Creative Europe
Desk UK
for Culture

The’European Network of Islamic Art’ (REMAI in Spanish) is an EU-funded collaborative research project between the Patronato of the Alhambra and Generalife (lead partner), the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Musee du Louvre. These institutions worked together for an initial two-year period to develop themes for a longer-term collaboration, which will also grow to involve more international institutions in Europe, America and the Islamic world. In this first phase the research focuses on architectural plasterwork from the Alhambra, lustre ceramics of the Nasrid period (14th-15th centuries), and 19th-century photography of the Alhambra. An overarching framework for the research is the discovery of the Alhambra by European travellers in the 18th and 19th century, and its great influence on Orientalist and revivalist artistic movements. The project allows all the specialists involved to share their expertise with each other and bring these international collections to greater prominence.

A new database, focused towards scholarly study, will amalgamate all the results from the historical research, conservation reports and scientific analysis.
A new web portal will be designed to create a virtual exhibition, where the objects and conclusions of the research will be shown to the wider audiences with high definition photography, short films depicting the different stages and other contents.
The icing of the cake will be an international seminar taking place in the Alhambra in April 2012. This event will be a unique opportunity for conservators, curators and scientist with an interest on Hispano-Islamic Art to gather and discuss the results of REMAI together with any new discoveries in the field. From the point of view of Islamic Plasterwork, this seminar will offer an unprecedented opportunity for professionals working in this field in North Africa and the Middle East to get together with their European counterparts, share their work and benefit from their respective expertises.

The legacy of REMAI will be the establishment of protocols to be followed during future conservation work, historical research, and scientific analysis of Hispano-Islamic plasterwork and ceramics. We hope that this initial two year period will just mean the genesis of REMAI and that in the future the work will progress with new institutions joining the network.

The project allows us to have time for research, trips to see other collections, scientific analysis, and the conference and publication brought people together in the field of Hispano Islamic ceramics and plaster work, for the plasterwork was really the first international event ever of this characteristics, bringing people from middle east, north Africa and Europe.

Remai website:

http://remai.alhambra-patronato.es/

Historical photographic website (historical records regarding the Alhambra, most from the V&A) http://foto.remai.alhambra-patronato.es/

Videos can be viewed at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/remaipag

http://remai.alhambra-patronato.es/es/explore/videos