< Previous34 L uxurious restaurants and hotels may be their calling cards, but for Jordanian designer Ala Zureikat and his business part- ner, Spaniard Oscar Engroba, great design is more than skin deep. For the co-founders of Barcelona-based Astet Studio, design must have purpose, empathy and elements of escapism, especial- ly in a post-pandemic world. Trained as architects, both Engroba and Zureikat followed their passion for interior design and connecting cultures with crafts- manship, launching Astet Studio in late 2018. “What really inspired me to become a design- er was the Maison Bordeaux, a fascinating project by OMA,” recalls Engroba. Designed for a couple and their family when the hus- band was left paralysed after a car accident, Rem Koolhaas conceived their new home as a machine for living. “Everything worked in sophisticated complexity to serve the hus- band who could only move around in a wheel- chair. The house off ered him a functional solution and it was also an aesthetic master- piece. This is my everyday drive now – com- plex details for a smooth experience.” Nature always appears as a source of inspi- ration for the duo; its shapes, colours and tex- tures off er a springboard for most of Astet Studio’s projects. “Our spaces speaks of mate- riality, very often shaping the concept to cre- ate volumetric and sensory palettes that engage all the senses.” says Zureikat. “Finally, the user, the human being, is the most important element that shapes the philoso- phy of our designs.” astet.studio – P.S. - TA LENT - ASTET STUDIO Interior Designers AD_040_32-37_Radar_Talent_11755926.indd 3425/08/2021 04:59:59 PMABDALLA ALMULLA Architect E mirati designer and architect Abdalla Almulla is one of the region’s most exciting design talents, and one who prefers to fl y under the radar. While you might not instantly recognise his name, his prolifi c work – from the organic, clam-like pavilion for Dubai Design Week 2019 to the interpretative clock inspired by the movement of sand dunes that he designed as part of Tashkeel’s Tanween programme – has made this Dubai-based tal- ent one of the most sought after young designers in the region. Almulla is a deft hand at interpreting his Arabic heritage through design and, for his latest creation, a unique café concept in Al Ain, UAE, he turned to a true icon of Arabic architecture, the arch, to create a sense of intrigue and discovery. “Arches are powerful design elements with deep links to architec- ture in the Middle East through the ages,” he says. “They not only defi ne spaces, when lay- ered they can create an array of perspectives.” Further binding the space to its locality is a mural by the artist Latifa Saeed featuring sand from the seven Emirates that has been sandwiched between glass panels. A monu- mental light sculpture with pendants in the shape of petals casts a warm glow reminis- cent of the rising sun and golden tones of the Arabian desert. mula.ae – P.S. AD_040_32-37_Radar_Talent_11755926.indd 3525/08/2021 05:00:42 PM36 D esigning and completing proj- ects during the pandemic has presented architects with new challenges the world over, but young Palestinian designer Mahran Musta also had to contend with the stifl ing constraints of Israeli occupation. “The design industry in Palestine struggles for many reasons, most importantly, the lack of resources and transportation due to the occupation,” he says. “It is almost impossible to ship any specifi ed items to Palestine and, even if it worked, the price would be doubled. So I work with local technicians to produce furniture, lighting and wood work.” For his latest project, the interiors of a pri- vate residence in Ramallah, West Bank, Musta worked with talented craftspeople from Nablus, Hebron and Jerusalem. “It took some time and debating, but the production quality was surprisingly at par with the inter- national market,” he says. “The most reward- ing aspect of the process was being able to build connections between talented crafts- people around the region.” As a design educator at Birzeit University in Palestine and being part of an academic environment, he urges everyone interested in pursuing a career in design, especially from the Middle East, to embrace their heritage and personal experiences: “I truly believe that design can be an expressive tool for social change, equality and justice,” he says. Next up, Musta is headed to Detroit as a Fulbrighter to pursue a masters degree in colour and materials design. “I’m keen to work on inclusive, multi-layered projects producing across disciplines including archi- tecture, fashion, interior and product design.” @mahranmusta – T.C. - TA LENT - MAHRAN MUSTA Interior Designer AD_040_32-37_Radar_Talent_11755926.indd 3625/08/2021 05:01:09 PMM y pieces are often inspired by the organic world,” says the Lebanon-born design- er Tamara