Tunisian woollen rugs were among the first items from the Middle East collected by the organisers of the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, which paved the way for the creation of the city's Victoria and Albert Museum.
Today, as the landmark museum expands to the east of the capital, its collection boasts some of the rarest and most refined examples of Islamic art, as well as a range of contemporary design commissions from the Middle East.
Among the major feats at the Storehouse, the V&A’s new venue in the Olympic Park which opens on Saturday, is the reassembly of an Islamic domed ceiling from a lost 15th century palace in Torrijos, central Spain.
The ornate wooden marquetry panels are believed to be from a dining room because of an Arabic inscription that reads “we drink together and we are happy”.
For Storehouse curator Georgia Haseldine, the ceiling is an illustration of the collaboration between Christian and Islamic craftsmen of the time – a coexistence that was thwarted soon afterwards by the Spanish Inquisition.
“It was a moment when Islamic design was the high point of fashion across the Iberian Peninsula,” she told The National. “Yet it is obviously tinged with sadness, because we are on the eve of that moment of the expulsions.”
The ceiling is among 250,000 objects, 350,000 books and 1,000 archives from the V&A’s collections which have been made publicly available at the new venue in Stratford.
Occupying four levels, the 16,000-square metre space takes over a large section of the former London 2012 Olympics media centre. A new V&A East museum will also open at a separate venue in the Olympic Park in 2026.
The Storehouse’s innovative approach makes the pieces normally confined to museum storage accessible to the public. Designed by Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, a central atrium is surrounded by racks of open shelving.
V&A deputy director Tim Reeve, who developed the concept for the Storehouse, described it as a “backstage pass” to the museum.
“[It is] transforming how people can access their national collections on a scale unimaginable until now. I hope our visitors enjoy finding their creative inspiration and immersing themselves in the full theatre and wonder of the V&A as a dynamic working museum.”
Visitors can walk through the space, where items are curated according to themes rather than by region or time period, and they can also “order” objects for viewings in the private study rooms.
Tatreez
Palestinian dresses, decorated with traditional tatreez embroidery, are displayed on the way to the viewing studio.
“It is so important for us to be collecting tatreez because it is so regionally specific, and they’re also so popular," Haseldine said. "Loads of people in east London are wanting to come here and see Palestinian tatreez."
Contemporary design items such as rubber and fibreglass shoes designed by Zaha Hadid, and a silverwear sculpture by Miriam Hanid, commissioned by the V&A, are also prominently displayed.
A stone sculpture by Lebanese artist Najla El Zein is one of the earliest pieces the museum acquired after appointing its first contemporary Middle East curator, Salma Tuqan, in 2011. “That appointment was really important for the V&A,” Haseldine said.
Community is at the heart of the V&A East expansion and Haseldine worked with young women from the Museum’s Youth Collective to curate some of the displays.
The Storehouse is expected to make important contributions to the regeneration of the Olympic Park and its surrounding areas, which this year were ranked as the UK’s best for social mobility.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he was "proud" to be supporting the project, which "marks a hugely significant moment in our work to create the most ambitious cultural development in decades, helping us to ensure London stays the creative capital of the world”.
Four Yemeni funerary stones nod to the V&A’s work preserving culture in conflict. The stelae were discovered in a Hackney antiques shop by a Yemeni student in 2010. The items had been looted and were being sold in London as Mexican icons.
The items were then seized by the Metropolitan Police and identified by the V&A. They are on temporary display at the Storehouse and will eventually be returned to Yemen.
“It is really moving for the Yemeni community in London that we’ve been talking to about this, because they can come see these artefacts and be in their presence,” Haseldine said.
A Yemeni artist has been invited to produce a work inspired by the stelae later this year.
A key feature of the Storehouse will be Order an Object, which invites viewers to “order” an item from the collection to view and handle it in one of the study rooms.
More than 1,000 objects have already been ordered since the online platform launched this month, including by someone seeking inspiration for her wedding dress design.
Senior Middle East curator Tim Stanley recommends ordering the Tunisian rug that appeared at the Great Exhibition in 1851.
“Tunisian textiles have an honoured place in the history of the V&A. The organisers of the museum were so impressed with the design qualities of the textiles from Tunisia and other parts of the Islamic world that they bought them in large numbers,” he told The National.
Dr Stanley also recommends an engraved ivory tent pole fitting, which marks the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman sultan Selim I in 1517. The Sultan is named in the Mamluk-style decorations, and it is believed the pole was made for him in Cairo.
Visitors can also order items from the V&A’s extensive fashion collection, such as a 1954 pink taffeta evening dress by Balenciaga.
Haseldine hopes the collection and outreach programme can be used to promote cultural heritage projects in the Middle East.
One example is the 1883 plaster cast of a rosette from the Mamluk period in Cairo which was recently restored and stabilised.
It is being studied by Omniya Abdel Barr, a Cairene conservation architect and housing activist whose research at the Storehouse aims to show how museum objects can be used to support heritage conservation policies in Cairo.
“A collection can become an activist’s tool. The evidence that we hold within the V&A points to things that need to be taken into concern by city planners,” Haseldine said of Barr’s research.
“It's so exciting that this thing that was recorded and brought back to the V&A in the 1980s as this amazing example for craftspeople here in London, now has a whole other meaning, where its significance is going back to Cairo,” she said.
