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Amman celebrates first Design Week

The festival of juxtapositions blended various disciplines, backgrounds and styles in the Jordanian capital.

Amman design week
More than 100 exhibitors took part in the show, including renowned artists and architects from across the Arab world. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
By Bethan Staton
Published On 9 Sep 2016

Amman – Amman’s first Design Week, which took place across three major locations in the Jordanian capital, was a celebration of the city’s blossoming arts and design scene.

More than 100 exhibitors took part in this month’s show, including renowned artists and architects from across the Arab world. Organisers explored the links between contemporary and traditional Jordanian crafts, while revitalising disused spaces as creative hubs. Ordinary people who create art in their spare time were exhibited alongside international designers. 

Design Week was a festival of juxtapositions, with different disciplines, backgrounds and styles joining together to create new possibilities in a place where design is still finding its feet.

Amman design week
The Raghadan Tourist Terminal, a neglected space in the centre of downtown, was reactivated into a crafts market for Design Week. Artist Dina Haddadin wrapped the walkway in the orange tarps used for construction sites, exploring the site as perpetually suspended in time and space. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
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Amman design week
Azra Aksamija's Memory Matrix was a global artistic experiment that invited people to contribute memories of lost or at-risk places in their communities. Their pictures became tiny plexiglass 'pixels', creating larger, site-specific images on the fencing where they were displayed. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
Amman design week
Hashem Joucka combines digital technologies and low-tech approaches to create interactive, hypnotising pieces that blur the boundaries between art and design. Structures like Labyrinth were modelled on nature and designed using algorithms to create endless unique versions. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
Amman design week
Qalban Qaleban by designer Fadi Zumot encircles visitors in red, woollen structures and attaches them to a heart monitor. Confronted with the insistence of one's own pulse, and sharing it with the public from a visceral enclosure, one finds their heartbeat externalised – a strange experience. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
Amman design week
Yara Hindawi's Ghosts are the 3D realisations of paintings that the illustrator and designer painted over walls in Amman. She says they are the product of a hyperactive childish imagination, living in a grown-up reality. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
Amman design week
The clothing of fashion designer Tania George, displayed in the Hangar section of the festival, was inspired by the everyday life of Amman. Gas trucks, packaging and poster art adorn her colourful designs, which are ready-to-wear and produced by underprivileged local women and refugees. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
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Amman design week
Hiba Shahzada's Impression was made from copper wire woven into a frame to create complex variations on light, shade and texture. It is a two-dimensional piece with three-dimensional qualities, which creates arresting light patterns on the floor beneath it. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
Amman design week
Al-Warqaa, by Iraqi artist Adel Abidin, was inspired by Avicenna's poem Ode to a Human Soul. Suspended in light, it signifies a timeless and eternal entity - what remains of the body after death. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
Amman design week
Fonts were important in Design Week: The writing on various versions of its logo were designed by members of the public. In the Hangar space, Tariq Yosef’s minimalist Arabic alphabet made lettering new. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
Amman design week
At the opening night of the Hangar space, thousands of watermelons became a rolling sculpture of Amman's hills. Designed by architect Hashim Sarkis, the sculpture was realised by watermelon sellers of Amman skilled in stacking and arranging the fruits. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
Amman design week
Joria for Women is an empowerment project supporting underprivileged Jordanian and Syrian women through activities such as knitting, embroidery, soap-making and cooking. Their products, including purses, phone cases and pillows, were on sale at the Raghdan space. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
Amman design week
The Raghdan crafts market in Amman's downtown includes works from all over Jordan. Safi Crafts is the project of a women's association in the Jordan valley, and uses traditional fabric-dying and stitching techniques to create textiles with a modern twist. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]
Amman design week
In downtown spaces that had once been neglected, Design Week brought a new injection of crowds and culture. Here, a sound technician oversees a performance of local music against the noise of the city's traffic below. [Bethan Staton/Al Jazeera]