Title: WIKISLAMKITSCH
Client: Mahmoud Khaled
Date Created: October 2006
Artist(s): Mohammed A. Fahmy
Tools Used: Macromedia Freehand MX

Brief: WIKISLAMKITSCH is Alexandrian artist Mahmoud Khaled’s title for his project on Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. The title is a compound word, a triptych; WIKI embraces a global “democratic” information and knowledge platform, ISLAM: one of the monotheist religions, KITSCH: a synonym for excessively and sentimentally charged objects. The project is basically a re-introduction of the word “Islamic Art” via the placement of a white billboard with the definition of this art appearing in Latin letters generated in Arabic-similar calligraphy. The billboard is cleverly placed in the middle of a quadrangle with a similar atmosphere to the open area inside a mosque, separating the inside from the outside and offering a peaceful and calm space, completely surrounded by windows covered in a green semi-transparent typically Islamic pattern designed according to more ultra modern values.