Exhibition
FANTASMEEM Exhibition at Beirut Design Week
The FANTASMEEM Faculty alumni showcase their work at Starco
The FANTASMEEM Faculty alumni will showcase their work at Starco Center. The Goethe-Institut is a key participant in Beirut Design Week 2019 under the theme Design & Nostalgia taking place July 2-6, 2019. With each alumnus’ unique approach, they have collectively curated their exhibition by participating either individually or in groups, following the spirit that they shared during the residency program.
AHMAD HAMAD | Machine Woven Cane pendant light design
The machine made Six Way weave will expand the boundaries of lighting design today. The refracting light through the traditional pattern creates space for nostalgic memories. To counter balance the fleeting effect, the integration of the marble represents the density of our collective memory that we are still unable to erase even with the progression of design over time.ALI ABUAWAD & ELMA EL-KHOURY | Pre-plastic Era
Living day to day in concrete & plastic urban jungles, we reminisce for a time when plastic was not overwhelmingly present in our daily lives. Nostalgic for natural tools and utensils.photography by: Marc Freiha & Sy
RIKE ANTORI | Chapter I
A collection playing on the verge of the laws of physics where minimal shapes cater directly to the function while remaining fluidly playful.THE ART OF BOO | All The Candy In The World
“I’ll give you all the candy in the world, but please stop crying.”Words spoken by my mother, which simmer in my wistful memories.
I once read that the creative world owes a great debt to its childhood traumas, and that everything humans do is the product of struggle (except for Tailor Swift).
Today, I pay my debt by portraying iconic scenes from recollections of my vibrant childhood.
In the end, it’s not the past itself, but rather our attitude towards the past, which makes all the difference.
DIMA TANNIR | Heartbreak Hotel
Welcome to the Heartbreak Hotel, check-in and sulk in your sorrows, breakup breakfast is served.Heartbreak Hotel is a place to look forward to after that bad romance, a place where your broken heart can cry all its tears & wash away all its sorrows.
The idea for Heartbreak Hotel came to Dima in a dream, unexpected, uncalled for and certainly uncommon. In her dream, she saw friends who have lost lovers, sad souls and lonely wanderers. They had checked in to evacuate, and evacuate they did.
Heartbreak Hotel represents all that is not celebrated, it is our deepest thoughts of sadness that we mask behind smiles, it’s our relief from a big cry, it’s a place where we are ourselves, just at our worst, and that’s ok.
The hotel's visual identity takes cues from a lost era, one that escapes us in time & space. It’s like looking into a box of teenage dreams, memorabilia & forgotten hope.
PAMELA MANSOUR | usine sans usage. strange objects from everyday scenes, often illogical, sometimes incomprehensible, but always with an element of surprise.
This first collection was born from the love of form and volume; a desire to give life to everyday objects in otherwise lifeless spaces.Each piece is utterly made by hand, unique, with an imperfect character.
Delightfully strange and unapologetically surreal, these functional yet absurd sculptures are perfect for someone who values a little bit of quirk in their home.
HADIR DIMASSI | Childhood Games
Nostalgia is connected to our unconsciousness and memories are brought up when you visualize anything that is related to a distant period of time like your childhood memories. Childhood memories are regurlarly related to games and places that you used to play at.JANA ARIDI & RAMI MOUKARZEL | Maysan
She used to always speak to me.But she never uttered a word.
Whenever I visited, her energy filled the whole room. It came from her little corner far inside the house. And I was drawn to her. As a child, I would sit next to her, watch her shadows, stroke her silky hair and sit in awe of her dancing reflections.
I grew older, and then she was gone. But her light shines on.
LUCY MOMDJIAN | The toon takeover
3 cartoons that trigger warm, fuzzy emotions of the past, a mostly happy and comforting childhood journey.MARC FREIHA | SAFE
Filtering the pain out of past experiences and reminiscing about the good times.MOHAMAD MCKOUK |Untitled
We’re arriving at the extinction-level event, and the great remaining question for humans, staggering through our days of tumult and nights of penetrating dread, is the vigor and force of our response.NOUR AYOUB | Things That Gather Dust
A cardboard box fills up in the back of a closet. When it overflows, another one stacks up next to it, neatly. Just as it starts to wear out, a third box – plastic, this time – piles on top. A floppy disk is stashed away on a shelf, forgotten. A folder, marked in red, sits idle on a desktop screen. And then another, marked in blue. A labeled CD goes into a drawer, a hard drive into another. A phone's memory fills up. Data waits in the cloud.What do we do with the bits of life we compile so selectively?
How do we tell the real stories, if ever we had to?
“There is accumulation. There is responsibility. And beyond these, there is unrest. There is great unrest.”
– Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
SALAM SHOKOR | (Boxes)
Here is a secret that will not be a secret when you read the next sentence. After writing a description that was sure to be rejected by Beirut Design Week, Salam Shokor - who's not a product designer - decided to turn the narrative into this: the non-important piece of text you are reading right now on the walls of an uncurated exhibition. So quit reading, put your smartphone away, and take some time to play with the boxes following the suggestions provided on the print-outs stacked on one of the boxes. Or, don't follow the recommendations, we are not your mother.
Speetra Design Studio (Represented by SARA DSOUKI ) - Fashion Technology | NOSTALGIA VS. CHANGE قمر - ROSELEE
We approached this phenomenon by using nostalgia as a starting point for the creative process of an oriental look, the belly dancer's Badlah, mixed with a Burlesque dancer’s attire. A tribute to two pasts, with a 3D Printed twist.
The intersection of fashion and technology is weaving the way to a new Age of Clothing. What do we expect from clothing? For it to be smart or be smart- made? No waste, no cruelty, no unfair production and supply?
We respond to these questions with our design, that parallels the description of the new fashion era all while demonstrating how nostalgia can be applied in design with a deep insight without losing oneself in it.
سرت بين أعينهم كالخيال
و في خطوها عزّة و اختيال
جلاها الصّبا و زهاها الدّلال
تراقص الجنوب به و الشّماا
و ما الفنّ إلّا هوا و امتثال
I dance for everyone to see
I dance for you I dance for me
I dance with words to say
Whether you leave or stay
I dance and dance all day