Opening Hours
17 - 18 January: 12pm – 9pm
19 - 24 January: 3pm – 9pm
Exhibition Talk,
Tuesday 20 January, 6pm
Join Creative Space Beirut, Cynthia Raffoul, HQ (Lee Frederix)and Rapid Manufactory to discover What lies behind their Objects. Register here.
Location: Former Nasawiya Space, Fleming Street, Mar MikhaelFollowing the 2014 July exhibition at the ‘Grande Brasserie du Levant’, Gaia-Heritage has called Mar Mikhael’s artists, craftsmen and designers to a second exhibition.
Behind the Object will present the different creative processes of artists, craftsmen and designers of the neighbourhood. The exhibition will display the two complementary phases of the creative process: imagining and conceiving new concepts and ideas, and transforming them into products. Participants will be using a variety of media (objects, sketches, photographs, videos, or installations) to explain their process.
Behind the Object will also be hosting two talks where exhibitors will be further explaining their creative process.
Behind the Object will be exhibiting the following artists, craftsmen and designers:
[beyt] by 2b design
2b Design is a home décor social enterprise. They transform architectural salvaged and reclaimed materials into unique pieces. Beyt, their flagship brand, is made of 90% recycled materials: wrought iron gates, wooden window/door shutters and old ceramic tiles become tables, lamps, mirrors and candleholders.
Brut, l'atelier
Brut l’Atelier is Mar Mikhael’s newest creative space, co-founded by Liliane Hanbali, Sandy Lyen and Amanda Abou Abdallah. From designing to recycling home furniture and decorative objects, Brut handpicks their wood and metal and meticulously crafts them into unique pieces.
Brut is a creative studio for artists and hobbyists who want to roll up their sleeves and lay their imagination bare through wood and metal. Brut crafts its pieces from scratch and restores neglected objects, all with a focus on harnessing raw materials to uniquely express new designs. The result is an original and diverse collection of home furniture and accessories.
Brut provides the space, the materials and the infectious enthusiasm of its resident craftspeople to foster a do-it-yourself environment.
Those who have the vision and compulsion to create their own pieces, but lack the tools to do so, will find a home at Brut; so will those who want to purchase and decorate their homes with pieces shaped by stories, passion and personality.
Creative Space Beirut
Creative Space Beirut (CSB) is a non-profit school of fashion design dedicated to fostering the talent of young aspiring designers who lack the resources to pursue a creative education at increasingly costly institutions. The CSB team and its supporters believe in the power of creative education to break social and economic barriers and fight inequality, aiming to make the design world accessible to those with vision, flair and the driving impulse to create. For the piece exhibited, the student was given an exercise in which they had to up-cycle six items of used clothing into a new fashion forward look. Displayed is an example of the creative design process, from inspiration, conceptual research, to execution and final outcome.
Cynthia Raffoul
Cynthia Raffoul is a Lebanese-French jewelry designer. Having received her degree in fashion design from ESMOD Beirut, Cynthia Raffoul started her career in prêt à porter and haute couture, working with Alain Mikli and Maison Rabih Keyrouz.
Soon after that, she evolved to jewelry design. She discovered jewelry and its infinite power to evoke emotions by crossing ages. In November 2008, Cynthia Raffoul opened her jewelry shop in the heart of Beirut.
Each one of Cynthia Raffoul’s collections is unique and has its own history and special character. A pair of earrings, a necklace or cufflinks are not just an object but also a memory, an emotion, and a reflection of who the person really is. This is why the Beirut-based designer pays very close attention to every detail of the jewelry making process. She only collaborates with the best goldsmiths which are in the field from generation and who, like her, put all their love and passion into their work.
Her favorite items are the rings with the special “snail shape” which has become Cynthia’s signature shape. This makes the rings adjustable, easily wearable and timeless.
Among her collections is one of her specialties, “Sur-mesure”; which are unique pieces specially designed for private clients.
Cynthia Raffoul’s high-end contemporary collections reflect multifaceted women who live their lives with an unexpected twist of originality and poetry.
HQ
Beirut-based artist and designer Lee Frederix was born into the wastelands of post-industrial America in 1973. With a hybrid background in architecture, urban design, and fine arts, his gypsy spirit has carried him to live, study, and work in the US, France, and Lebanon, where he finally settled in 2001.
In 2010, he opened his atelier Headquarters (HQ), a converted garage in the heart of the Mar Mikhael cultural district. HQ serves as Lee’s studio for creating artwork, furniture designs, and handmade home accessories, while also acting as an event-based exhibition venue for his work and that of other artists and designers.
His own artistic process focuses primarily on three-dimensional media, including assemblage, sculpture, and installation, and reveals the artist’s sensual treatment of materials and their subtle juxtaposition. His work shows a special affinity for the marginals of the material world: steel rods swiped from construction sites, fragments of wood with broken edges and peeling paint, scraps of metal left rusting in the gutter. An adaptive re-use of these materials places focus on their unique characteristics, unexpected associations arise from formal juxtapositions, and the objects are given a second chance at life and a renewed sense of value in which their true nature is enhanced and celebrated. His most recent work, a series entitled “Al mamnou3 masmouh,” merges various processes and media in order to investigate urban transgressions in contemporary Beirut, practices within the public realm that defy both conventions of social behavior and municipal regulation.
Rapid Manufactory
Ghouyoum (Clouds/Guillaume) is the architecture and design practice of Guillaume Crèdoz. Ghouyoum is a small size office+workshop+research lab structure concentrated on creativity in relation to the making. Irrelevantly from the scale, thanks to a particular mastering of the digital tools, Ghouyoum designs and manufactures structures ranging from buildings to jewelry, machine tools to robots. 3D modeling and 3D printing are the most used tools, but an extensive education and experience in manufacturing give it a unique edge.
RapidManufactory is the 3D printing engine of FreshlyBakedToday's collaborative gallery. It 3Dprints with about 15 materials and finishes. It is deeply integrated with Ghouyoum's practice. The office, the lab and the workshop/gallery being in three buildings along the same street. 3D printing since 2008, RapidManufactory is a leading entity for 3D printing in Middle-East, it has achieved several breakthrough, like 3D printed concrete eyewears, chairs, construction toys.
The Vintage Shop
The brothers, Avedis & Krikor Der Boghossian, have succeeded through their little spare time and humble workshop to come up with original ideas, and bring to life unique accessories, through their "Vintage Shop". The Vintage shop starts where all things end, and creates new beginnings by transforming ‘junk’ into useful and decorative objects, all these in their effort to raise environmental awareness and conservation of energy and resources.