A German Artist Reveals the Beauty of Yemeni Doors [Archives:1999/46/Last Page]
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November 15 1999
Mr. Traugott Wohrlin is a German artist who is currently showing his pictures in the House of the Freidrich Ebert foundation (old Sanaa City, near Bab Al-Shaub). He came to Yemen several times in order to explore the country for its touristic sites. He went to different corners of Yemen and discovered the beauty of Yemeni doors decorations.
In German language, doors have a special meaning to be found in proverbs e.g. “opening doors for somebody” means not only welcoming somebody but opening the heart for somebody and facilitating someone’s else life. “Closing the door before somebody’s nose” means not being interested in somebody’s explanations or not accepting somebody’s excuses. In Yemen, doors may have a special meaning as well, because in some regions of Yemen, the doors are the only beautiful thing on a mud house and are very often well maintained.
Mr. Wohrlin took photos of Yemeni doors and drew them afterwards in order to explain the sensibility of Germans for the treasure of Yemeni architecture and in order to open Yemenis’ eyes to see their own country’s beauty and to do some conservation of these unique antiquities. He thinks that doors speak about the history of the house, its owners and the visitors. He found out that different Yemeni regions have common door traditions and he started classifying doors of different regions. Mr. Wohrlin was the Director of a German professional training school, especially in the field of architecture and construction work. He is a person with a seventh sense for architectural beauty and structure. He is an active member of the German-Yemeni Society. The exhibition will be open from November 22, 1999 in Freiburg, Germany as well as during the Universal Exhibition 2000 in Hannover, Germany as part of the Yemeni Pavilion.
