living under the crescent moon

8/12/2019 Living Under the Crescent Moon

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A Vitra Design Museum Travelling Exhibition

Living Under the Crescent Moon

Domestic Culture in the Arab World


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Living Under the Crescent Moon is an exhibition about domestic

culture and private life in the Arab world, from both traditional

and present-day perspectives. With an unprecedented, rich

selection of objects, architectural models, photographs, films and

other media, the exhibition depicts fascinating interiors ranging

from nomadic tents in the Sahara to rural housing such as the

Moroccan casbah or Yemeni dwellings to splendid urban courtyard

houses in Marrakech, Cairo or Damascus. Such diverse ethnic

groups as the Berbers, Bedouins and others are represented. The

exhibition conveys the importance of colours, patterns and symbols

in Arab domestic culture, but also discovers a striking modernity in

its use of space and objects, and in the way it integrates influences

from other cultures.


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Living Under the Crescent Moon

Domestic Culture in the Arab World

Under the High Patronage of the German Foreign Ministry

Partner Institutions

Fondation Arabe pour lImage, Beirut, Lebanon

cole Nationale dArchitecture, Rabat, Morocco

Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands

Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno IVAM, Valencia, Spain

Muse de lHomme, Paris, France

Lindenmuseum, Stuttgart, Germany

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Geneva, Switzerland

A Vitra Design Museum Travelling Exhibition


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Contents

1 Concept

2 Exhibition outline

3 Curators

4 Consultants

5 Objects / Installation

6 Catalogue7 Accompanying sales products

8 Contacts


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1 Concept

The territory of Arabic-speaking cultures extends from Morocco in northwestern

Africa to the Middle East, and from Syria to the southern point of the Arabian

peninsula. The inhabitants of this part of the world live in fascinating domesticenvironments, ranging from nomadic tents in the Sahara to Yemeni earthen

architecture to splendid urban palaces in Marrakech or Damascus. The diversity

of domestic life in Arab cultures today reflects a major transformation of social

values and the influence of Western societies.

The exhibition Living Under the Crescent Moon presents various types of dwellings

in the Arab world from both traditional and present-day perspectives. This project

conveys the experiences of a large segment of humankind by portraying aspects

of life that are most familiar to us and, therefore, most comparable: the domestic

setting and daily activities. Of primary interest are the basic topics of design: What

solutions have people found for their personal, everyday lives sleeping, eating,

dwelling, housework? What roles do decoration, form and function play in buildings

and objects? What influence do cultural and religious values particularly thepervasive influence of Islam have upon the objects of daily life?

As a design museum, we have consciously approached this topic from an emphatically

modern vantage point, in contrast to the Western tendency to romanticise Arab

domesticity. While the exhibition assimilates the historical enthusiasm for the fabled

Arabian Nights, it also enlarges and completes this view with a detailed look at the

reality concealed behind the myth. It becomes evident that domestic life in Arabcultures is not only fascinating from an aesthetic standpoint, but also offers myriad

functional solutions for the general problems of everyday life. Components of the

exhibition include an extensive array of objects, architectural models, full-size domestic

settings that can be entered by the visitor, movie alcoves, information terminals and

photo galleries.


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A comprehensive view of private life in the Arab world as depicted by the exhibition

has remained largely unfamiliar to outsiders because the private realm is regarded as

an intimate and sacred refuge. Yet it is the everyday life of people in Arab societies

which expresses and best explains their cultural and religious views, values and social

environments. In addition, it reflects a vast cultural diversity, ranging from the Berbers

of the Maghreb to the Tuareg of the Sahara, from the Bedouins of the deserts to

the urban inhabitants of Arab descent on the Arabian subcontinent. By conveying

the everyday life, domestic objects and diversity of Arab peoples, the exhibition

Living Under the Crescent Moon advances the understanding of a cultural group

that has made significant historical contributions to Western culture, yet in many

ways remains an enigma.

In the High Atlas Mountains, Morocco


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2 Exhibition outline

The exhibition installation is based on three exemplary dwellings in the form of

walk-in, semi-abstract domestic settings: a riad (courtyard house), a rural house and

a nomadic tent.

The riad is the typical type of dwelling in traditional Arab cities. The exhibition shows

details of the interior courtyard, the representative salon and other private rooms, as

well as numerous household objects. This intimate dwelling complex, with its extremely

sheltered private areas, represents the quintessence of the Arabian Nights. However,

the exhibition also demonstrates that the fascinating atmosphere of an Arab riad

possesses distinctly functional qualities. For example, the courtyard and rich orna-

mentation in wood or stucco play an important role with regard to climate control,

acoustics and water supply. Among the objects on display are precious rugs,

ceramics, glassware, mashrabeyas and other household items. Architectural models

in this section show basic types of riads from Damascus, Cairo and Marrakech.

