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Charmaine Chan

One “trick” for prolonging the enjoyment of sprawling design festivals is to ask yourself: “What is the one thing you would take with you, given the opportunity and the space?”
Rana Beiruti laughs at the seemingly impossible question. But upon giving herself manageable parameters by clarifying “something that fits into my home, into my life”, the curator of “Arab Design Now” (ADN) nominates a series of works by architect Amina Agueznay.
Her undyed wool and palm husk Portals 1-4 installations welcome visitors to ADN, the flagship showcase of Qatar’s inaugural Design Doha biennial.
“It’s an innovative use of raw natural materials, not in a traditional sense,” says Beiruti of the series, with its brush-like geometric designs inspired by the doors of a Moroccan ksar (fortified village).


“It has texture, it’s close to the earth. It combines craft and textile as well as references to rural architecture in Morocco with its patterns.”
Beiruti also highlights creations, commissions included, on display elsewhere in the city as part of the biennial, which runs until August.

Architecture, graphic design and craft exhibitions, among other events, together announce Qatar’s arrival on the design scene.
Although not officially part of Design Doha, there are additional spectacles at starchitect-designed venues and revitalised areas that have transformed the country’s landscape in recent years.
Just one is the new Mina District, in the Old Doha Port area, where fairy-tale pastel buildings now sport bold futuristic statements, courtesy of a cohort of local and international muralists led by Jasper Wong.
For a handful of years from 2007 the Chinese-American lived in Hong Kong, where he founded what would become World Wide Walls.
Much of the WWW street art in Doha, created two months before the late February design festival kick-off, has a sci-fi edge.

A mural, by Caratoes – whose art decorates Hong Kong streets and homes – shows a woman in purple hijab, her head an amalgam of mechanical parts. The hardware refers to Qatar’s first petroleum pipes, which changed the country’s fortunes.
History is the ballast for many of the ADN works. But to Beiruti’s guiding question, “What does it mean to create in our region today?” the 70 participating Arab designers, from the Levant, the Gulf and North Africa, turned not only to heritage and tradition for creative spurs.
Materials, geography and environmental concerns also shaped responses.

Not surprisingly, given regional instability, geopolitics was conspicuous: on opening night, the Palestinian flag lit up the facade of John McAslan’s robust M7 building, host to core events in the downtown “oasis” of Msheireb.
Certain products bore messages. Candles called 1948: Souvenir from Palestine were designed to tell part of the Palestinian story, the base of these wax tapers shaped like keys to symbolise the displaced’s hopes of returning home, their designer, Majdulin Nasrallah, says.
The threat of erasure, again in the Palestinian context, could also be found in a beautifully intricate green marble and brass bridal chest, by sisters Nisreen and Nermeen Abudail.

Embroidery patterns of flora and fauna, compiled through research of Palestinian heritage, are now preserved eternally in stone.
The threat of loss was also addressed with the intangible. Amine Asselman’s Metamorphosis project uses mathematics to preserve an intricate Moroccan Zellige tiling method that Unesco has warned could disappear.
The designer hopes to advance the technique to create infinite ceramic tile compilations, and has developed a geometrical “language” to translate musical notes, scales and scores into Zellige compositions.


Old and new find expression throughout the festival. Other stand-outs include the award-winning pendant light called Constellations 2.0, by Abeer Seikaly, using 5,000 Murano glass pieces and incorporating Bedouin weaving practices to create a structural mesh.
Then there’s the magnificent Desert of the North, Amine El Gotaibi’s 16-metre-long copper and wool installation draped dramatically in the atrium of the brutalist Ned Doha hotel, David Chipperfield’s adaptive-reuse masterpiece.
At “Weaving Poems”, perhaps Design Doha’s most memorable exhibition, 24 abstract Afghan carpets resembling limpid watercolour paintings hang in the dark heavens of a theatre at the top of M7.

