When the Emirati designer Moza Almatrooshi was asked to curate an exhibition for Dubai’s presence as Guest City at Beijing Design Week (BJDW), the first thing she did was make a quick trip to the Chinese capital. She went with an open mind – but the last thing she expected was to find similarities between the two cities.
“I had no preconceived notions about the city, but I didn’t expect to find similarities between Beijing and Dubai, particularly in terms of the ways the cities are shifting and changing, the contrast between older, traditional architecture and modern buildings, and how the old parts of the cities fit in with the new. I came home with this feeling of nostalgia, almost. This has guided the concept for the exhibition,” says Almatrooshi, who has a degree in interior design from Zayed University in Dubai, interned at the UAE National Pavilion during the 2013 Venice Art Biennale, and has curated and managed exhibitions for the 1971 Design Space in Sharjah.
Dubbed Wasl, the Guest City showcase is currently in situ in Beijing's Dashilar Alley, a location that further accentuates the parallels between the two cities, says Almatrooshi, who likens the historic neighbourhood to Dubai's Al Fahidi district. "Both have a human-centric layout, and mimic the flow and movement of the people occupying the spaces. The courtyards and use of bamboo within architecture is another thread between them ... Dashilar resiliently sits in place while the city continuously develops and rises around it. Al Fahidi neighbourhood, as well as other older areas in the UAE, are in a parallel situation."
Every year, Beijing Design Week invites one city from around the world to be part of its Guest City programme. The idea is to encourage cultural exchange, knowledge transfer and cooperation on a creative and economic level, while strengthening and empowering a global network of design-friendly cities. This is the first time that a Middle Eastern city has been invited to participate in the programme, and Dubai finds itself in good company – London, Milan, Amsterdam and Barcelona were the last four cities to hold the mantle. The Beijing Design Week Guest City programme is being organised in partnership with Dubai Design Week, Dubai Design District, Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, Falcon and Associates, as well as Tashkeel and 1971 Design Space. Dubai’s Guest City status is part of a reciprocal agreement that will, in turn, see Beijing take part in the first Dubai Design Week next month, as “Guest international design week”.
Running now until October 7, this year’s Beijing Design Week is the fifth edition of the annual event, which was launched to “shape a critical arena and empower a positioning for design in the cultural, economic and social scapes of contemporary China”. The event consists of hundreds of exhibitions, public events and trading platforms, divided into seven key sections that include a design night, design awards and various citywide initiatives.
“Coming to its fifth edition, BJDW keeps on broadening its territorial and conceptual expanse, further addressing the contextual challenges of nurturing and developing specific tools, products, skill-sets and research environments that meet the needs of contemporary China, as a test bed for long-lasting visions that can produce far-reaching impacts on global scenarios,” says Beatrice Leanza, the creative director of Beijing Design Week.
For the Dubai showcase, Almatrooshi wanted to highlight the fact “that there is a similarity between what is going on here and in Beijing, and how we are responding to that creatively”. Because she had a limited amount of time in which to put the exhibition together, she decided to include existing products, rather than inviting designers to come up with completely new ideas.
"I approached designers with completed pieces that responded to the curatorial brief. I researched their work and decided which pieces I wanted to showcase, but the designers also had input. I wanted to have both iconic and experimental pieces. So things like Khalid Shafar's iconic Palm pieces, which are his signature, but also more experimental design installations." All are by Emirati or UAE-based designers.
One of these more experimental efforts is Shelter 0 by Architecture + Other Things, which aims to explore the potential of recycled materials such as rubber to recreate "spatial conditions that are reminiscent of vernacular arish [palm frond] desert shelters". The project was conceived for the Zero eco exhibition by Sharjah's Maraya Art Centre and the environmental company Bee'ah.
Wasl is divided into three main sections. Nature States features work that has been directly influenced by natural elements in the UAE, such as the desert, the rugged and remote mountainous areas, coastal landscapes and ubiquitous palm tree. For example, Talin Hazbar's Lithic is inspired by the mountains of Khor Fakkan and a folk tale that originates in the villages around the mountains. Called Kahf Al Daba, or the creature's cave, the tale centres on a mythical creature that occupied a cave in one of the mountains and used to throw stones at anybody who ventured too close to his abode. Hazbar used this tale as the starting point for the creation of a modular light installation.
A second section, Domesticity, features objects inspired by elements of Emirati housing or traditional ways of living that may or may not still exist. In the case of Constructed Feast, the designer drew inspiration from traditional nomadic dining experiences and the thick woven floor mats and vessels that made it possible for large groups to eat together. At the other end of the spectrum, the exhibition's third section, Urban Metropolis, is a response to rapid and significant changes in the urban landscape and how designers have responded to these transformations.
“I just want to prove that people in the UAE are very aware of design and what design can do,” says Almatrooshi. “With Dubai Design Week, we finally have a platform to showcase all these designers and their work – and we are starting by making our mark in Beijing.”
sdenman@thenational.ae
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