Iris Ceramica Group promotes the event series “Local Cultures in Global Settings”, curated by UAE Modern, fostering knowledge of a multitude of unique roots and identities, choosing Dubai as a symbolic place of global discourse.

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How does multiculturalism influence the context and how, in turn, are individual cultural identities influenced by the context? Can design generate new meanings, separating the threads that once wove individual cultures and reassembling them in a process incorporating needs, knowledge and new technologies? Invited to be part of the project connecting Milan, London and Dubai in a cultural journey among people, institutions and businesses, the speakers will share their results and discuss the challenges, constraints and opportunities arising from an inclusive approach that allows the local and the global to feed off each other. 

The programme will engage the world of architecture, design and education as well as the local partners of Iris Ceramica Group in the UAE.

 

The steps of the contest: Milan – London - Dubai

The first appointment will be held during the Fuorisalone on 20 April at 6 pm at the Iris Ceramica Group showroom in via Santa Margherita 4, and will be streamed live. Attending the event are Abeer Seikaly, architect, artist and cultural curator, Khalid Alshafar, founder and director of the firm Khalid Shafar, and Lidewij Edelkoort, Trend forecaster. The panel will be introduced by Nicola Leonardi, editorial director of The Plan, followed by Monica Mazzolani and moderated by Massimo Imparato, co-curators of UAE Modern. The panel guests, who in their work tackle the challenge of reconciling craftsmanship, process digitalisation and the circular use of resources, will be sharing their experiences in a talk that will also be the opportunity to present the international contest.

The meeting in Milan will be followed by other steps in the initiative: during the week running from 21 to 25 May, a panel discussion and workshop will be held at the Canadian University Dubai entitled “Materials semantics in design applications”; on 28 June, the appointment in London will coincide with the opening of the Perspective UK form at Church House Westminster in partnership with the magazine The Plan; the final event of the contest will be held in November during the Dubai Design Week; the exhibition of prize-winning works will set the scene for the announcement of the winners, accompanied by a round table. 

 

And indeed Dubai is the centre of the Contest; in this context, over two hundred communities contribute to forging an new globalised identity, a place that is a symbol par excellence of a global setting that challenges the stereotype of a city without context and, with a melting pot of over 200 nationalities that have settled in the territory - an inclusive ecosystem of innovation celebrated at the Expo - offers opportunities for promoting a discourse that emphasises the common roots of a multi-faceted universe.