DUBAI: During Milan Design Week 2025, Jwana Hamdan, the eponymous outdoor design brand founded by the Italian Lebanese entrepreneur, is presenting Al Bustan, a dreamy outdoor furniture collection replete with Arab influences.

Showcased in the heart of Brera, one of Milan’s most iconic districts known for its elegant courtyards and palazzi, Hamdan’s latest collection for Al Bustan, which takes its name from the Arabic name for “flourishing garden,” is called The Wandering Majlis Collection and presents an immersive courtyard installation inspired by the harmonious geometries, woven textiles and lines and symbolism reflective of landscapes and design along the Mediterranean, particularly the Lebanese coast, where Hamdan’s heritage lies.

Hamdan, who moved to Italy with her family when she was just 5, knows her homeland through frequent summer visits. She now has relatives in the UAE, which she has visited often over the last few years. Imbuing her furniture with references from Lebanon and the Arabian Gulf is a way for Hamdan to connect with her Arabic heritage.

“I came up with this collection because I was missing my identity,” Hamdan told Arab News. “Design has become a tool, an art form, with which to express myself. I chose design because I live in the design district in Milan. I am surrounded by the design industry.”

Hamdan’s family has worked in design ever since moving to Italy. Her father worked for a fabrics company and her family runs a company that manufactures products for designers. Hamdan launched her own eponymous label during the coronavirus pandemic. Its inspiration was derived from how people gather, especially in the Middle East.

The welcoming forms of Hamdan’s new furniture collection, with their rich color palette evocative of olive groves and the light found in Lebanon, is akin to an outdoor Arabic majlis designed with Hamdan’s elegant contemporary style. Each piece has been entirely produced in Italy.

The majlis, a traditional gathering space in Arab cultures, is reinterpreted through a series of furnishings made in an iroko wood frame and designed to create spontaneous yet sophisticated meeting places. The majlis sofa is a lounge seat that embodies a simple and authentic outdoor lifestyle, while Maitha, meaning “fertile garden” in Arabic, is an elegant and inviting lounge chair decorated in an evocative floor pattern and colored in deep magenta. The structure of the Maitha is made of iroko wood, while the seat and back cushions are removable. It is available in versions with or without the armrest.

The ghaf table, on the other hand, is named after the drought-tolerant tree that one finds throughout the Arabian Gulf and that also constitutes a symbol of tolerance. Designed by Lorenza Bozzoli, the table features a laser-cut base that reflects the tree’s deep roots to symbolize the strength and the inherent grace found in the natural environment.

Enhancing the collection are the amar and shams coffee tables, named after the words for the moon and the sun in Arabic. Their minimalist design with their circular tops evokes an earthy aesthetic, presenting the idea of oneness with nature and a harmonious lifestyle exemplifying the Arab notion of communal gathering.

“The Italians spend their time gathering in the kitchen while Arabs spend hours upon hours in the majlis area,” said Hamdan. “These pieces were inspired by my memories of Lebanon in the summer, passing time with others while outdoors.”

RIYADH: Selected works by some of the Saudi artists participating in the inaugural edition of Art Week Riyadh, which begins April 6. 

Maha Malluh 

‘X-Rayed 1’ 

The Najd-born artist is one of the most significant figures in the Kingdom’s contemporary scene. Several of her works will be on show at AWR. This one comes from her “X-Rayed” series, in which Malluh used images from an actual x-ray scanner of an actual passenger’s luggage, as would be seen at airport security when possessions are “being targeted and scrutinized,” the artist has written. “What makes these images even more peculiar is that the suitcases contain cassettes (labeled in Arabic) that are linked to dogmatic interpretations of Islamic practice,” she continued. “It is these ideas, when exported, which have led to several social evils, including the export of extreme thinking and rigid philosophy.” Like many of Malluh’s other series, “X-Rayed” examines “my own culture and its transformation from tradition to modernity.” 

Lulwah Al-Homoud 

From ‘The Language of Existence’ 

This work forms part of the influential Riyadh-born artist and calligrapher’s “The Language of Existence” series, in which she presented interpretations of the myriad Arabic names of Allah. According to her gallery, it “reimagines language as a universal visual system, transcending conventional meaning to create a new form of communication.” Al-Homoud created this ‘language’ by “deconstructing the letters of the Arabic language by using mathematical squares to compose new codes for each letter. With these codes, I inscribe the 99 names of God,” she has written. “The first step towards enlightenment is to search for the inner. It is this inner truth that leads to the light of knowledge. My art is concerned with the inner veracity of everything. It is a deep look at creation and its hidden rules that led me to the truth of existence…” 

Ahmed Mater 

‘Hulm’ (Dream) 

In his 2011 work “Cowboy Code II,” Ahmed Mater used plastic gun powder caps glued onto a wooden board to spell out, in English, the various ‘rules’ he had imagined. In this more recent work, Mater uses the same technique to present the Arabic word hulm, which translates to ‘dream.’ Whether that’s an instruction, a comment on what visitors to Riyadh can experience, or an explanation of his inspiration for the piece is unclear, but it’s one of a number of similar works the 45-year-old Tabuk native — arguably the most influential Saudi contemporary artist — will be presenting at AWR (others include “Hurriya” (Freedom) and “Salam” (Peace)).  

Manal AlDowayan 

‘Totem 1 (Dearest Women)’ 

The prolific Dhahran-born artist represented the Kingdom at the Venice Biennale last year (with “Shifting Sands: A Battle Song) and, unsurprisingly, is participating in perhaps the most significant arts event yet to take place in the Kingdom. Among several of her works on display at AWR is this piece from 2018, which AlDowayan has described as “an attempt at creating a permanent memorial of a fragmented moment.”  

She continued: “I look at the symbols used on the covers of books written by the religious men to address women and their bodies. I attempt to reform the symbols into new representations so that the invisible becomes visible.” The work is not, she stressed, “an attempt to critique or analyze history, but more of a totem of healing to help resolve the past in order to engage with the present, and time in general.” 

Bashaer Hawsawi 

‘Warm Space 1’ 

Much of the Jeddah-based visual artist’s practice revolves around found objects and mixed media, exploring, according to theartists.net “notions of cultural identity, cleansing, belonging and nostalgia.” Cleansing is the focus of this piece, which — like several other works by Hawsawi — uses the red-bristled broom heads familiar to anyone living in the Gulf and indicative of the remembered daily routines from which Hawsawi draws inspiration for much of her work. Cleansing also carries a spiritual symbolism — the purification of the self — that features regularly in Hawsawi’s work.