Held in partnership with Dubai Design District (D3), the second Dubai Design Week is currently underway, encouraging the growth of the design industry in Dubai and the Middle East.
Design-dedicated events, activities and projects within D3 and across the city contribute to celebrating the best in design both regionally and internationally. This year, Cairo has been selected as the focus of the Iconic City exhibition: Cairo Now! It is the first time that this number of Cairene designers have exhibited together. Furniture, posters, typography, graphic design, lighting, comic books, clothing and architecture all compete for your attention, evoking this frenetic city’s personality.
Around 65 Egyptian architects, designers and entrepreneurs are contributing to this exhibition, curated by Cairo-based architect and writer Mohamed Elshahed. The theme of incompleteness is a reflection of the city’s status quo: its partially restored historic buildings, its notional urbanism where buildings are never fully completed to avoid taxation, the tendency to leave concrete sticking out of roofs in the hope of adding additional floors in the future, or its incoherent transport system. It’s also meant to draw parallels to the unrealized potential of the city’s current generation of designers.
“Cairo Now! sheds light on the city’s emerging designers who, despite the lack of a marketplace or an infrastructure supporting their practices, continue to innovate, and turn the city’s trash into new products and revive fading traditions with a contemporary edge. They always take Cairo with all its flaws as their muse and as the source of their creativity. The city’s zeitgeist is reflected in their often satirical take on the absurdities that make up contemporary Cairo,” Elshahed states.
Among the many brilliant Egyptian talents currently exhibiting are
Menna Baladha
Sal by Salsabil Amin
Lina Alorabi
Reform Studio
s.a.d.a.f.a
Kiliim
Mohamed Gaber
WE SAID THIS: Walahy rafa3to rasna ya Masraweya!