Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre: A Journey in Creativity

Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre is the home of a unique experiment in creative weaving, that has produced tapestries admired and collected by textile lovers &  museums worldwide. The life work of its founder, Ramses Wissa Wassef, was dedicated to realizing the innate creativity of ordinary young Egyptian villagers.

Three rules

Ramses Wissa Wassef believed that inspiration should spring entirely from within, fuelled by contact with one’s own environment.  He therefore laid down three rules for the experiment: 

1.  No preliminary sketches, and no copying from other works of art      

2.  No external aesthetic influences

3.  No critical interference from adults.  

What is “improvised” weaving?

The term “improvised” is used to describe weaving done without a previously executed design or sketch.  The weaver transfers images direct from her or his imagination to the loom.  It could also be described as “spontaneous”.  The absence of a cartoon however does not mean that the weaver embarks on a tapestry without any notion of what he or she intends to depict.  

Before starting a piece, the weaver will decide the basic subject she or he wishes to depict – for example birds, the Nile, a market, palm trees. Further, the weaver will decide in advance the approximate size of the tapestry and its format: “portrait”, when images are in vertical relationship to the warp, or “landscape”, when images are in horizontal relationship to the warp. 

Why did Ramses Wissa Wassef choose tapestry weaving for the experiment?

Ramses Wissa Wassef chose tapestry weaving as the medium in which to test his theories about creativity because he considered it likely to provide the right balance between artistic creation and manual work.  He attached importance to the fact that it took some time to produce an image:  this allowed ideas to ripen in the mind and to guide the fingers, without loss of spontaneity.  He was also confident that experience, gained gradually day by day, would continually give birth to new images. 

How are the weavers paid? 

Ramses Wissa Wassef believed that financial pressure was inimical to creativity, and also recognized that every weaver must be able to earn a living from her or his work.To encourage parents to allow their children to learn to weave, he offered payment from the outset, in accordance with time spent weaving and the size and quality of the completed piece.Every weaver is therefore paid, whether or not a piece is earmarked for the permanent collection, sold, or remains available for sale.