Design Doha Exchange: Qatar Morocco: Crafting Design Futures

Based in Qatar, the designers Reema Abu Hassan, Majdulin Nassrallah, Nada Elkharashi and Abdulrahman AlMuftah are participating in the Exchange and bringing their practices that engage with ceramic traditions and contemporary forms, installation and spatial interventions, pigment and natural materials, and upcycling into dialogue with peers and contexts in Qatar and Morocco to develop new work.

While in Morocco, Amine El Gotaibi, Sara Ouhaddou, Bouchra Boudoua, and Hamza Kadiri’s practices reflect all forms of making from textiles, to wood craftsmanship, to installation work with ceramic and glass, and pottery. Through their practices they sustain collaborations with artisan communities, narratives, and contemporary practices and they will bring this approach towards the Exchange and their residencies in Qatar.

Each of these selected makers of Morocco and Qatar all share a deep commitment to, and value for, sustaining the languages, communities, narratives, traditions, typologies, and objects of craft within their respective contexts and through their own practices as designers and/or artists. In bringing these designers, artists and craftspeople together, Crafting Design Futures fosters a rich cross-cultural dialogue across makers in both environments and towards innovation, new objects and a greater awareness of contemporary craft practices within design contexts.

Programme overview

Starting in January 2024 and running for almost the entire year, Design Doha Exchange Crafting Design Futures will be realised through three distinct phases:

• Exchange visit of designers of Qatar to Morocco: In January 2024, the four designers of Qatar will spend one week in Morocco (Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, and Fes), engaging with the designers of Morocco in their studios, spending time at an artisan school learning Moroccan traditional craft directly with the artisans, and visiting a diverse range of craft and design studios and cultural sites.
• Exchange Residencies in Qatar: In February 2024, the four designers of Morocco will visit Qatar for a two-week research residency, which will be located at Liwan for three of the designers (Sara Ouhaddou, Bouchra Boudoua, and Hamza Kadiri) and at Torba Farm (Amine El Gotaibi). During this two-week residency, in addition to engaging with the key events during Design Doha opening week, the designers of Morocco will have opportunities for exchanges and studio visits with the four participating designers of Qatar, the design communities of Qatar around, and beyond, Liwan, and visiting cultural sites that are relevant to their practices and that can inform the works they create during the Exchange.
• Design Doha Exchange: Crafting Design Futures Exhibition: In October 2024, the Exchange will culminate in an exhibition in Doha, Qatar at QM sites (location tbc). The 4 designers of Qatar and 4 designers of Morocco will showcase new works that emerge from the year-long exchange of knowledge, craft and design practices, and cultural contexts and know-how.

The potential outcomes of this project are varied and numerous, and importantly include: establishment of a network of designers across Morocco with activated linkages to Qatar and designers of Qatar; an exchange to support Qatari, and Moroccan, designers developing new work and ways of working across design and craft, and a public exhibition and engagement program that brings members of the QM public into dialogue with craft and design across Morocco and Qatar, among others.