BEIRUT DESIGN FAIR: SELECTION COMMITTEE ANNOUNCED

For its first edition, Beirut Design Fair has assembled an exceptional selection committee whose members are attached to Beirut and Lebanon either by origin or by affinity. This committee reflects the fair’s position as a platform for fostering encounters and showcasing talent: one where rigor meets generosity, where diversity is celebrated in a cosmopolitan atmosphere, and where the promotion of creativity is rooted in an economic and cultural context.

The confluence of these recognized professionals from the worlds of design, interior design, architecture, luxury, museums and education offers multicultural expertise on a variety of topics centered around the pursuit of beauty, meaning and relevance.

The committee’s members are: Aline Asmar d’Amman (architect, interior designer and artistic director), India Mahdavi (architect, designer and interior designer), Marc Baroud (designer, director of the design department of the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts), Marianne Brabant (from Modern and Contemporary Department of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris), and Mathias Orhel (founder of m-0 creative recruitment consultancy). Together they will bring their expertise to the selection of exhibitors at Beirut Design Fair, and will also participate in the attribution of the Beirut Design Award for creativity and innovation during the salon that runs from 20-24 September 2017.

BEIRUT DESIGN FAIR – SELECTION COMMITTEE

ALINE ASMAR D’AMMAN
Culture in Architecture

Architect, interior designer and artistic director Aline Asmar D’Amman has long been committed to fostering links between culture and architecture.

Born in Lebanon and based in Paris, she works between the Middle East, Europe and the United States.

Among her current projects are the artistic direction of the renovation of the Hôtel de Crillon, including the decoration of its historic salons and suites; a collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld on the ‘Grands Appartments’ that he is decorating; the transformation of an office building into a lifestyle hotel in London; the design of the arrival terminal at Bahrain airport; and private residences in Riyadh, Beirut, Lausanne and Paris.

INDIA MAHDAVI
Architecture and Design

Architect, designer and interior designer India Mahdavi is an essential name in contemporary international creation.

From the Parisian studio that she established in 2000, Mahdavi conceives and designs private residences in places such as Paris, London, New York, and Siwa in Egypt, alongside her hotel, restaurant and boutique projects. Mahdavi’s design objects, starting with the Bishop, have become icons of contemporary decorative art.

Her rich, cosmopolitan, polychrome, and solar universe has been shaped by cinema, art, and design. Abstract prints and figurative motifs with pop accents celebrate nomadic culture rooted in the places of the Mediterranean, with a particular attachment to cities like Beirut, where light, land and sea exchange secrets.

MARC BAROUD
Designer, Director of the design department at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA)

Operating between Beirut and Paris, Marc Baroud’s creative activities stretch from experimental design to galleries, from architecture to teaching. His sole concern is to engage in collaborations and creative processes where empathy and intuition foster new ways of seeing, living, and thinking about space.

For Baroud, it’s always just one step from conceptual to contextual!

MARIANNE BRABANT
Modern and Contemporary Department, Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris

A university-trained art historian and a graduate in museology at the École du Louvre, Marianne Brabant has worked for twelve years at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, a Parisian institution dedicated to design and the decorative arts.

Part of the museum’s Modern and Contemporary Department, Brabant is currently participating in an exhibition project dedicated to the design and creative scenes in Lebanon.

MATHIAS ORHEL
m-O

Mathias Ohrel supports brands in sectors with high creative added value (fashion, luxury, distribution, design, architecture, media, digital, and culture) by recruiting the personalities – and specifically creative personalities – that they need.

Ohrel keeps a constant eye on emerging talents, while his expertise, situated at the intersection of various disciplines, offers a unique look at the world of global design.