsmen since Evelyn lived in the 1960s.
Once you reach the village of Tunis, it strikes you that many of its houses overlooking Lake Qarun are made of mud bricks in the form of domes surrounded by green areas of agricultural land, and the village is also not without tourist bazaars that are stacked with pottery and ceramic works such as pots and antiques.
The absence of visitors
Sadly, however, most of these bazaars appeared to be empty of their thrones in the absence of the usual visitors due to global fears of the Corona virus, whose effects have afflicted this village, like other villages in Egypt and even the countries of the whole world.
Al Jazeera Net met Abdel Sattar Abdel Sami, an Egyptian artisan artist who was taught by the Swiss artist Evelyn and her sons the craft of painting and making pottery, as he says, “Although I did not complete the basic education stages and left early school, but I learned the craft when I was 45 years old after the agriculture was It is our main occupation and our only source of livelihood. "
He added, "Mrs. Evelyn worked to encourage us to learn the craft of pottery making and painting on it, as she always said that the Egyptian rural people are better at learning than the French," noting that over time, the spread of the craft in the village contributed to the course of work inside it, turning it into a tourist village in light of the great demand. Their products are from foreign tourists, especially from European countries, who love handicraft pottery because of its beauty and various forms.
Abdul Sattar explained that he produces dishes, utensils, jugs, cups and other configurations according to the customers' desire, and he is not only satisfied with that, but also draws on pottery after forming it in its final image with colors and shapes that he draws from nature in the Egyptian countryside, such as drawing the shape of palms, birds, plants and roses.
He pointed out that the biggest challenges they face now are the absence of tourism and its low levels in light of the Coronavirus, noting that workers in the pottery industry in the village depend completely on selling their pottery products outside the country by 70%, while the percentage of purchases from inside Egypt is only for pottery works 30%, hoping that there will be more interest from the state in marketing the works of village artists from pottery producers.