Architect Sir David Adjaye, who designed Washington DC’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, will be the opening keynote speaker at Tasmeem Doha, the international art and design conference, to be held from March 13 to 15.
Tasmeem Doha 2019, hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar) in Education City, has announced its event activities, line-up of speakers, including the keynote speakers, workshops, exhibitions, performance, and other side activities. The event is free and open to the public.
Sir David is the founder and principal of Adjaye Associates. His largest project to date, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened in Washington DC in 2016, and his broadly ranging influences, ingenious use of materials and sculptural ability have established him as an architect with an artist’s sensibility and vision.
Speakers will include: photographer/filmmaker Julia Leeb; Amman Design Week director and co-founder Rana Beiruti; video-artists, producers, and publishers Bêka and Lemoine; Kuwaiti illustrator and graphic designer Ahmed Alrefaie; BENI founder Nadir Nahdi; and world-renowned ceramicist Eric Landon.
Julia Leeb’s book North Korea – Anonymous Country garnered worldwide media attention, with FastCompany.com describing it as “a stunning collection of photos”.
Bêka and Lemoine were described by the New York Times as the “cult figures in the European architecture world”. BENI is a platform that nurtures young people from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds through meaningful and visually engaging content.
Other activities will include workshops highlighting narrative through processes such as felting, tie-dying, screen printing and embroidery; “Swalif sessions” (in colloquial Arabic, to “chit-chat”), smaller, more informal discussions between conference attendees and the speakers of the day; “QAL”, an interactive audiovisual installation at VCUarts Qatar’s Gallery, and “ELEMAUN”, an audiovisual performance, by Iranian artist Ali Phi; the “-162° Trading Power” exhibition at Doha Fire Station; and the Tasmeem in the classroom exhibition, “Behind The Scenes”.
Tasmeem Doha 2019 will be the first event to debut the Next Jeel programme – meaning “Next Generation” in Arabic. The programme will give talented students from VCUarts Qatar and students from the University’s home campus in Richmond, Virginia, the opportunity and platform to step up and lead a workshop. It’s an opportunity for the students and the public to value their skills, develop, and share them. Next Jeel workshops will allow participants to learn about portrait sculpting, fashion design, virtual reality, making music using coding, and using rugs to tell stories, to name but a few.
The closing keynote speaker on March 15 will be Julia Koerner, the award-winning Austrian designer, founder of JK Design, and faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her recent collaborations include 3D-printed haute couture and costumes for the Hollywood blockbuster movie Black Panther.
Tasmeem, which is the Arabic word for design, will be a creative event focusing on “Hekayat” (stories) as its central theme. Hekayat will provide a platform where storytelling can be explored through various mediums, and stories can be shared and celebrated in a multitude of forms. The co-chairs, Hadeer Omar, Wajiha Pervez, Noha Fouad, and Yasmeen Suleiman are all VCUarts Qatar alumni.
Registration for the conference and workshops are now open. Anyone wishing to attend is invited to go to http://www.tasmeemdoha.com/ for more details.
Hadeer Omar, Wajiha Pervez, Noha Fouad and Yasmeen Suleiman, who are the co-chairs are all VCUarts Qatar alumni.
