Jameel Prize heralds changes for new look at traditional inspirations
DUBAI: The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and Art Jameel have announced substantial changes to the Jameel Prize, heralding in a new era for one of the world’s leading award for contemporary art and design, inspired by Islamic tradition.
Previously a mixed-media award, the next Jameel Prize is dedicated to a single discipline: in 2020-21, the focus will be contemporary design, allowing for increased exposure for fashion, product, graphic and craft designers inspired by Islamic traditions.
Jameel Prize 6 will also be the first edition of the award to benefit from a dual application process, with the launch of a new open call for submissions in addition to its traditional nomination system.
A collaboration between the V&A and Art Jameel, the Jameel Prize was founded in 2009 to recognise the influence of Islamic tradition on contemporary culture and celebrate contemporary practitioners inspired by Islamic design and visual culture.
In its 10-year history, the prize has continued to evolve and grow; Jameel Prize 5 was jointly awarded for the first time — to Iraqi artist Mehdi Moutashar and Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum.
Through its five editions, the prize has received more than 1,000 nominations from over 40 countries around the world; exhibited the work of 48 artists and designers and toured 16 venues globally.
The Jameel Prize 6 exhibition will open at the V&A, London, in 2021 before touring internationally; it will be the first exhibition to take place, globally, with a focus on innovative contemporary design inspired by Islamic traditions.
Following the conclusion of the Jameel Prize 5 exhibition, which toured from the V&A to Dubai’s contemporary art institution Jameel Arts Centre in 2019, the V&A and Art Jameel undertook a review of the award, aiming to enhance its relevance and impact.
The curatorial teams concluded that despite the deep craft traditions and recent growth of the Middle Eastern and Asian design scenes, contemporary design inspired by Islamic tradition is yet to have its due spotlight.
Jameel Prize 6 sets out to highlight the innovation and craftsmanship inherent in today s design world; applications are welcome from practitioners across the discipline including fashion, jewellery, product, graphic, web, and speculative design, as well as typography, architecture, craft, and the applied arts. They can be submitted (Mar. 18 — May 31) by practicing designers plus other contemporary practitioners, who identify particular works within their practice as design.
As with other editions of the prize, a renowned jury will meet and select from the applications a shortlist of notable design works, which will form the basis of a major exhibition, curated by the V&A s Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East, Rachel Dedman, in collaboration with Senior Curator Tim Stanley.
The Jameel Prize 6 exhibition opens at the V&A, London, in 2021, at which point the jury meets again, to select and award the winner of the prize. The exhibition will then tour internationally.
The Jameel Prize 6 jury will be chaired by Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A, and include the joint-winners of Jameel Prize 5, Iraqi artist Mehdi Moutashar and Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum, as well as British author and design critic Alice Rawsthorn and Emirati writer, researcher and founder of Barjeel Art Foundation, Sultan Sooud Al-qassemi.
The Jameel Prize, founded in partnership with Art Jameel, was conceived after the renovation of the V&A s Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art. The gallery is an enviable presentation of the rich artistic heritage of the Islamic Middle East: the prize aims to raise awareness of the thriving interaction between contemporary practice and the great historical legacy of the region. It has also contributed to a broader understanding of Islamic culture as well as its place in the contemporary world.
Launched in 2009, the winner of the first Jameel Prize was Afruz Amighi for her work 1001 Pages (2008), an intricate hand-cut screen made from the woven plastic used to construct refugee tents. In 2011 Rachid Koraôchi was awarded the prize, for his work Les Maótres Invisibles (The Invisible Masters, 2008), a group of embroidered cloth banners which display Arabic calligraphy and symbols and ciphers to explore the lives and legacies of the 14 great mystics of Islam.
In 2013 the winner of Jameel Prize 3 was Dice Kayek, a Turkish fashion label established in 1992 by Ece and Ay_e Ege for their series Istanbul Contrast, a collection that evokes Istanbul s architectural and artistic heritage. This was the first time the Jameel Prize was awarded to designers.
In 2016, the winner of Jameel Prize 4 was Ghulam Mohammad, who trained in the Islamic tradition of miniature painting, for his works of paper collage. In 2018 the first ever joint winners of Jameel Prize 5 were Mehdi Moutashar awarded for his bold work of minimalist abstraction rooted in Islamic geometry and Marina Tabassum for her visionary Bait ur Rouf mosque built in 2012 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Art Jameel has partnered with the V&A since 2006, with the opening of the Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art by Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, who dedicated it to the memory of his parents, Nafisa and Abdul Latif Jameel, the late founder of Abdul Latif Jameel, a family-owned diversified business founded in Saudi Arabia in 1945.