Tasmeem Doha Art & Design Conference Announces Event Program

February 24, 2019
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National Museum of African American History and Culture Architect Sir David Adjaye, OBE to be opening keynote speaker at Tasmeem Doha, which will run from March 13-15

Tasmeem Doha 2019, the international art and design conference, which is hosted by VCUarts Qatar, 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.

The opening keynote speaker will be Sir David Adjaye OBE, Founder and Principal of Adjaye Associates. Sir David’s 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 whose book “North Korea – Anonymous Country” garnered worldwide media attention, with FastCompany.com describing the book as “a stunning collection of photos”;
  • Rana Beiruti, the director and co-founder of Amman Design Week;
  • Video-artists, producers, and publishers, Bêka and Lemoine, who were described by the New York Times as the “cult figures in the European architecture world”;
  • Ahmed Alrefaie (@owaikeo), an illustrator and graphic designer from Kuwait;
  • Nadir Nahdi, the founder of BENI, a platform that nurtures young people from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds through meaningful and visually engaging content;
  • World-renowned ceramicist Eric Landon.

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 program – meaning “Next Generation” in Arabic. The program 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 the evening of Friday, 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, is taking place from March 13-15. It will be a creative event that will focus 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.

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