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DESIGN EXHIBITION OPEN CALL

Thank you for your interest in applying to We Design Beirut Edition 03, taking place May 26-30, 2027, with its theme titled "Love on the Mediterranean". Lebanon has always existed in dialogue with the Mediterranean. The sea has shaped not only how Lebanon builds and trades, but how it imagines and creates. We Design Beirut Edition 03 is a continuation of this dialogue, carrying forward a spirit of openness, exchange, and creative possibility.
Set within the historic Maison Tabet, this edition's Design Exhibition titled "The Shape of Wonder" brings together emerging and established designers who are invited to absorb the history and architecture of the site and, from this rich foundation, imagine and create a playful, enchanted object.
Please find below the curatorial statement and participation requirements for Shape of Wonder. DEADLINE TO APPLY: JULY 15, 2026
Exhibition Curatorial Statement The Shape of Wonder
Curated by Nathalie Khoury
Let poetry and enchantment find their place within this house of memories. Here, the echoes of the past still reverberate – of time lost and rediscovered.
To breathe in, to observe what is there. To transform it, to reinvent it.
The exhibition inhabits the house in its entirety, not merely as a decorative setting, but as the point of departure for a dreamlike and enchanting realm, imbued with magic.
The past is no longer a fixed archive, but rather a sensitive and responsive material. Memory becomes a source of inspiration and reinvention; remembrance gives rise to playful and wondrous creations.
In the heart of Beirut, within this sleeping paradise, far from the bustle of the city, is it still possible to surrender to reverie – to enter a chimerical world inhabited by objects that are at once useful and mysterious?
Within this house and its garden, imagine a symbolic object. A design that transcends its
function. Let this piece be a metaphor, where the idea it embodies takes precedence over its practical use. This creation may then become a vessel for imagination, inviting each visitor to project onto it their own dreams, memories, and inner landscapes.
Can an object still possess the power to astonish us, to invoke questions, to transport us elsewhere –?
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