In a list of twenty-four designers, the Borgi Bastormagi duo (Lebanon) and Dana Arbib (Libya) stand out.
For the duo Borgi Bastormagi, composed of Nada Borgi and Etienne Bastormagi, Beirut and human condition are at the heart of their work. Whether they rebuild playgrounds after the 2020 explosion, or invent a line of refined furniture, it is always possible to find the Lebanese capital in their creations. For exapple, "The Fillet shelf", an iconic object in the designers' "Shaping 90" collection, was created in homage to the curved corners of Beirut's apartment buildings.
The Borgi | Bastormagi collaboration began in 2017, when Nada and Etienne were invited to participate in the Fuori Salone in Milan with their project [Me]rror, an installation designed to represent different parts of the body in fragmentation. It was at the Sursock Museum shop in Beirut that they first exhibited their creations, and then presented a collection of furniture in Paris at the Maison & Objet fair in September 2019. The exhibition is entitled "Beirutitude: Design & Architecture in Revolutionary Times".
To find out more about the duo: https://bit.ly/3XgcgxI
As for Dana Arbib, her work is as eclectic as her origins, as she was born in Toronto to a Libyan father and whose family had also moved to Italy. Before she started designing, she created her own fashion label, "A Peace Treaty". Today, her pieces are recognisable by her mastery of blown glass. She learned this technique from master glassmakers in Murano (Italy), reviving the legacy of her great uncle, Salvatore Arbib, who fled Tripoli to train as a glassblower in Italy.
Photo: Design by Dana Arbib, copyright Brian W. Ferry.