With the ongoing challenges in Lebanon, creating and producing design is a constant struggle. During Salone del Mobile 2023, ‘Under Design Lebanon’ exhibition will present a realistic mapping and projection on the currently still functioning entities.

Under Design Lebanon is a group exhibition curated by Ghassan Salameh for Isola Design District featuring Lebanon based designers, designer collectives, traditional and contemporary craftsmen and design supporting associations. The presentation’s main objective is to offer a realistic mapping and projection on the currently still functioning entities under the exceptional conjunction of social, political and economic crises that Lebanon is undergoing, steering away from design strictly as a commodity that usually dissociates with its local realities leading to misrepresentation of the true state of the countries creative ecosystem and economies.

The crafts and design sectors in the Cultural & Creative Industries (CCI) in the context of Lebanon have a significant importance where small and medium scale design, crafts and artisan specialised businesses, remain the main sources of income for many families and preserve the continuity of this specific class of labour that is independent and operates within its own micro-economy which when operating at this scale, allows deeper and more meaningful connections with the immediate social ecosystem and ecology presenting fields for innovation in techniques, materials, resource preservation and relevant objects adapted to the current needs and realities.

This multi-medium group exhibition will feature different categories of exhibition materials divided between literary & research content, digital & video materials, an augmented reality exhibition, infographics, material explorations constituting an overview mapping of some the active entities in the Design & Crafts sector where the visitor can dive deeper into the ecosystem and learn more about each of those institutions.

The mapping, designed by Lebanese Graphic Designer Lynne Zakhour, will be detailing different categories and of the ecosystem varying from Traditional Crafts such as L’Artisan Du Liban, Mashghal and Badguer, Contemporary Crafts and Manufacturing such as Beirut Makers, Damj Design and Fabraca Studios, Design Education & Research such as Rana Haddad’s course at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Architecture and Design Department (ArD), Dongola Books Architecture Series and the Khan, Designer Consultancies and Management Agencies such as Babylon and Project4200 as well as sector supporting non-profit organisations and initiatives such as Minjara, Nahnoo, Let’s Play Initiative and Diwan of Culture, Design & Innovation (DCDI). It will be integrated in a 3D printed recycled-plastic installation designed and produced by Post Industrial Crafts. The exhibition is supported by Istituto Europe di Design (IED).

Bulge Credenza by Damj

Documentary

On site, visitors can watch a special documentary film commissioned for this exhibition featuring interviews with the exhibition’s participants as well as footage from previously shot documentaries on the design and crafts sector in Lebanon all edited into one full film offering a deeper view on the current reality of the creative ecosystem and sector in Lebanon.

*Abnormal Couch by Post Industrial Design*

The Social Design Augmented Reality Display

The exhibition will also feature an interactive AR showcase featuring projects from designers and architects around the theme of Design in Public Spaces and Design for Social Change with Let’s Play Initiative and Damj Design. Visitors can scan using their phones a QR code on a screen and get directed to an interactive dedicated page of each of the projects where they will be able to rotate it and view it in 3D format and learn more details about the projects. This intervention will help us feature more projects in a virtual format for participants that are of a large scale.

Product & Furniture

The other part of the exhibition will feature design objects and furniture pieces including:

Minjara with three furniture pieces demonstrating the carpentry’s sector different skills combining traditional and contemporary techniques such as hand carved wood and rattan weaving.
Exil Collective with products of 9 designers: Youssef Bassil, Shaha Raphael, Sayar & Gharibeh, Rania Abillama, Paola Sakr, Marc Baroud, Antoine Guekjian, Tatiana Akl and the results of a workshop the collective lead at Tumo Studios in Yerevan, Armenia.
Beirut Makers with models and prototypes of some of the collectives such as their laser cut steel wood-stove designed to keep protesters warm as well as a book collated for this exhibition documenting all their previous exhibitions and products.
Tamara Barrage is a Lebanese artist and designer based in Dubai.
ÝAKIN with an ecological and economically sustainable product chain designed in a smart and flat-packed technique; aiming at improving quality and aesthetic, orienting people to a more sustainable living while striving to make their designs accessible to more people by a REVOLUTIONARY experience.
Laetitia Gebeily
Project4200 x Shirine Sbaiti