Rural housing has reached its most remarkable forms of expression in the inhabitedfortresses of Yemen, or in the casbahs of southern Morocco. Partial reconstructions

of these types of habitations are also displayed in the exhibition, such as an inner

courtyard and a room interior. The corresponding household objects differ consider-

ably from those of Arab-influenced urban cultures. For example, the striking simplicity

of Berber objects from the Maghreb has affinities with the aesthetic forms of sub-

Saharan Africa. The most important type of furnishing is the rug, which is one of

the primary media of artistic expression in the entire Arab world. In this section ofthe exhibition, architectural models illustrate the examples of a southern Moroccan

casbah, a multi-storey Yemenite dwelling and a typical Syrian farmstead.

Nomadic dwellings are still found today among the Berbers in the central Atlas

Mountains of Morocco, among the Tuareg in the Sahara and the Bedouins on

the Arabian peninsula. The exhibition shows a nomadic tent that is typical for the

entire Arab region, with a complete inventory of interior objects. Both the material


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and utilitarian qualities of these dwellings and objects are perfectly adapted to

geographical and climatic conditions. They are lightweight, portable and protected

from sand, and often have leather hinges or straps, whose flexibility corresponds

optimally to the requirements of frequent travel. The tent, as well, meets diverse

demands in terms of versatility and climate control.

The interior settings, architectural models and household objects of these three

traditional types of dwellings are complemented in the exhibition by large-scale

photographs, high-resolution projections and information terminals. Music, scents

and light effects recreate sensory impressions of the cultures portrayed. Excursions

into present-day living situations are interspersed throughout the exhibition. These

include not only a movie alcove, but also the documentary work of contemporaryphotographers showing individual portraits and domestic interiors. Deidi von

Schaewen, who documented several trips to Arab countries for the exhibition, has

contributed a comprehensive photographic series. The objects in the exhibition,

which have been selected according to formal and functional criteria, will be photo-

graphed for the catalogue and scenically installed by a renowned design photo-

grapher. Visual impressions of modern-day living environments are augmented by

information terminals with sociological statistics on the family and living conditionsfrom UNESCO and the Aga Kahn Foundation.


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Courtyard house, Marrakech

Urban Housing


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Interior courtyard of a residence in Fez, Morocco

Shibam, Yemen

House in Bahrein

As examples of urban housing, the exhibition shows

interiors from Marrakech and Fez, Tunis, Cairo,

Damascus and Aleppo, the Gulf States, Sanaa,

Shibam and other cities.


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Earthen building technique in the High Atlas Mountains, Morocco In the High Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Casbah in Skoura, Morocco

Milk jug, Rif Mountains, Morocco

As examples of rural housing,

the exhibition shows interiors

of clay houses in Mauretania,

the casbahs of Southern

Morocco, houses of the High

Atlas and the Rif Mountains,

rural houses in the Near East,

painted houses in Saudi

Arabia, straw huts in Syria

and Yemen, Yemeni mountainvillages and more.

Rural Housing


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House in the Yemeni mountains

Clay house, Qahtan, Saudi Arabia

Living room, Tihama, Saudi Arabia


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Nomads in Mauretania Nomads in Saudi Arabia

Nomads in Mauretania

Nomadic Housing


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Nomadic tent, Syria

Stand for leather bags, Mauretania

Leather container, Libya/Chad

As examples of nomadic housing, the exhibition

depicts the material culture of the saharian nomads

like Touareg and Moors, the Bedouins between

Syria and Saudi Arabia.


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3 Curators

Alexander von Vegesack

Executive Director of the Vitra Design Museums

In 1978-79, von Vegesack organised tours of Morocco and travelled through the

country on horseback at the invitation of the Moroccan Princess Lalla Amina, sister

of Hassan II. From 1985 he conducted extensive research on the geographical

dissemination of the Arabian riding saddle throughout Spain and to the American

continent. Upon the basis of his extensive furniture collection, he contributed to the

establishment of design departments at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the

Muse dOrsay in Paris, and at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. Since 1989,

Alexander von Vegesack has served as founding Director of the Vitra Design

Museum.

Mateo Kries

Director of the Vitra Design Museum Berlin

Kries worked at the Museum of Rural Culture in Marrakech in 1994-95. He joined

the Vitra Design Museum as a curator in 1995 and has served as Director of theVitra Design Museum Berlin since 2000. Exhibitions and publications include the topics:Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Issey Miyake, Bamboo Architecture, Individual Mobility.He also writes and lectures on subjects pertaining to exhibition management.