For the exhibition, Afghan designer Maryam Omar, from non-profit organisation Turquoise Mountain, worked with Bamiyan’s female weavers to design and make the carpets.
The title of the exhibition refers to the poems recited as mnemonic devices to help recall patterns and colours.
“A lot of people will assume that a carpet from Afghanistan has a certain look,” says Thalia Kennedy, Turquoise Mountain’s global creative director, referring to the deep red and octagonal patterns that tourists typically encounter.
Doha stopover: what to see in Qatar’s capital – souks, art, falcons
“These kinds of exhibitions reach a very broad audience,” she adds, explaining that events such as “Weaving Poems” allow the voices of artisans and their stories to be heard internationally. “They help to elevate and, in many cases, to change perceptions of craftsmanship.”
What would I take home from Design Doha? The poetry that opens your eyes to possibility.
.


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Architecture and design

At Arab Design Now, flagship of Qatar’s Design Doha biennial, history and heritage are spurs for creativity

Abeer Seikaly’s Constellations 2.0 pendant  light is part of Arab Design Now, the marquee exhibition of the first Design Doha biennial in Qatar, on until August 2024, that brings together the work of 70 Arab designers. Photo: Edmund Summer

Portals, by Amina Agueznay, is a series of installations created with undyed wool and palm husk that is part of Arab Design Now, the marquee exhibition of the Design Doha biennial. Photo: Design Doha 

Another element of Portals, by Amina Agueznay. Photo: Design Doha 

Rana Beiruti, curator of Arab Design Now. Photo: courtesy Design Doha. 

Caratoes’ mural in Mina District shows a woman whose head is an amalgam of mechanical parts. It is among works created under World Wide Walls, founded by Jasper Wong. Photo: World Wide Walls

Majdoulin Nasrallah’s 1948: Souvenir from Palestine comprises candles whose bases are shaped like keys to symbolise the displaced’s hopes of returning home. Photo: Majdoulin Nasrallah

Bridal Chest, by Nisreen and Nermeen Abudail, eternalises in stone Palestinian embroidery patterns of flora and fauna under threat of erasure. It is part of Arab Design Now. Photo: Design Doha 

Amine Asselman’s Metamorphosis project uses mathematics to preserve a Moroccan Zellige tiling technique that Unesco has warned could disappear. Photo: Rita G. Rivera

Amine El Gotabi’s Desert of the North installation, made of copper and wool, hangs in the Ned Doha hotel in the Qatari capital. Photo; courtesy of Design Doha 

Weaving Poems is an exhibition by non-profit organisation Turquoise Mountain of carpets created by weavers in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. The exhibition is part of the Design Doha biennial. Photo: Julian Velasquez 

Qatar museum director sees International Cultural Summit in Hong Kong as a chance to learn from the city and tell the world what Doha is doing

Shaika Nasser Al-Nassr, the director of the Museum of Islamic Art. Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Islamic Art.

The spiral staircase in the atrium of the Museum of Islamic Art Doha, in Qatar, designed by Chinese architect I.M. Pei. The museum’s director will use the International Cultural Summit in Hong Kong to learn from the host city and spread the word about what’s going on in Doha. Photo: courtesy of the Museum of Islamic Art

Shaika Nasser Al-Nassr, the director of the Museum of Islamic Art Doha in Qatar. Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Islamic Art.

The Seljuq Stucco Panel displayed at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Islamic Art. 

The “blue monkey” (Iran, Kashan, 6th century) at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Islamic Art. 

Qatar makes big statement with massive US$434 million museum

This handout picture provided by the National Museum of Qatar on February 16, 2019 shows shows a partial view of the museum building designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. - Nouvel will be attending the upcoming inauguration of the museum. (Photo by Iwan Baan / HANDOUT / AFP) / XGTY / XGTY / == RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / HO / NATIONAL MUSEUM OF QATAR" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ==

The museum is among a growing list of spectacular buildings in Qatar. Photo: AFP

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History and heritage inspire many of the pieces in Arab Design Now – works whose designers creatively ally modern thinking and traditional materials
The exhibition is the centrepiece of Qatar’s first design biennial but across Doha there is much more, including a street art initiative with Hong Kong roots


Afghan carpets like watercolours, candles that tell the Palestinian story, a meshing of old and new – Arab Design Now is the centrepiece of a biennial in Doha that announces Qatar as a design destination.


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