Latest News

Director of the MENA Design Research Centre and cofounder of Beirut Design Week considers the continued conflict in Lebanon and how untraditional art forms can provide solutions

“We weren’t doing painting or theater or deals with Syrian refugee camps, so our project didn’t really feel like it was one of the priorities” recalls Doreen Toutikian, the Director of the MENA Design Research Centre, when reflecting on establishing the roots of design research. Now doubts and uncertainties of investors are quickly being dispelled in the wake of her creative transformation.

Over the past couple of years alone, Toutikian has become a formidable force in the design industry, heading up the specialist MENA Design Research Center, nurturing this program through projects including DESMEEM (a combination of the words ‘design’ and ‘tasmeem’ – design in Arabic), and successfully piloting Beirut Design Week, which will see its third installment this June. She is an educator, a designer, a pioneer; all achievements that are undoubtedly a testament to her tenacity, as she remarks that there needs to be more arguments to stimulate discussion. 

“I think I might have provoked something upstairs in the discussion; but we need to challenge ourselves to tackle these problems. Is it relevant to discuss them here when we all have different views? If there are people here who are listening to me and saying ‘Yes what you are doing makes sense and is similar to what I am doing in this area and this is how we could learn, we can collaborate’ that is the best thing that we can hope for.”

However, Toutikian’s determination to probe these issues stems from Lebanon’s refusal to address parts of its own history, stifling generational growth and hopes for future resolution. “There has been this ongoing conflict and it has been like that since the 70s in the region: it is bigger than the Arab Spring notion of 2011.

“The problem is it has been over 30 years and people aren’t really talking about it. In Lebanon, some of the basic reasons things can’t improve is because all of the youth and all of the students in university have no idea what happened in the civil war. They’re not even OK with teaching it in schools. These kids really don’t know how to take on and tackle this as an issue because they have no information about it, which causes misunderstanding.

“They know skewed or partial elements from family and friends; there now has to be a process of re-education, which is a difficult but essential task.”

In order to explore the ‘other’, there has to be an understanding and a feeling with them. Toutikian reinforces the idea of empathy as one of the most important values for this process of relearning, as it provides a human framework that is nuanced in its approach – being simultaneously sympathetic, yet direct. “As a designer, there is room to be more lenient and to be more empathetic which provides new angles to express yourself. There isn’t so much political correctness. It is not okay to say ‘it is not okay to say it’. There are unturned areas being explored and being spoken about for the first time in constructive ways. Breaking down taboos allows a new genesis for the creation of creative ideas.”

Of course, Toutikian’s steely resolve and determination in redressing these balances is likely the result of living at the nexus of James Thompson’s axes of war, with conflict a weekly reality.

“We get bombs once or twice a week. I am on my way to work and there is a bomb. And people start to deal with it in this nonchalant manner, introducing ideas of denial. The problem is that then you don’t know where you stand, because part of you also wants to forget what is going on a daily basis.” 

In a war-torn region, the temptation to uproot is overwhelming, yet the mass exodus of parts of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region leaves a void and cultural hole that wreaks havoc beyond the scene of the war zone, causing in political, ideological and social realignments.

“You’re in a daily conflict of ‘should I stay or should I leave?’ The most common questions tend to be: ‘What am I doing?’ ‘Is it worth it is it not worth it?’ Others have tried, others have failed; they have left the country. But it doesn’t mean that they have come to terms with the upset this has caused. But, this is an ongoing thing. The conflict stops me from being able to be the international person that says OK you’ve got a conflict, I understand, I am looking at you as an observer. I have to be involved.”

The MENA Development Research Center formally gave Toutikian the opportunity to really grapple with the conflict from within the communities of those affected: “It started up as a think tank of a local branding and digital company and then became its own independent organization and initially we thought we would depend on funding and grants, but then we thought about doing something like Beirut Design Week, which actually sustains the center now and lets us go forward and live on.”

Perhaps the key stumbling block in her journey was convincing organizations in the region that design, though not a traditional art form, was a valuable concept.

“It was very difficult for us to explain why we’re doing what we doing and at the same time for funders to understand that this is not something that we are doing just for luxury purposes. Even though we are there to support the designers and to support the crafts industry that is emerging and growing in the region, we are not there to say that design is a luxurious thing that is just for the elite.”

Clearly, this simplistic approach is something that Toutikian holds as a life mantra, as she is dressed comfortably, complete with trainers.

Such touches make Toutikian much more relatable, regardless of her wealth of experience, and this is an important factor she finds when she meets new students and young designers. 

“We try and get people to think of social issues, such as sustainable development, the environment, LGBT issues, in lots of fun and interactive ways; so we get lots of graphic designers, working with interior and fashion designers and we try to have them develop ways to understand the problem, before we then find ways to communicate that back to a wider audience. For this, we will do an exhibition or a video or give a talk. We try to find different ways to engage civil society with these issues, through the lens of a designer.” 

The significance of her work was probably solidified when DESMEEM hosted a number of stakeholders, companies and organizations from the US as part of a three month project in Lebanon. Through actively involving these US firms in local NGOs, there was a personal foundation for conflict resolution.

“The head of a big organization turned to me and said: ‘What I found really special was how designers are doing things that are so different from what people are doing in advocacy and policy making, and it is because they have a way of talking to people’s hearts and so they have a really emotional way of telling the story.’ It really encourages influential groups and organizations to engage in creative ways.”

Beirut Design Week, now a name in its own right despite having held three events, came about as an offshoot of DESMEEM to deal with the unusual issue of a lack of funding. 

“We said okay let’s do something like an event where we don’t just do an exhibition, but we get other designers involved as well and they can showcase their work. In Lebanon people are not going to trust young people and new designers coming in to display things so this was a real outlet for new potential and new design. The first year, we barely made it through.”

Now, Beirut Design Week has other similar projects trying to use the cache of such a renowned group, right down to copying the name.

“It is great proof that what we are doing is speaking to people and they are taking it on and really trying to get new meaning out of it.”

Doreen Toutikian was a session participant at the Salzburg Global Seminar session "Conflict Transformation Through Culture: Peace Building and the Arts", which was sponsored by the Edward T Cone Foundation and Robert Bosch Stiftung. You can read interviews with a number of the other speakers and participants of the session on the webpage: <font color="#0066cc"><em>http://www.salzburgglobal.org/go/532</em></font>