Barrage. “They borrow from nature, be it phenomena, aesthetics or textures.”Personality and a sense of ‘family’ is not incidental to her work; as she builds a col- lection, it develops its own unique ecosystem, where individual pieces appear in joyful con- versation with each other. “I seek to create pieces that seem almost alive and feel familiar to the users, all while igniting memories and enticing senses,” she says of her playful objects that seem full of wonder and whimsy. Through last year’s lockdown and the ongoing pandemic, Barrage has immersed herself in her craft, her sight fi rmly set on the future. “I am constantly creating model-scale work. They lay on my desk and in my drawers, and I hope to bring them all to life in their actual scale one day.” Barrage is also working on a series of clay vessels that will be exhibited in the UAE later this year. “Having grown up in the Middle East, generosity and sharing of wealth and goods are cornerstones of our cultures,” she says. “Representing frozen gestures of giving, these vessels will be a celebration of our tra- ditions.” tamarabarrage.com – P.S. TAMARA BARRAGE Product Designer PH OTO : B E NJ AM IN MALI C K AD_040_32-37_Radar_Talent_11755926.indd 3725/08/2021 05:03:00 PM38 - JEWELLERY - CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Scala fan earring, Savolinna; Al Noor Heritage pendant, Misk; Merwad vanity perfume bottle, Gafl a; Bahar Maidar necklace, Gafl a; Promise Me Power ring, Hashi. Gold Standard A Sotheby’s exhibition is set to celebrate the Gulf ’s vibrant jewellers alongside bold regional art AD_040_38-39_Radar_Jewellery Christies_11760271.indd 3825/08/2021 10:26:12 AMPHOTOGR A PHY E F R A IM E V ID OR; S T YLI NG PR A T Y U SH S A RU P of Savolinna, the brainchild of Emirati entrepreneur Hessa Al Shafar. “The biggest challenge was winning the trust of the manufacturers here,” Susana explains. “10 years ago they demanded minimum quantities per month, which is so hard when you are a start-up. I always had my brand, but had to put it on pause when I came to Dubai as I wanted to understand the market and produce smaller capsule collections.” Hessa adds: “They trust us now. There’s no need for mass production orders, and this has greatly boosted regional creativity in the jewellery sector.” Traditional Emirati symbols and motifs abound in collections by Gafl a, which celebrates its 11th anniversary this year. “We noticed a demand from our clients here for pieces that speak to their heritage, but we needed to contemporise them and ensure they resonate with a modern audience,” explains co-founder Abdulla Beljafl a. “Producing here gives us this control.” Maher Khansaheb agrees, noting that the jewels he creates for his brand Misk are classic in inspiration but ultimately need to be wearable. “This isn’t just about adapting traditional designs,” he explains. “I need to reimagine them and ensure they appeal to my client base.” The jewels will be showcased alongside a selection of works by Emirati artists represented by art research and collecting platform Engage101. Its co-founder Gaith Abudulla has also recognised a strong shift in the regional art scene: “The UAE is currently going through a historically unique moment following the massive government-led eff orts to develop the arts and culture sectors over the past decade. This push has led to emerging practices entering the fi eld at an unprecedented rate and to the nurturing of fascinating artistic practices.” Made in the Emirates will run alongside a travelling exhibition of highlights from Sotheby’s upcoming international auctions in jewellery, Indian and Islamic art, and contemporary Middle Eastern art. Amongst the works on view will be a Mughal illustra- tion from the 'First' Baburnama of 1589, executed for the Emperor Akbar and illustrating the autobiographical account written by his grandfather Babur, the fi rst Mughal emperor. The illustration features in Sotheby’s Arts of the Islamic World and India auction in London on 27th October with an estimate of Dhs 302,000-402,600. Get set to place your bids. Made in the Emirates takes places between 4-7 October at Sotheby’s Dubai, Gate Village 3, DIFC sothebys.com – SOPHIE STEVENS T his October, Sotheby’s Dubai brings together six regional jewellery designers alongside Emirati artists for its inaugural Made in the Emirates exhibi- tion. UAE-based brands Savolinna, Gafl a, Yataghan, Misk, Susana Martins and Hashi will present collections that are designed and crafted in Dubai. The pieces bring together a range of eclectic design infl uences, from traditional Emirati symbols and themes to art deco splendour, boasting sophisticated manufac- turing techniques and spotlighting the diversity of the regional jewellery scene. Emirati jewellery designer Hamda Al Mansoori established her brand Hashi in 2013 and today oversees design