Eterna Bellezza

Culture, art, beauty.

Every corner of the world has magnificent stories to tell, and yet there are places that history has elected as collective heritage: places where events occurred and civilisations expressed that have left a particular mark on the path of mankind.

Italy and Egypt are two such places.

The pharaohs and the Nile on the one hand, the myth of Rome and the Renaissance on the other. It is difficult to offer a synthesis of 2 nations that already in ancient times were home to highly refined social organisations, capable of monuments that still today thrill and astound with their mastodontic magnificence.

A tradition of art and beauty, however, that is not confined to the past, but still expresses itself today in a luxuriant creative topicality.

A tradition of art and beauty, however, that is not confined to the past, but still expresses itself today in a luxuriant creative topicality.

If the Salone del Mobile in Milan is in fact the reference appointment in the world of design, in Cairo a rampant Design Week is proposed as a moment of reflection to consecrate Egypt as a stage for international design, and the Italian government wishes to preside over this moment, building a bridge between the respective cultures and facilitating the exchange and comparison between young generations of creative people.

This is how Eterna Bellezza was born, the competition promoted by the Italian Embassy in Cairo to identify and enhance the talent of young Italian and Egyptian designers, guaranteeing them a prestigious showcase in the context of both Italian and Egyptian Design Week.

Eterna Bellezza  asks the young designers to design objects inspired by a common trait of Egyptian and Italian creative expression: the ambition for eternity, the desire to create something that can take on the challenge of time, transcending fashions and exerting an ever-present appeal.

This is the aim of Eterna Bellezza: modelling matter to generate objects capable of becoming eternal, entering people’s imagination and - why not? - leaving their mark on history, just like the travertine of the Colosseum or the granite of the pyramids.

YAC and the Italian Embassy in Cairo thank those who will take up this challenge.