Mobius Design Studio: Crystal No.6

February 20 - March 11, 2025, 12:00PM

The Project Space, The Arts Center

Past Event

Crystal No. 6 delves into the layered histories and vibrant culture of Freej Al Murar, a historic Dubai neighborhood. The project began with an exploration of the mkhawera, the Emirati women’s traditional embroidered garment, with Freej Al Murar emerging as a symbolic epicenter of its origins.

About
Collective Bio

Crystal No. 6 delves into the layered histories and vibrant culture of Freej Al Murar, a historic Dubai neighborhood. The project began with an exploration of the mkhawera, the Emirati women’s traditional embroidered garment, with Freej Al Murar emerging as a symbolic epicenter of its origins. At its core, the project acknowledges the erasure driven by capitalism, where the beauty of traditional garments often overshadows the labor and stories of their makers.

This work pays homage to the artisans—the hands that meticulously arrange beads in delicate patterns but are often excluded from the narrative. It features an installation of nine addas (embroidery stretchers) adorned with embroidered personal narratives by artisans, a short film by Abdulla Majjan, and a publication with essays by Ahmed Makia, Kallol Datta, and Uzma Z. Rizvi, exploring the neighborhood’s significance.

Crystal No. 6 celebrates Freej Al Murar as a living archive of artistry, community, and resilience.

This is a research project by Sharjah-based Mobius Design Studio, led by Hadeyeh Badri, Hala Al-Ani, and Riem Ibrahim.
Mobius Design Studio

Mobius Design Studio is a Sharjah-based design-and-research practice founded in 2010. The studio aims to enrich the design discourse and research in the UAE and the MENASA region. Mobius constantly seeks to interrogate design as a discipline and constantly questions the roles and responsibilities of designers in today’s world, and attempts to challenge the boundaries of the vocational and purely commercial. Under the studio’s umbrella, numerous graphic design symposia and exhibitions were curated, including Design Dispatch (2023), Weltformat DXB (2019), and Change, Coordinates + Someone Else (2018). The scope of the studio’s curatorial activities include public programs to engage with the general public and community members by carving space for talks, workshops, or social feasts, culminating in a comprehensive self-published books that not only archive all events and activities, but are supplemented with observational, theoretical and analytical scholarly and critical content that allows for a long-term impact and contribution to the design discourse. Most recently, Mobius initiated The Looming Council, a bilingual, community-based, public-driven digital portal, and a long-term research initiative. It aims to amplify educators’ responsibility and opportunity to play a vital role in reclaiming historical and cultural roots in MENASA by teaching more local/regional history(ies), shifting their fixation away from the global north and embracing marginalized identities.