and production from its factory in Dubai. “Thanks to our in-house team, I can create and oversee all stages, from the sketches through to the stone setting. There is no waiting around, it all happens right here.” “Customisation is a very intricate process,” says Yataghan founder Sarah Abudawood, who founded her label in 2008 in Saudi Arabia and now produces her high jewellery creations at a Dubai atelier. “My clients are highly selective; I often have to design pieces based on their vision, or sometimes they give me a beautiful stone and a whole design is developed around that. They are deeply invested in the creative process and want to see stones, the design, and how it looks against their skin. This can only be done in person.” Susana Martins has worked in the UAE’s jewellery making scene for a decade, setting up her own label in 2016 and acting as CEO “ All the jewels are designed and crafted in Dubai ” FROM LEFT: Divina necklace, Hashi; Salasil bracelet, Gafl a; Toi et Moi ring, Susana Martins; Ginea coin pendant, Yataghan. AD_040_38-39_Radar_Jewellery Christies_11760271.indd 3925/08/2021 05:29:17 PMThe Nukus Museum in Uzbekistan holds one of the world’s most important collections of avant-garde art, yet it is shrouded in mystery. A new tome brings it thrillingly to light - FL ASHBACK - The Secret History AD_040_40-43_Radar_Flashback_11752873.indd 4025/08/2021 10:27:47 AMABOVE FROM LEFT: At Shir-Dora (1928), Nadezhda Kashina; Igor Vitalyevich Savitsky. OPPOSITE PAGE: Dzhigit (1922), Ruvim Mazel. and traditions in the relatively liberal years before the Stalinist crackdowns of the 1930s, when “degenerate” or “formalist” art was banned in favour of functionalist, propagan- dist Socialist Realism. Savitsky’s story, and by extension that of his museum, is a beguiling mixture of fate and dogged determination. It has something of the epic Russian novel about it: born into a family of lawyers in Kiev in 1915, our hero nursed a passion for art from childhood, but found it expedient to train as an electrician, knowing the Stalinist regime’s esteem for physical labour. From 1941, this reluctant proletarian studied painting on the side at Moscow’s Surikov Art Institute, illness having prevented him from joining the war eff ort. Here, destiny intervened when the Surikov school was evac- uated to Samarkand. Savitsky was captivated by what he found in Uzbekistan – not only the ancient artefacts he discovered on archaeolog- ical digs in Karakalpakstan, where he was “ Many artists were executed. He prevented their life stories from being extinguished ” The city of Nukus in Uzbekistan doesn’t have a lot to recom- mend it as a tourist destina- tion. Unlike the ancient cities of Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara, located far to its east, it wasn’t part of the Silk Road and isn’t littered with UNESCO World Heritage sites. Perhaps its closest attraction geographically is the scholarly city of Khiva, with its beautiful cren- ellated mud walls, which is home to 50 histor- ic monuments and several madrasas. But few explorers make it further west to Nukus. Surrounded by desert, the city barely existed until the 1930s, when its remoteness made it an attractive home for the Red Army’s notori- ous Chemical Research Institute. Despite its status as the chief city of the Karakalpakstan autonomous republic, whose tribes are famed for crafts such as textiles and jewellery, Nukus retains the bleakness of its Soviet past. It’s hardly the place you’d expect to fi nd a world-class art gallery. Yet here one is: the Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art – also known as the Savitsky Collection, the Nukus Museum or, more grandly, “the Louvre of the Steppes” – is one of Uzbekistan’s hidden splendours. For lovers of 20th-century art, it’s well worth the trek into unfamiliar territory, and as the subject of a new book, it will hope- fully receive more visitors in the future. Uzbekistan: Avant-Garde Orientalists by Yaff a Assouline (Assouline, $95) explores the extraordinary story of the museum’s creation in 1966 by its founder, Igor Savitsky. It also presents a selection of the vibrantly colourful paintings he amassed, created from 1910 to 1930 by artists living in Uzbekistan. These art- ists were inspired by the region’s landscape AD_040_40-43_Radar_Flashback_11752873.indd 4125/08/2021 10:27:56 AM42 - FL ASHBACK - PH OT O : H .GOT TSC HALK FO R TH E K A R A K ALP AK S TAN S TA T E M U S E U M O F ART NAM E D AF TE R I. V . SA VITS K Y IN N U K U S , U Z B E KI S TAN Nadezhda Kashina’s colourful evocations of Uzbek culture, including At Shir-Dora (1928), with its camels, donkeys and pattern-clad fi g- ures; and Mikhail Ivanovich Kurzin’s portraits, whose grotesque quality is reminiscent of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) move- ment in Weimar Germany, which embraced