Design & Crafts in Tunisia

Tunisia is famous for its arts and crafts scene. Naturally, designers attempting a more sustainable production approach are turning towards working with artisans. In their workshops they find a source of local hands-on production capacities with great skills for creating products with local identity, durability and lower CO2-emissions. Vice versa, cooperating with the designers means new income possibilities for the artisans.

The potential of the union of design and crafts is grasped by several stakeholders: the Design school of Tunis (Ecole Superieure Des Sciences et Technologies Du Design) is offering a Master Studies on Design for the Sustainable Development of Local Handicraft Productions (“DDD-Design Pour Le Développement Durable Des Productions Artisanales Locales”). Minassa, an incubation hub providing creative start-ups with entrepreneurial skills defines crafts as a branch of the creative industries ready to march off. Oxfam steps in and supports L’Artisanerie, an initiative giving structural, social, economic and marketing consultancy and support to artisans all over Tunis. The UNESCO honors the pottery of the town Sejnenia by declaring it a world heritage. The project Jbal from Kasserine sees working with design and crafts as a chance to strengthen local identity and to stabilize youngsters against extremist influences.

How do these initiatives give artisans the support they need to utilize the full social, economic and creative potential of their crafts?

L’Artisanerie is run by Lobna Saidi and works with artisans of different crafts all over Tunisia, from carpet weavers, potters, basket weavers to palm wood carpenters. The showroom in Tunis offers new marketing and publicity opportunities. One of the crafts producers is El Mensej, a collective of women weaving upcycling carpets in Nefta, an oasis town in the South of Tunisia. The women used to produce the handwoven carpets in their homes hence their activity was never regarded as a real job or paid by their families and society. Shanti, a local cooperation partner of L’Artisanerie, installed the structure that was missing: a local neighborhood working room, like a co-working space, where the women can actually pursue their work of weaving carpets any time that suites them, but are still near their homes so that they can still take care of their household chores. L’artisanerie provides marketing possibilities with the showroom in Tunis and with orders from customers from Tunis and Europe. By the sales of the carpets the women earn a living – for almost all of them it’s the first time in their lives.

The Master DDD (“DDD-Design Pour Le Développement Durable Des Productions Artisanales Locales”) aims at providing the design students with the full capacity of realizing a business with traditional crafts. They not only learn and practice their design skills and technical understanding of crafts, but at the same time how to work with artisans in an equitable way so that the design outcome is based on true artistic collaboration. Therefore, the human scale of working together is given great importance. The students practice these skills in hands-on-projects with artisans. Besides, they learn all the economic marketing skills to make a business out of their product idea. As the master runs successfully since several years, the graduates already prove themselves as successful entrepreneurs.  For example, Khansa Yazidi  reinterprets the Tunisian bathroom by designing brass fittings, taps, basins and towel holders handmade by local artisans in unconventional playful shapes; e.g. the piping of a tap can take the shape of a flamingo. Mariem Ben Abid founded the internationally successful company Suddart which produces and sells a wide arrangement of beautifully designed ceramic tiles.

Crafts also come in when projects deal with preserving cultural heritage and identity. The initiative Djerba Insolite aims to save the craft traditions of the island Djerba in the collective memory by opening them up to new influences and inviting designers to create new designs with the artisans.

The artist Sana Tamzini sets another statement of preserving and reviving traditional crafts and skills with her artistic work. She creates light installations, photography, videos and art performances in public space actively integrating local people. In her site-specific works she records and transmits disappearing traditional customs, craft skills and agricultural practices and interprets their importance for identity. In the village of Takrouna she realized an installation and a performance relating to the gathering of Esparto Grass which is used for weaving doormats and baskets. In the village of Chénini she created an installation, projection and performance by working with the last stone breaker of the area by projecting him during his work into a cave that had been created by other stone breakers in the past.

The vibrancy and importance of crafts in Tunisia mean a wonderful playground and chance for Tunisian product designers. Whereas designers in Western Europe are often faced with the situation of the actual production taking place all over the world, Tunisian designers find hand-on crafts production right in from of their door which makes it easier to start small scale individual crafts productions. So the merging of crafts and design in Tunisia means great chances and benefits for both of them, designers and artisans.

