November saw the sixth edition of Tanween – the annual creativity conference held by the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, better known as Ithra, in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Tanween has transformed over the years from a public event with a full slate of cultural entertainment into a gathering for dedicated professionals, serious students and subject matter experts from around the world. The 2023 theme was “scale” with programs targeting designers, architects and creative innovators – talks, presentations, workshops and masterclasses in a series titled “A Day with an Expert.”
One masterclass was with the Beirut-based Lebanese designer Nada Debs. Her work spans multiple disciplines, from product and furniture design to one-off commissions across craft, art, fashion and interiors – including the main meeting hall for the League of the Arab States, the UAE Mission to the UN and interiors for the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Her Ramadan line for IKEA proved to be so popular, the store asked for additional designs.
Debs prides herself in her ability to distil culture and technique to create pieces of emotional resonance and high craftsmanship, what she calls “handmade and heartmade.” While diverse in scale, material and range, Debs labels her approach to design “Neo Arabian” in which she often pushes the highly skilled traditional craftsmen in her studios to make new objects that are both conceptually robust and finely hand-honed, an approach she casually describes as “modernism in the vintage style.”
This has been a big year for Debs. She won the first Gran Prix-d’Honneur of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and has been shortlisted for the Jameel Prize organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her original studio in Beirut was destroyed in the explosion of August 4, 2020. She has chosen not to renovate the space while she is still processing the incident. She makes design objects with the broken glass and shattered materials from the blast – a series titled “Keepingittogether.” A stenciled line of bold black letters is on the door of the still-closed space: “OUR SPACE IS DESTROYED BUT WE ARE NOT.”
Debs stands in front of the full-capacity class of 17 women, beginning with a presentation of her own work. She then tasks the class with writing an article about themselves as they would see their design work in five years. The exercise is forward-looking and optimistic. The results are not merely dreams; the entire cohort are accomplished professionals: six architects, six interior designers, two professors, two curators and one visual artist.
To further its goal of supporting the creative and cultural sector, Ithra set out to focus Tanween more specifically on serious professionals. Clearly that vision has come to pass. Debs is a world-class designer and truly a great choice for “A Day with an Expert.” Her class was practically quivering with the intensity of the creative energy, desire for innovation and the crafting of a bright new future.
Debs, whose masterclass was focused on personal brand identity, said of her experience: “Tanween 2023 was a huge success. It was bursting with creative energy. My own class was filled with highly accomplished creatives who are continually working to better themselves to build a brighter future. It was an incredibly inspiring experience.”
Appropriately, Debs’ contributions at Tanween serve not only her own brand identity and Ithra’s expanding accomplishments as a hub for talent development and innovation, but the Saudi creative and cultural sector as a whole.
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