Lest We Forget: Emirati Adornment II
HaiD3, Design District, Dubai, 2018
Client: Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation
Curator: Michele Bambling
Lest We Forget: Safiya Al Maskari, Esraa Al Kamali, Sarah Al Hosani, Ayah Al Heera, Nasser Alzayani
Contractor: Projex Dubai
Organization: Van Cleef & Arpel, UAE
Surface: 150sm
This exhibition design follows a structure shaped by a sequence of themes, as envisioned by the curator. The project builds upon and reinterprets the content and display solutions first presented in an exhibition of the same title held a year earlier at Warehouse 421 in Abu Dhabi.
For the Dubai edition, the central challenge was how to stage an exhibition within a space not originally intended for art—the HaiD3 complex, a series of temporary office buildings located on the outskirts of the Dubai Design District.
The ground floor of the exhibition is dedicated to “tangible” themes and features seven display cases along with a striking installation of burquas. All furnishings—including raised vitrines and plasterboard walls with integrated alcoves—were custom-designed to ensure the safety and visibility of the works.
The design responds to the wide variety of selected materials by integrating them into purpose-built structures. At the same time, it establishes a new museum-like itinerary within a space never intended for exhibition use—redefining the architecture through curatorial narrative and spatial intervention.