Fotos:

Jbal: Marouan Zbidi

L’Artisanerie: Mohamed Amine Charbti

Suddart: Suddart

Sana Tamzini: Mejdi Bekri

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Die Recherchereise nach Tunis und Thessaloniki im Rahmen des ECO DESIGN FORUM international veranstalten wir als Kooperationspartner der Stadt Köln. Das Projekt wird gefördert durch die Stadt Köln aus Mitteln der Partnerstadtprogramme und Engagement Global aus Mitteln des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Rhoeco – drink it, plant it!

On our research and networking trip to Thessaloniki in February 2020, we had the chance to get to know the lovely herbal tea producers of Rhoeco. In the morning Vaya Mitsiou, Harry Kazas, and Katerina Chatziangelaki picked us up and we drove out of Thessaloniki into the surrounding hilly green countryside to get together in the company’s headquarters.

After their study of agriculture, the three friends aimed at developing an innovative sustainable agriculture business model. They found their passion in organic herbal tea locally grown in the various areas of Greece and cofounded Rhoeco in 2016. Rhoeco is a word formation inspired by the Greek word ‘ροή’ [rhoē] -meaning flow-, ecology [eco] and cooperation [co]. They found a way to produce herbal tea in an even more ecological and fair manner and to provide their brand with a splendid hip identity.

What can be innovative about organic herbal teas?

Greek Mountain tea grows wild in the country’s mountains. Usually the local herb is picked by hand from nature and sold on market stalls all over Greece; presented openly without any packing, perfect practice of Zero Waste. So what is even more sustainable about the new concept of Rhoeco?

The herbs inside Rhoeco`s teas are not harvested from wilderness. In order to reduce the burden of picking herbs from the local ecosystems and to protect biodiversity the herbs are cultivated on organic farms. With respect to the principles of fair trade, ethical and organic food production, the founders have developed a network of certified organic smallholder family farms across Greece, which supply them with raw dried herbs. Each herb is planted in the geographical area of Greece which suits best its growth and the development of its full aroma.

Behind the office room, we enter the production and storage rooms. All herbs are lovingly sorted by hand. Only whole leaves are chosen in order to preserve the whole aroma. The herbs are mixed into five different tastes: Agros, Forest, Mountain, Sea and Urban. Additionally a Monovarietals choice is offered.

More than just a packaging…

For the goal of selling the traditional Greek agricultural product outside the country, Rhoeco needed to develop a packaging that would make it ready for export and international markets. The herbs need a shell for keeping their aroma, for making them transportable and presentable in shops. At the same time, the packaging should transmit the identity of the brand, its ecological awareness and the story of the product inside: herbs growing. Like plants, the packaging should dissolve into earth and bring about new plants to sprout.

Therefore, Rhoeco developed the “drink it – plant it” collection: The herbal tea compositions come along in compostable planting pots. On the underside of the pot`s lid, you find a stick with the seeds of the herbs in the tea blend. So add soil to the compostable container, embed the seed stick and grow your own aromatic plants. Plant the container into a bigger pot or directly into your garden. While the herbs keep growing, the pot will dissolve into earth.

Although this packaging is quite resource intensive for a tea packaging, with the use of bioplastics leaving a large footprint in energy and land use,  it wonderfully fulfils the goal of presenting the herbal teas as the valuable commodities they are and raises awareness for the worth of agricultural products.

Rhoeco’s love for details got rewarded: Not only is the brand selling internationally, and featured in diverse media on ethical consumption – Their FOREST herbal tea blend was one of the winners at the Great Taste Awards 2018!

Fotos: Isabel Oestreich

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Die Recherchereisen nach Tunis und Thessaloniki im Rahmen des ECO DESIGN FORUM international veranstalten wir als Kooperationspartner der Stadt Köln. Das Projekt wird gefördert durch die Stadt Köln aus Mitteln der Partnerstadtprogramme und Engagement Global aus Mitteln des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.

ökoRAUSCH international – visiting our partner city Thessaloniki

For the preparation of ökoRAUSCH festival for Design and Sustainability taking from 28^th August till 24^th September 2020 we, the ökoRAUSCH team, went on two research and networking trips to partner cities of Cologne, first Tunis (November 2019), then to Thessaloniki (February 2020); with the goal to integrate new partner cities into our activities, to widen our network on sustainable design in Europe and the MENA-region and to find exhibitors for the ökoRAUSCH exhibition. In times of the Covid19-Pandemie, it proves to become even more important to show international exhibitors from our four partner cities Thessaloniki, Tunis, Istanbul and Barcelona in the ökoRAUSCH exhibition. They will highlight the variety and vibrancy of sustainable design in different countries and cultures, especially in countries prone to social and political changes. The international exhibits mean a way of international exchange of ideas, concepts and methods in times when personal exchange is restrained by the restrictions of the pandemic.