grittiness, unease and alienation. Like its lead- ing lights Otto Dix and George Grosz, both of whom were persecuted by the Nazis, Kurzin fell foul of totalitarian ideology and spent ten years in Siberian gulags, convicted of “anti-So- viet propaganda”. Despite boasting a collection that’s second in size only to the Russian State Museum in Saint Petersburg, the Nukus Museum has nev- er shone as it should. Its isolated location aff ording it much protection from the gaze of the Soviet authorities, Savitsky was able to go about his work largely unharassed, yet his treasures never got the display space they deserved. It wasn’t until 1985, a year after his death, that the museum achieved recognition in the light of perestroika. Its current gallery, consisting of three outlandish buildings by Russian architect Sergo Sutyagin, wasn’t built until 2003. Their postmodern style recalls Michael Graves’ iconic Portland Municipal Services Building: part neoclassical, part neo-Egyptian, atop their tiled façades sit min- iature pyramids, while the pathways in front are studded with Islamic stars. It’s a suitably bizarre coda for Savitsky’s tumultuous saga, and fi tting for a place that brings together tal- ents from the furthest corners of monumental Russia. savitskycollection.org; assouline.com – AMY BRADFORD employed to paint what couldn’t be photo- graphed, but also the Karakalpak folk culture, with its bright costumes and handicrafts. As Assouline describes in her book, some- thing in Savitsky sensed that without his intervention, these folk arts would disappear without trace. The Soviet regime was increas- ingly hostile to anything connected to the past, to old religions and peasant customs, and so Savitsky became a collector out of necessi- ty. When his interests expanded to include avant-garde art, a similar impulse was at work. By the 1950s and 60s, when he began to rescue these works in earnest, he was aware that they were as much in danger from cen- sorship as his beloved folk crafts; the Orientalists’ wildly colourful, intemperate canvases were deemed degenerate. Savitsky collected tirelessly, travelling from place to place and back to Nukus carrying hoards of paintings and sketches. He was cos- mopolitan in his tastes. “It is remarkable that the collective of artists was so international, from Russians to Uzbeks to Armenians to Kazakhs to Siberians to Ukrainians,” he once remarked of his endeavours. Many of the artists living in Uzbekistan from the 1920s onwards had gone there seek- ing creative refuge from Stalin’s watchful eye; the diaspora continued during the academic evacuations of the 1940s, such as Savitsky experienced. This was a period which saw many art schools open in Tashkent and Samarkand. Assouline reports various artists’ feelings of having found sanctuary in Central Asia; for them, it was a place of magical colours, spectacles and landscapes. “It was like a fairy tale come to life,” said the painter Oganes Tatevosyan of Samarkand. Savitsky himself likened the region to “an endless carnival… a fantastic world”. Assouline argues that Savitsky worked almost more like an archivist than a collector, acquiring seemingly trivial ephemera along- side important paintings. This was fortuitous, she says, since many artists were being repressed, sent to the gulags or executed; it prevented their life stories from being extin- guished. But with meagre fi nancial resources, Savitsky had to toil hard to win his prizes. Persecuted artists’ families tended to be sus- picious of interest in their loved ones’ work, or unaware of its signifi cance; one spurned mas- terpiece was apparently discovered plugging a hole in someone’s ceiling. Given the number of works he saved, Savitsky was clearly skilled at charming strangers, and he had one major advantage over other collectors: nobody valued this art enough to charge him for it. “I was allowed to take what I wanted,” he observes, astonished, recounting the acquisition of works by Ural Tansykbayev, a leading Orientalist painter, from his family. Among the most precious works in the Savitsky Collection today are around 100 paintings by Alexander Volkov, regarded as the pioneer of the Uzbek avant-garde, whose stained-glass-like canvas- es were infl uenced by Cubism and Neo- Primitivism; each is now worth a fortune. Other gems to look out for in the book include Nikolai Georgievich Karakhan’s Blooming Gardens in the Foothills (undated), a Post- Impressionist paradise in glorious pastels; ABOVE FROM LEFT: Chaikhana Near Khauz Under Elm, 1920s, Nikolai Georgievich Karakhan; Brich Mulla Valley (1934), Ural Tansykbayev. OPPOSITE PAGE: Blooming Gardens in the Foothills (date unkown), Nikolai Georgievich Karakhan. AD_040_40-43_Radar_Flashback_11752873.indd 4225/08/2021 10:28:14 AM- FL ASHBACK - AD_040_40-43_Radar_Flashback_11752873.indd 4325/08/2021 10:28:35 AMNext >