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  • First MADE. design forum in Jeddah gave ‘equal weight to the mind and the hand,’ says organizer 


First MADE. design forum in Jeddah gave ‘equal weight to the mind and the hand,’ says organizer 

The inaugural MADE. design forum was held at the West Hajj Terminal of Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport’s Biennale Cultural Program. (Supplied)
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Updated 15 May 2025
Jasmine Bager
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First MADE. design forum in Jeddah gave ‘equal weight to the mind and the hand,’ says organizer 

Updated 15 May 2025
Jasmine Bager

JEDDAH: The inaugural MADE. design forum was held at the West Hajj Terminal of Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport’s Biennale Cultural Program building early this month.  

Organized by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, the four-day event concluded on May 4, with the second Islamic Arts Biennale — its backdrop — continuing until May 25. 

Sybel Vazquez, director of public programs at the Biennale, said of the forum: “We wanted the name to be a declaration — and the capital letters give it weight. The full stop was to imply completion, intention and confidence. We wanted to honor the act of making as something deliberate and considered while also inviting inquiry.” 

She also emphasized the significance of launching MADE. in Jeddah.  

“Jeddah is a city layered with histories—of trade, migration, craftsmanship and exchange,” she told Arab News. “To launch MADE., alongside the Islamic Arts Biennale, is to situate design within a continuum of cultural production that is both deeply rooted and forward-looking.” She added: “This proximity creates an exciting dialogue: between contemporary makers and the material legacy of Islamic art, between local sensibilities and global conversations.” 

Twenty designers from across the world participated in the forum:   

Josean Vilar and Silvana Catazine of Barcelona-based NAIFACTORY; Lebanon- and UAE-based Roula Salamoun Studio; Stephanie Sayar and Charbel Garibeh, whose eponymous practice is based between Beirut and Paris; Bahrain’s Nermin Habib; US-based Jordanian Ishraq Zraikat; Egyptian designer Salma Barakat, representing Ba Atelier; Doha-based Boo Design Studio—founded by husband-and-wife Amanda and Jo Booabbood; New York-based Argentinian Sabrina Merayo Nunez; India-based ceramicist Aman Khanna, founder of Clayman; Pinar Ozoruc of Istanbul-based Pinoli Glass; Lebanese-Polish designer and architect Tara Sakhi; UK-based Phoebe Stubbs, representing her brand, Gather; Paris-based Ariel Andre, founder of Golem; NY-based furniture brand Alexis & Ginger; Kind of Design Sculpted & Woven from Türkiye; VivErdie from the Netherlands; Pauline Leprince from France; Jordan-based Razan Seikaly’s Fastoun; and Riyadh- and Istanbul-based Palestinian furniture design duo Reem Olyan and Jumana Qasem. Saudi’s own Noha Mukhtar added a local architectural perspective to the work on display. 

The forum championed a morphing design landscape — a convergence of creativity, craftsmanship and critical thought. MADE. was both a destination for acquiring thoughtfully-crafted objects and a platform celebrating the design industry, offering a lively space where art, engineering and craft intersected. 

It also offered both exposure to and exchange with peers, audiences, and the broader currents shaping global design. “We hope to have accomplished that with this inaugural edition,” Vazquez said, adding that MADE. was intended to “give equal weight to the mind and the hand.” 

The four panel sessions — MADE to Last, MADE you Look, MADE you Think, UnMADE Histories, and What Are You MADE Of? — offered layered, critical conversations around tradition, ethics, memory and identity. Meanwhile, immersive workshops encouraged participants to get their hands dirty and their imaginations active. Each activation, in its own way, opened new paths for thinking and doing. 

“The success of these sessions reminded us that design isn’t just something to observe or critique — it’s something to try, to feel, to shape,” Vazquez said. 

