DUBAI: As Dubai Design Week kicked off in the city’s edgy Design District, Rawan Kashkoush, creative director and head of programming at the event, shared her insight on the seminal fair with Arab News.
After four years of experience in Dubai’s annual design festival, Kashkoush talked about the importance of the city as a host in the Arab region.
“Dubai functions as an economic and political safe haven in the region. A lot of people come here and consider it home,” she said.
That said, Dubai Design Week, which runs from Nov. 13-17, is considered an international event as much as a local one. “This creates a beautiful blend,” Kashkoush said.
The design festival showcases three different major attractions that offer visitors a plethora of boundary-pushing design innovation.
First up is the commercial fair, called Downtown Design, which is an interior design trade show focusing on high-end, curated items from around the world. With 175 contemporary design brands, including 40 regional designers, the fair presents Middle Eastern talent alongside international designers. Visitors will also be able to commission limited-edition and bespoke items at the fair’s new section, Downtown Editions.
“It is for people in the region to push the boundaries of Dubai on an experimental level,” Kashkoush said, explaining the motive behind the commercial trade show.
Next up is the Global Grad Show, which showcases inventions by passionate, upcoming design graduates of 61 nationalities from 100 universities around the world.
But Kashkoush seems to be most enthusiastic about Abwab, an exhibition and architectural installation that brings together design talent from across the Middle East.
“Abwab exhibits a cultural exchange of art between the Middle East and North Africa,” she told Arab News of the exhibit, the title of which translates to “door” in English.
This year’s theme, “Between the Lines,” can be regarded as a storytelling experience in which the various artists and designers were invited to share stories that would encourage visitors to leave with a deeper understanding of the region, to read between the lines as it were.
This year, Abwab features a collection of design experiences drawn from five communities in the Middle East: Amman, Beirut, Dubai, the Eastern Provinces of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait City. Two designers have been invited from each place to collaborate and produce works situated in dedicated pavilions.
