Text: Natalia Remmer CULT STREET FRENCH-TUNISIAN ORIGINAL ARTIST EL SEED - A LARGE SPECIALIST ON THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE FORM OF "CALLIGRAPHY" - A GENRE OF VISUAL ART. HIS WORKS IS A BRIGHT EXAMPLE OF HOW AN OPPOSITE BY THE MEANING OF CULTURE, FACING, DO NOT SPREAD CONFLICT, AND CREATIVE HARMONY.
In March, at a meeting of the Global Art Forum in Dubai, El Seed presented a new project, Perception. Over the course of three unbearably hot summer weeks, a team of 22 graffiti artists created a monumental and anamorphic mural on 50 buildings of the Cairo district of Manshiyat-Nasir, better known as the “Garbage City”. Now everyone can see the philosophical conclusion of the third-century Coptic Bishop Saint Athanasius of Alexandria from the panoramic Mount Mukattam: “To see the sunlight, you must first wipe your eyes”
El Seed himself is convinced that his art, if not able to change the world for the better, then certainly can change the angle of view, perception of the world. “The idea for the project was born a couple of years ago,” says El Seed. “And when we arrived at the trash outskirts of multi-million Cairo last summer, we realized that we had a false idea about its inhabitants. And we changed it.” The City of Garbage Man is known worldwide for the fact that the Coptic Orthodox community living here has created one of the most efficient and highly profitable waste recycling systems in the world that has existed for more than a hundred years. In the rest of the world they are perceived as dirty people, fenced off from civilization, but in fact, “zabalin”, or “garbage people,” as they are called, cleanse a huge metropolis of waste from its life. 
The project allowed the artist to look behind the curtain of a closed world, where strangers do not have access, the rest of the world - to dispel stereotypes, and the children of the area - to find hope. "When you come to a strange house and say:" I want to be your friend, invite me to a barbecue, "they look at you with suspicion. But when you say:" I am an artist, I will paint here "- this is a completely different story "says El Seed. El Seed is always looking for the right places for the right words.
The point is not even in the words themselves, but in their sense, the movement that can lead the viewer away from the ordinary in another, so far only in theory a possible and better world. His works - calligraffiti - adorn minarets in Tunisia, tunnels in Doha and even Louis Vuitton fashion scarves and become a symbol of peaceful expression of social progress and the game of mixing civilizations. A couple of months ago, El Seed donkey in his own studio in Dubai, in the Al Serkal Avenue quarter. “I feel the energy of creativity here. I see the enthusiasm of people coming here. I am watching growth and development. I feel part of all this. This is a suitable place for me, and right now,” the artist concluded.
