Our program is announced!

We’re excited to share with you that our program is now online!

With over 100 events taking place in three districts in the city, there is plenty to do at Amman Design Week so book your calendars.

Exhibitions

The Ras El Ain district will come alive once again with the 2019 Hangar Exhibition, curated this year by Noura Al Sayeh-Holtrop, Head of Architectural Affairs at the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA). The exhibition showcases diverse work by over 75 local and regional designers from across disciplines; architecture, product, fashion, furniture, and graphic design. The district will also feature the Student Exhibition, a connecting point for students from all educational institutions in Jordan. 33 students enrolled in 14 different Jordanian high-schools and universities across the country will showcase works resulting from a six-month mentorship program with design experts.

Another new feature this year is a themed showcase, under the title of Future Food / Future City, focused on the possibilities of converting public spaces into havens for food production, as well as offering discussions around urban agriculture and greening our cities. The program also includes food, cultural events, family activities, workshops, and talks at the Hussein Cultural Center plaza.

Jabal Amman features The Crafts District, a pop-up exhibition that takes place in a new location each year. This year’s location, the Kabariti Village, is a private property of old residential buildings, and gardens located off of Omar Bin Al Khattab Street, built in the 1930s, and which will be open to the public for the duration of Amman Design Week. The Crafts District Exhibition, curated and designed by Arini, will include showcases on material innovation, scripts, textiles, and a celebration of local craftsmanship.

Also at the Crafts District is our ‘Material Innovation’ exhibition, which introduces new processes in which sustainable and alternative materials can be produced and used in textile applications. It showcases works by designers who have experimented with merging the traditional techniques of natural dyeing, paper-making, embroidery, and weaving, with new experimental methods and materials such as bioplastics and kombucha leather growing.

Material Innovation is an exhibition showcasing the results of a research workshop entitled ‘Textile Innovation Lab I - Material Innovation’ that took place in December 2018, organized by Amman Design Week and the Goethe Institut-Jordan.

Jordan Script Routes, curated by Huda Schmitshuijzen AbiFarès, is an exploratory and playful series of installations that features the history of Jordan in relation to its neighbors, presented through the various writing systems and alphabets that have passed through or were invented in this fertile cultural melting pot. It celebrates thousands of years of written and material culture and poetically links ancient artifacts to contemporary design.

Talks, Workshops, and Tours

Jabal Amman and Jabal Al Lweibdeh also host a series of exhibitions, workshops, and programs at participating galleries, museums, schools, and concept stores. This year, audiences can also experience these two districts through a series of organized tours, or explore one of the many walking trails developed in collaboration with Cluster Cairo. The tours take people on a journey through significant historical or cultural spots and homes and allow them to discover the historical stairs of the city.

Amman Design Week’s speaker series taking place daily from 5 - 14 October presents designer profiles from regional participating designers and discussion panels, including those moderated by the curators Noura Al Sayeh-Holtrop (curator of the Hangar Exhibition), Arini (curators of the Hangar), and Huda Abi-Fares (curator of Jordan Scripts).

Also in light of the Future Food/Future City showcase, there are also a series of talks on food, with guest speakers such as Vivien Sansour, speaking about the Palestine Heirloom Project and the preservation of seeds, as well as Mirna Bamieh speaking about the Palestine Hosting Society, and Nissreen Haram, the founder of Mistaka, speaking about artisanal cheesemaking and the resource of the Awassi sheep in Jordan. A panel on urban agriculture will be moderated by Dr. Mohammad Al-Asad from the Center of the Study of the Built Environment, where they will launch their research on the subject and its presence in Jordan.

Music Performances

With two stages, Amman Design Week’s music program offers live music every evening for its nine days. At the Crafts District, the stage features local talents playing a variety of instruments including the oud, qanoun, violin, and nai, while the stage in Ras El Ain, across from the Hangar Exhibition, features designers who are DJs, as well as audiovisual performances by local and regional artists.

Amman Design Week’s nine-day program of exhibitions, workshops, talks, tours, and musical performances attracts close to 100,000 visitors, and brings together work by over 250 regional creatives, designers, makers, and students from diverse backgrounds, and coming from 13 different countries.

For more information about our program for 2019 – click here.

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2019 Program