“MADE. was born from a desire to celebrate the act of making — not just as a technical skill, but as a cultural gesture,” she continued. “It brings to the surface the rigor, experimentation, and local intelligence embedded in design practices across our region and beyond. At the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, we are committed to expanding the contours of contemporary cultural discourse. MADE. adds a vital dimension to that endeavor by focusing on design as both a process and a way of thinking — bridging material innovation, ethical inquiry and heritage.” 

Kawthar Al-Atiyah: ‘My paintings speak first to the body, then to the mind’ 

Updated 19 December 2025
Rahaf Jambi
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Kawthar Al-Atiyah: ‘My paintings speak first to the body, then to the mind’ 

  • The Saudi artist discusses her creative process and her responsibility to ‘represent Saudi culture’ 
Updated 19 December 2025
Rahaf Jambi

RIYADH: Contemporary Saudi artist Kawthar Al-Atiyah uses painting, sculpture and immersive material experimentation to create her deeply personal works. And those works focus on one recurring question: What does emotion look like when it becomes physical?  

“My practice begins with the body as a site of memory — its weight, its tension, its quiet shifts,” Al-Atiyah tells Arab News. “Emotion is never abstract to me. It lives in texture, in light, in the way material breathes.”  

This philosophy shapes the immersive surfaces she creates, which often seem suspended between presence and absence. “There is a moment when the body stops being flesh and becomes presence, something felt rather than seen,” she says. “I try to capture that threshold.”  

Al-Atiyah, a graduate of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, has steadily built an international profile for herself. Her participation in VOLTA Art Fair at Art Basel in Switzerland, MENART Fair in Paris, and exhibitions in the Gulf and Europe have positioned her as a leading Saudi voice in contemporary art.  

Showing abroad has shaped her understanding of how audiences engage with vulnerability. “Across countries and cultures, viewers reacted to my work in ways that revealed their own memories,” she says. “It affirmed my belief that the primary language of human beings is emotion. My paintings speak first to the body, then to the mind.” 

Al-Atiyah says her creative process begins long before paint touches canvas. Instead of sketching, she constructs physical environments made of materials including camel bone, raw cotton, transparent fabrics, and fragments of carpet.  

“When a concept arrives, I build it in real space,” she says. “I sculpt atmosphere, objects, light and emotion before I sculpt paint.  

“I layer color the way the body stores experience,” she continues. “Some layers stay buried, others resurface unexpectedly. I stop only when the internal rhythm feels resolved.”  

This sensitivity to the unseen has drawn attention from international institutions. Forbes Middle East included her among the 100 Most Influential Women in the Arab World in 2024 and selected several of her pieces for exhibition.  

“One of the works was privately owned, yet they insisted on showing it,” she says. “For me, that was a strong sign of trust and recognition. It affirmed my responsibility to represent Saudi culture with honesty and depth.”  

Her recent year-long exhibition at Ithra deepened her understanding of how regional audiences interpret her work.  

'Veil of Light.' (Supplied) 

“In the Gulf, people respond strongly to embodied memory,” she says. “They see themselves in the quiet tensions of the piece, perhaps because we share similar cultural rhythms.”  

A documentary is now in production exploring her process, offering viewers a rare look into the preparatory world that precedes each canvas.  

“People usually see the final work. But the emotional architecture built before the painting is where the story truly begins,” she explains.  

Beyond her own practice, Al-Atiyah is committed to art education through her work with Misk Art Institute. “Teaching is a dialogue,” she says. “I do not focus on technique alone. I teach students to develop intuition, to trust their senses, to translate internal experiences into honest visual language.”  

 'Jamalensan.' (Supplied) 

She believes that artists should be emotionally aware as well as technically skilled. “I want them to connect deeply with themselves so that what they create resonates beyond personal expression and becomes part of a cultural conversation,” she explains.  

In Saudi Arabia’s rapidly growing art scene, Al-Atiyah sees her role as both storyteller and facilitator.  

“Art is not decoration, it is a language,” she says. “If my work helps someone remember something they have forgotten or feel something they have buried, then I have done what I set out to do.” 

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