Casa Árabe in the Festival of Patios

Casa Árabe will be participating in Cordoba’s Festival of Patios until May 19. During this time, it will be opening the doors of its own patios to visitors and will be displaying the project completed by Kuwaiti artist Alia Farid during her artistic residency in the city. Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican artist Alia Farid was invited by Casa Árabe, with the cooperation of the Delfina Foundation, to complete an artistic stay in Cordoba at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, which she did from April 26 through May 5.

In February 2013, during her first visit to Cordoba, Alia was inspired by a set of marks she saw on the ground outside of Cordoba’s Mosque-Cathedral, and she has used this silhouette in the design of a flower pot with the form of a siyadeh (the rug which is used by Muslims for prayer). During her second stay in Cordoba, in April and May, Alia gave an artistic gardening workshop in which, along with a select group of participants, she worked on designing and planting with these “siyadeh flower pots,” thereby transforming the act of prayer into the everyday practice of gardening.

The end result will be put on display in the entrance patio of Casa Árabe during Cordoba’s Festival of Patios from May 8-19, to celebrate UNESCO’s acknowledgement in December 2012 of the Festival of Patios as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The visiting times of Casa Árabe’s patios on these dates will be from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with free entrance.

Moreover, on Monday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m., artist Alia Farid held a talk on art with the members of the public interested in becoming familiar with her career and her art, in terms of the different contexts in which she carries out her work.