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4 Consultants

Ariana Ahmad

Architect. Expert of urban architecture in Syria. As a research assistant, Ahmed

has created a database for the Vitra Design Museum including all of the necessaryinformation to construct architectural models of houses from Morocco, Syria, Egypt

and Yemen that will be shown in the exhibition.

Zeina Arida

Director of the Fondation Arabe pour lImage in Beirut. Expert on photography

in the Arab countries.

Herwig Bartels

Collector. Former German ambassador to Morocco.

Stefano Bianca

Architect. Director of the Historic Cities Support Programme of the Aga Kahn Trust

for Culture in Geneva. Bianca has supervised several major urban planning andrestoration projects in Fez, Aleppo, Baghdad and Riyadh.

Sbastien Boulay

Ethnologist. Research associate at the Muse de lHomme since 1997. Boulay has

initiated numerous field studies in Mauritania, as well as exhibitions and comparative

studies on Berber nomadic cultures of the Maghreb.

Faisal Cherradi

Architect. Member of the City Council for Culture in Marrakech. Expert on Moroccan

rural architecture and founder of the Centre de Conservation et Rehabilitation du

Patrimoine Architectural Atlasique et Subatlasique (CERKAS) in Ouarzazate.


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Bert Flint

Collector. Flint has resided in Marrakech since 1957 and owns a collection of Berber

objects. Director of the Museum Maison Tiskiwin in Marrakech.

Oleg Grabar

Historian, art historian and Islamic expert. Professor at the Institute for Advanced

Studies at Princeton University, previously at Michigan and Harvard. Grabar lectures

extensively and has published a number of standard textbooks on Islamic art history.

Peter Claus Haase

Expert for Islamic studies. Director of the Museum of Islamic Art SMPK in Berlin since

December 2001. Haase was previously Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeologyat the Carsten Niebuhr Institute, University of Copenhagen.

Pascal and Maria Marchaux

Architects. Extensive research studies in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Numerous

publications and exhibitions on Yemeni architecture and domestic life, including

Sanaa, Parcours dune cit dArabie at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.

Elie Mouyal

Architect. Born in Fez in Morocco. Studied architecture in Paris. Mouyal is one of

the worlds most renowned exponents of clay architecture. Located predominately

in Morocco, Mouyals buildings follow in the tradition of Egyptian architect

Hassan Fathi.

Annegret NippaEthnologist and Islamic expert. Director of the Staatliches Museum fr Vlkerkunde

Dresden since 1997. Docent for ethnological studies in Berlin, Bern, Zurich; docent

for architecture and urban planning in non-European cultures at the Hochschule

der Knste Berlin. Nippa also teaches at Leipzig University.

Sakina Raghib

Director of the Muse de la Ville de Marrakech.


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5 Objects / Installation (status September 2002)

approx. 10 walk-in or view-in room settings

6 architectural models

approx. 10 architectural elements such as doors, windows etc. 1 nomadic tent

approx. 100 objects (furniture, rugs/pillows, household items out of ceramic,

metal, glass, wood)

approx. 8 films incl. AV-equipment

approx. 4 interactive info-terminals incl. hardware

large-format photographs and numerous historical and modern photographs

(prospective) all installation display elements (platforms, shelving, etc.)

Exhibition floor space: approx. 600-1000 square metres

Transport volume: approx. three 40-feet high-cube containers (prospective estimate)

6 Catalogue

A catalogue of approximately 280 pages is being published in conjunction with

the exhibition. It contains essays by Stefano Bianca, Oleg Grabar, Annegret Nippa,

Mateo Kries and others, and includes photographs by Deidi von Schaewen

and others.

7 Accompanying sales products

The Vitra Design Museum will offer an assortment of exhibition-related retail

products to partner venues.


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8 Contacts

For booking arrangements or questions regarding the exhibition itinerary,

please contact:

Vitra Design Museum

Reiner Packeiser

Head of Exhibition Department

Charles-Eames-Str. 1

D-79576 Weil am Rhein

[email protected]

Tel. +49 (0)7621 702 3729, Fax +49 (0)7621 702 4729

Questions about the exhibition concept or content should be directed to:

Vitra Design Museum Berlin

Mateo Kries

DirectorKopenhagener Str. 58

D-10437 Berlin

[email protected]

Tel. +49 (0)30 47 37 77 10, Fax +49 (0)30 47 37 77 20

Vitra Design Museum Berlin

Tanja ThieleCuratorial assistant

Kopenhagener Str. 58

D-10437 Berlin

[email protected]

Tel. +49 (0)30 47 37 77 15, Fax +49 (0)30 47 37 77 20

living under the crescent moon

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