In downtown Dubai, 15-minutes’ drive from Art Dubai’s beachside location, is Design Days Dubai, a fair showing limited-edition and collectible works from local and international design galleries. This year is the fair’s fifth edition and it is the most diverse ever, with exhibitors from 20 countries, but also with the largest retrospective exhibition of UAE-based design, entitled Wasl. Speaking of the emerging local scene, the fair director Cyril Zammit says: “Design made in the Middle East has been a sleeping beauty for several decades. Its legacy to the world is huge, with amazing patterns, architecture and craftsmanship. We are now seeing the awakening of it with a brilliant young generation of Lebanese, as well as Gulfi, designers.”
The fair features an extensive programme of talks, screenings and workshops. The winner of the Middle East Emergent Designer Prize, sponsored by Van Cleef & Arpels and in collaboration with Design Days Dubai and Tashkeel (the studio founded by Dubai sheikh Lateefa bint Maktoum), will be announced during the show.
• Design Days Dubai, 14-18 March, The Venue, Downtown Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard