Villa Hegra celebrates a year of cultural exchange in the heart of AlUla 

Dubai: Within the remains of Carthage, a large city founded by the Phoenicians in the ninth century BC – near the Tunisian capital Tunis – are several delicately placed objects of contemporary design. Their newly built refinement is still complementary, unlike the ancient ruins.

Vibrantly-colored wool kilims by American Medellin-based designer Chris Wolston and Tunisian Le Kef artisans are graciously placed on the remains of ancient Roman columns.

Additionally, there are the sinuous lines of beautiful new furniture pieces made from palm wood by Lebanese designer George Mohseb's firm Studio Manda, produced by Tunisian artisan Kais Gharbya. These can be found nearby, placed among ancient ruins and sculptures.

These works are part of the inaugural show “Carthagism”, curated by Milan-based curator Nicolas Belvens-Lecompte for Lamia Bosnina Gallery.

It's a space that opened in downtown Tunis at the end of May and is dedicated to showcasing art and design with a focus on championing the country's craftsmanship.

“In a country where tradition is constantly intertwined with Mediterranean cultural influences, the exhibition celebrates Tunisia's artistic heritage while embracing the dynamism of contemporary creative expression,” Belvans-Lecompte said in her curatorial statement.

“We want to celebrate our Tunisian heritage,” Lamia Bosnina Ben Ayed, founder of the eponymous space, told Arab News. “Design is now becoming more important in Tunisia. We want to champion design objects made in Tunisia. I always want to create bridges and connections with designers around the world.”

The exhibition, which runs till September 29, features specially commissioned pieces by six international designers.

They include Elias and Youssef Anastas from Palestine, the French multidisciplinary designer Louis Barthélemy, Beirut-based Mary-Lynn Massoud and George Mohseb, also from Beirut, and the American Wolston, now based in Medellin, Colombia.

The works are temporarily housed in the ruins of Carthage for a preview of the exhibition and will later be moved to the gallery – a new white-walled space with high ceilings in the center of the city.

To create each project, designers were paired with local Tunisian artisans.

Tunisia has long been home to a vibrant community of artisans. According to data from the Oxford Business Group, the country has about 350,000 artisans, mostly women, working in marginalized communities who contribute to the local economy.

These new pieces, served to support Tunisian artisans, are intended as a dialogue with local industry to create new breathtaking works of contemporary design and to jumpstart the micro-economy in Tunisia.

“The group exhibition is a manifesto celebrating Tunisian culture, revitalizing and reinterpreting traditional craft practices through a series of unique collaborative commissions,” said Blevins-Lecompte.

Mohsseb joined hands with Gharbya to produce furniture from palm wood – a material that is difficult to work with because of its irregular fibers and hard texture.

“The whole process was very exciting,” said Mahseb, who regularly works with wood but had never done so with palm before.

Gharbya, Mohsseb said, is located eight hours from Tunis, where the largest palm groves grow in the southwest region of Tunisia. “It was a challenge for all of us, but we were up for it.”

He added: “While the pieces are very simple in form, they are challenging to make in terms of connections and combinations. (The artisans) wanted to learn and explore and were open to the idea of ​​doing something different from what they had been doing for ages.”

The resulting pieces — a bookshelf, a long bench, a table and chairs — came together in what Mohseb calls “a real and humble way.”

Palestinian brothers Elias and Youssef created a series of stone tables whose irregular anamorphic shapes were created through computer modeling.

The pieces, which consist of irregularly shaped pieces joined together without any glue or cement, are an extension of their “Stone Matters” project, which explores the predominance of stone in Palestinian architecture. The resulting tables on view in the gallery were made with local Tunisian artisan MDO.

Beirut-based Lebanese designer Massoud worked with local Tunisian ceramist Ali Kader to create ceramic pieces titled “Primordial Echoes” that honor and support the traditions of the Gafsa region of Tunisia.

The objective was to create variously rendered ceramic floor and table lamps and side tables that echo the color and texture of Mohseb's palm wood pieces. Note how his work includes references to Tunisian tribal ceramics.

Wolston, on the other hand, created 10 attractive color-hued kilims featuring a variety of geometric patterns. To produce each one, Wolston worked with 10 weavers from the Le Kef region of northwestern Tunisia who based their designs on drawings he made.

Also created in different textiles is “Hannon and the Mediterranean Mirage,” a tapestry by French designer Louis Barthélemy with Tunisian Nejib Bel Haj that powerfully unites Tunisia's ancient history with current Mediterranean stories.

The vibrantly painted tapestry features a mix of figural and abstract depictions, including a depiction of the sixth-century BC Carthaginian explorer Hannon.

It references his journey around the Mediterranean as well as the bright orange lifejackets reflecting the hardships of North African migrants crossing the Mediterranean in the hope of a new life.

Tapestry, works created specifically around the theme of “Carthaginism” poignantly unite tradition, ancient history and the present in the context of Tunisian heritage.