By Mariam Nihal
Saudi Gazette
Water Machine is an exhibition curated by sisters Noura and Basma Bouzo who will be representing Saudi Arabia this month in the first London Design Biennale 2016. We spoke to the sisters who are founders of Oasis magazine and also the curators for Saudi Design Week. “It’s is an honor to represent Saudi in such a prestigious event and to be surrounded by design legends.” Highlighting their vision for the Saudi design industry at this point, they said there is great potential even though there isn’t much of a maker culture in the region. They predict design is being taken more seriously in the region, beyond just generic facets of fashion and graphic design into more industrial, product and experimental design. This will also be Saudi’s first appearance at the London Design Biennale.
“This opportunity allows us to step aside as curators and managers of SDW and focus on purely our work as a hybrid and mix of curator, artists and designers,” Noura told Saudi Gazette. Basma believes such opportunities are a powerful learning tool and allows them to learn a lot more, which they can later apply to Saudi Design Week.
We asked the sisters how their concept fit with the question of utopia, this year’s theme, at London Design Biennale.
This year marks the 500th anniversary of Sir Thomas More’s book, Utopia. The concept influences all installations and exhibits including product design, architecture art, and archive history. Every country uses a unique approach.
“The general concept of ‘utopia’ and more importantly a utopian relationship with nature is at the core of the exhibition. The theme of ‘Utopia by Design’ plays with the idea of construction- actually actively fabricating a utopia, or at the very least being part of the process. There are so many factors at play from sustainability to pollution to social equality to accessibility, and we found inspiration in the ability for these concepts to overlap and influence each other on a global scale,” Noura told Saudi Gazette. She explained it is critical that the concept of the unattainability of ‘utopia’ is also addressed and as part of the theme there is a sense of lofty ambition, although it should be highlighted that the difficulty of the goals should not negate the sense of aspiration. “How do we engage with nature and other external forces that allow for a harmonious balance between the two is part of the concept of More’s ‘ideal society’. The basic notion is that an ideal society can only exist if society can subordinate their own personal whims and think of society as a whole- in this case, water- and other natural resources and how we have to think long term about sustainability. There is also an element of satire in the exhibition, much like in More’s synopsis about the nature of the state; highlighting the dire state of water sustainability globally,” Basma added. London Design Biennale features futuristic ideas from 37 nations on the theme of ‘Utopia’ at Somerset House, from 7-27 September.
