The first collection of the Copperware cluster of Constantine in Algeria, named Marvelous Cirta, the production of which was supported by the EU-funded projet Creative Mediterranean, was exhibited at the Rasumofsky Palace in Vienna last month in partnership with the Algerian Embassy in Vienna.

Participants discovered the collection telling the story of the thousand-years-old city of Constantine, within the marvelous frame of the palace.

The collection named after the first name of the city of Constantine combines echoes of the past with contemporary designs. It was designed and produced in partnership with the designers zerunianandweisz and students from the regional School of les Beaux-Arts of Constantine, under the banner of the project Creative Mediterranean.

​In Constantine, despite the drastic decrease of the number of copperware craftsmen within a sector facing difficulties and the young generation’s reluctance to work with copper, 17 craftsmen created together a brand new art collection by working with a new generation of designers. Students from the regional School of les Beaux-Arts of Constantine designed with the craftsmen new prototypes, demonstrating thus that the thousand-years-old know-how and the innovative design concepts of the students could meet to create new items that would easily sell in international markets.
 

“I started working with copper when I was 14. Copper has been produced since the Middle Age in Constantine and I learned the craft from my father, who learned it from his own father. We cannot lose this tradition, and on the contrary, we have to modernize our creations to create jobs for our youth who can learn and develop the sector after us. This is Marvelous Cirta’s spirit: showing that our expertise can survive through contemporary designs,” Mr. Messaoud Lechehab, one of the participating craftsmen.

The objective of the Creative Mediterranean project (Development of Clusters in Cultural and Creative Industries in the Southern Mediterranean), implemented in the framework of the Private sector Development in the Southern Mediterranean Programme, is to foster entrepreneurial co-operation in the cultural and creative industry notably through the promotion of promising pilot initiatives demonstrating contribution to inclusive growth. The project then aims at demonstrating the potential for the national and regional development of cultural and creative industries in the Southern Mediterranean, thus opening the possibility through adequate replication and larger scale support from financial institutions to promote new employment opportunities and inclusive growth in the region.

Read more

Press release

Collection catalogue

Creative Mediterranean – website and Facebook page