Abeer Seikaly

Abeer Seikaly (عبير صيقلي) is a Jordanian-Palestinian artist, architect, designer, and cultural producer. Her practice is grounded in ‘acts of memory’: journaling, documenting, archiving, and collecting. She weaves ‘narrative threads’ from these memories.Abeer draws inspiration from traditional knowledge in the Arab homeland. She views her practice as a ‘social technology’ for cultural empowerment. She centers indigenous Bedouin practices, to recover the intimacy of handmaking. She travels to Jordan’s Badia (desert), where she engages in Bedouin women’s craftsmanship of textile weaving and tent making.Abeer co-founded and co-directed Amman Design Week (ADW), a biennial initiative in Jordan that promotes local and regional design. She established ālmamar, a cultural experience and residency program in Amman, Jordan.Her works have been exhibited at many institutions: Venice Biennale of Architecture, Venice (2025); Cultural Foundation, Abu Dhabi (2025); Vitra Design Museum, Basel (2024); Qatar Museums, Doha (2024); Science Museum, Hong Kong (2023); Science Museum, London (2022); Darat Al Funun, Amman (2022); The Miyake Issey Foundation, Tokyo (2021); Fundación Telefónica, Madrid (2020); MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna (2018); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2017); and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2016).Her works are in the collections of Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan and Barjeel Art Foundation.

The Interview

How does your cultural or regional context influence your design work?
My work draws directly from the cultural and regional contexts I am part of—through material traditions, environmental conditions, and ways of living. Practices such as weaving and building carry embedded knowledge that informs how I approach structure, resource use, and form. The landscapes I work within—desert, oasis, and urban edges—guide the work, influencing its scale, material choices, and spatial thinking.

What is your design philosophy or approach to creative problem-solving?
My approach to creative problem solving is grounded in practice—learning through making and direct engagement with material and context. I draw from traditional knowledge systems, particularly Bedouin weaving, and place them in dialogue with contemporary design, where craft operates as both method and structure. Working within material, environmental, and social constraints, I develop solutions that are grounded in place and shaped through collaboration.

How do you stay inspired and continue to evolve your creative practice?
I stay engaged through a continuous process of making, observing, and documenting. My practice evolves through direct encounters, with materials, landscapes, and people, where each project becomes part of a longer inquiry. I return to traditional knowledge systems as a way of thinking, allowing them to inform new directions. Writing, travel, and collaboration also play a role, creating space to reflect, question, and extend the work.

What are the biggest challenges facing designers in the MENASA region today?
Designers in the MENASA region navigate a tension between traditional knowledge systems and contemporary design frameworks—how to carry forward embedded practices while engaging global contexts. This is compounded by limited access to funding, education, and production infrastructure. At the same time, the region’s diversity demands constant translation across cultures and materials, opening space for practices grounded in place, resource awareness, and community.

Works

Website
www.abeerseikaly.com
Socials
@abeerseikaly