How can design contribute to social change? This question is the driving force behind ökoRAUSCH’s international commitment: Thus, the choice for the research trips was made for Tunis and Thessaloniki. Both cities have experienced great upheaval: for Tunis, it was the Arab Spring in 2011; for Thessaloniki, it was the Greek economic crises of 2010. During a four-day-trip from 17.-20.2.2020 my colleagues Anna Kamphues, Isabel Oestreich and I connected with impressive cooperation partners and visited creative thinkers in their ateliers, studios and project spaces in Thessaloniki. We held an ECO DESIGN TALK, where we not only introduced ökoRAUSCH, but we also presented and connected socio-ecologically oriented creative thinkers from the respective local scene.

Thessaloniki is home to the full range of ecological and social creativity. It is often focused on the activation of people through performances in public spaces, neighbourhood makerspaces, support programmes for creative thinkers and political activities. Our cooperation partner Artbox is dedicated to employ arts for activating people.

Our cooperation partner: Artbox (17.02. and 19.02.2020)

Our first day in Thessaloniki was dedicated to getting to know our fabulous cooperation partner, Lydia Chatziiakovou of Artbox (www.artbox.gr), creative arts management office. Artbox is dedicated to the concept of postindustrial design. In their projects LABattoir (2017-2019) and Common Lab (started 2020), they combine the support of young creative thinkers with the ambition to use art and performances to activate different population groups in a troubled neighbourhood of Thessaloniki. Two days later, we got to understand the project work more deeply by an excursion around the problematic area. We experienced the area of abandoned industrial buildings, desolate apartment blocks but also artists‘ refuges and learned which spots were enlivened by the performances and workshops of the previous project LABattoir, and where the new project Common Lab will take place.

In office of Artbox, we also met two other creatives: Danae Theodoridou is a performance artist set between Thessaloniki and Brussels who activates people to do performances in public space provoking reactions and raising democratic awareness. Maria Stroumpa triggers youngsters for sustainability with her environmental education project Kookoonari (Supported by START – create cultural change by Goethe-Institut and Bosch Foundation).

Excursions to Ateliers: 18.02.2020

The day was filled with excursions to designers, artists and small businesses paving the way to a greener society. First, we dived into the field of innovative agricultural business concepts. Rhoeco produces organic locally grown herbal tea from Greece and highlights the company’s business concept through a creative packaging: the tea comes in a compostable plant pots, the cover holds a stick with the seeds of the herbs in the tea mixture – so go ahead and grow your herbal tea yourself. The artist Giorgos Gerontides welcomed us in his studio and we delved into his world of found objects, sorted, arranged, interpreted and conceived ahead into their own wonderous worlds – like the fictitious the sea glass factory. A celebration of the abundance of the world of the lost and found, of reusing and recycling, and a criticism to consumerism. The next stop got sportive. At the office of ELEKTRONIO Handcrafted Vehicles we stepped onto handmade electronic tricycles. Ana Chlioura and Pantelis Zarkos design and build the electronic tricycles themselves in the basement of their shop. They aim to make cycling more comfortable and more popular in Thessaloniki. Finally, we got to know Dimitris Koliadimas from Semiotik Design, Thessaloniki’s famous graphic design agency, who explained his approach to sustainable graphics.

ECO DESIGN TALK 19.02.2020

For our evening ECO DESIGN TALK jointly held with Artbox we were warmly hosted by the Goethe-Institute Thessaloniki. We presented the activities, development and goals of the ökoRAUSCH festival. Lydia Chatziiakovou introduced Artbox and how the creative arts management office works with the concept of postindustrial design. Local designers, artists, and initiatives presented their projects and activities. For many of them the event meant their first exchange. Two of the projects were supported by START- create cultural change, a support programme of the Goethe-Institute and the Bosch Foundation. This gave us an insight how this support programme activates the environmental and social creative activities of people.

