{"id":354534,"date":"2025-12-17T19:39:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T19:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/354534\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T19:39:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T19:39:23","slug":"discover-emerging-designers-in-beirut-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/354534\/","title":{"rendered":"Discover emerging designers in Beirut, Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this new series on Design Cities, we zero in on three new creative metropolises \u2013 Abidjan<\/a>, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire; Beirut, Lebanon; and Taipei, Taiwan \u2013 to spotlight the designers and curators who are shaping these vibrant new design communities<\/p>\n

Meet Beirut’s emerging creatives<\/p>\n

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\"Beirut\n<\/p>\n

From left, Richard Yasmine, Roula Salamoun, Guilaine Elias and Nour Najem<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Tanya Traboulsi)<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s in the culture of the Lebanese to get things done by themselves with what they have,\u2019 says Guilaine Elias, co-founder of design brand Editions Levantine. \u2018We don\u2019t always have access to materials from abroad, so we make do with what is here.\u2019 This resourcefulness was the guiding force behind the recent group show \u2018Fragmenta\u2019, which Elias organised alongside creative director Nour Najem. Co-curated with interior designer Gregory Gatserelia, the exhibition brought together 49 designers (mostly based in Beirut) to reinterpret cast-off marble fragments from stone company Najem Group. The project was staged over three days in the company\u2019s marble yard in the Beirut suburbs.<\/p>\n

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\"Beirut\n<\/p>\n

Roula Salamoun’s work from Fragmenta<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Marya Gazzaoui Alameddine and Charbel Saade)<\/p>\n

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\"Beirut\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Marya Gazzaoui Alameddine and Charbel Saade)<\/p>\n

\u2018Being a designer in Beirut is interesting because there is a history and there is drama \u2013 but we tend to express ourselves with very little means,\u2019 says Elias, referring to the ethos behind the exhibition concept, which saw designers working directly with Najem Group\u2019s marble carvers. \u2018Sometimes we have access to synthetic materials like resin, but we don\u2019t have highly sophisticated production methods. Which means we often take an artisanal approach.\u2019<\/p>\n

Being a designer in Beirut is interesting because there is a history and there is drama<\/p>\n

Guilaine Elias<\/p>\n

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\"Beirut\n<\/p>\n

Carlo & Mary Lynn Massoud<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Marya Gazzaoui Alameddine and Charbel Saade)<\/p>\n

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\"Beirut\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Marya Gazzaoui Alameddine and Charbel Saade)<\/p>\n

Wandering through the marble yard on the day of the opening, the work was varied and often surprising. Samer Bou Rjeily, who often works with raw, unpolished stone, designed a massive low-sitting table with a texture similar to gouged wood. Brother-and-sister duo Mary-Lynn and Carlo Massoud brought their characteristic sense of humour to a surrealist bench with trompe-l\u2019\u0153il \u2018cushions\u2019 carved out of stone.<\/p>\n

Tara Jane Tabet, whose sculptural work is often made with found materials, produced delicate, amorphously shaped candleholders out of what looked like stone beads. Richard Yasmine\u2019s pop sensibility was on display in a purple stone baroque flower garden with curling vines made of brass and glass, and fabric blooms. Finally, Roula Salamoun, whose practice often draws on geological forms, used a forest-green marble to make asymmetrical tables with contrasting inlay using otherwise forgotten scraps.<\/p>\n

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\"Beirut\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Marya Gazzaoui Alameddine and Charbel Saade)<\/p>\n

Najem sees this plurality as a reflection of the country\u2019s layered history. \u2018Lebanon is an amalgam of every culture, every conqueror that passed through these lands, each with a different stylistic expression \u2013 from the Silk Road to the Romans and the Greeks,\u2019 she says. \u2018And that\u2019s the beauty of it \u2013 the fact that it\u2019s so diverse.\u2019<\/p>\n

However, she acknowledges that the country\u2019s turbulent history also has an influence on the community\u2019s creative output. \u2018After the civil war, almost everything had to do with the war. You had work that was about fracturing and being broken. And later on, it was about rebuilding. After the port blast in 2020, you saw many designers incorporate debris and destruction into their work. But right now, we want to be more than that.\u2019 She also warns that the international gaze has a tendency to romanticise the population\u2019s resilience and struggle: \u2018We still want to be held to high standards. We want to be known as a country that produces great design \u2013 not just for what we\u2019ve been through.\u2019<\/p>\n

Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.<\/p>\n

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\"Beirut\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Marya Gazzaoui Alameddine and Charbel Saade)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In this new series on Design Cities, we zero in on three new creative metropolises \u2013 Abidjan, C\u00f4te…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-354534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}