1.) Farmers get activated in the rural maker space Tzoumakers, introduced by Alex Pazaitis, In the rural common makerspace they build their own tools for local agricultural production, commonly owned and used. 2.) The visually impaired are involved and stimulated in the collaborative development of inclusive tools that open up artworks in museums for the blind in the project Minds Eye for by Stela Anastasaki (supported by START). 3) Neighbours are encouraged to skill sharing and social cohesion in the Neighbourhood’s Rooms of the NGO PERA creative community spaces in three neighbourhoods of Thessaloniki offering free access to tools and equipment and meeting and workshop spaces (Introduced by Terpsihori Giannakina). 4.) Neighbours also get involved in the creation of green and communal-used spaces in the context of a typical Greek “πολυκατοικία” (apartment building) in the project Commons in Residency (supported by START; presented by Periklis Chatzinakos). 5.) Agriculture, architecture and art students exchanged knowledge and practices of their fields and manifest them in product designs mapping the relationship between agriculture and design in an Agro.design workshop (presented by Dr. George Liamadis, Assistant Professor and Head of the Lab of Industrial Design in the School of Visual and Applied Arts at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki).

Some connections of our previous excursions, Rhoeco, Giorgos Gerontides and ELECTRONIO also joined the ECO DESIGN TALK.

Excursion to Viome: 20.02.2020

Viome is a vigorous, impressive cooperative of workers who occupied their factory in the course of the economic crisis in Greece in 2011 and have been producing ecological cleaning agents therein since then. During a visit to the factory grounds, we were deeply impressed by the commitment of the workers. They not only manage to sustain their struggle for over eight years now but have created a giant network of solidarity and support and have become a meeting point for political exchange. Just like they slogan their goal on the packaging of their handmade soaps: producing organic soap in order to resist against unemployment and depression.

And now?

We are looking forward to exhibiting the projects found on the ökoRAUSCH Festival taking place in Cologne in September 2020. We thank our cooperation partner Artbox for the wonderful support!

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Die Recherchereise nach Tunis und Thessaloniki im Rahmen des ECO DESIGN FORUM international veranstalten wir als Kooperationspartner der Stadt Köln. Das Projekt wird gefördert durch die Stadt Köln aus Mitteln der Partnerstadtprogramme und Engagement Global aus Mitteln des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Flaÿou – „joyful design“ made in Tunis

Introduction

Hella El Khiari and Thomas Egoumenides first met 2009 in Paris, where they both studied Architecture. After a few years of working as architects in different studios throughout Paris and Montreal the Tunisian-French couple moved to Tunis, Tunisia. Here, in 2016, they founded flaÿou – an interdisciplinary design studio for graphic, object and architectural design.

Visiting the Studio

We got to know Hella and Thomas during our research trip to Tunis in November 2019. Visiting their studio in the district of La Marsa, we learn about their motivation, curiosity and passion toward materials, techniques and objects that tell their own story. Welcoming us with coffee and homemade cookies, we’re completely delighted by this self-proclaimed „dream team“ bursting with energy and positive charm. 

The playful and refreshing approach reflected by each of their objects matches the studio name: In Arabic „flaÿou“ referres to a specific type of mint and is also a nickname for typical Tunisian mint drops that are usually attached to business cards as a small gift.

„Joyful design“ is the term Hella likes to use in this context. They want their works to be fun. All the products we are shown in their space are colorful, playful and made with attention to detail. As a basis they work with ecological and recycled materials like clay, cork, collected plastic bottles or other pre-used materials.

About two of their products we talked about in more depth and discover more about the idea and the design process:

Chich-bich (Backgammon)

Inspired by the craftsmanship of the female potters from Sejnane in the northern part of Tunisia, flaÿou created three strategic games made of cley, burnt in the open fire. The collection’s name „Chich-bich“ is the Tunisian word for Backgammon. Chess and Checkers are also part of the series. All the figures are handmade (without a pottery wheel) and can be bought in a variety of colors. For the traditional coloring local herbs and other plants are used. Going hand in hand with the humorous approach of the „dream team“ the games are presented in home-designed pizza box packaging.

On their website the collection’s elaborate creation process is shown in a video. The traditional handicraft pottery of the Sejnane women made it onto the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2018.

Tunis en poche…

… is the name of a miniature city made from pastel colored resin, cork or chocolate. The set includes eight miniatures of iconic Tunis buildings. They are each paired with a leaflet with personal anecdotes and information about their history and architecture. The former entrance gate to the old part of the city „Bab Saadoun“, the Olympic stadium „El Menzah“ as well as the impressive and vacant „Hôtel du Lac“ are just three examples ans show an interesting variety of construction and styles that characterizes the city’s appearance today.

Hella and Thomas sell their work in a few selected shops in and outside the country as well as in their online shop. They also share their passion for materials, traditional crafts and innovative production methods in workshops and other cooperative projects. If you want to learn more about them, have a look at their website.

We are very excited to have met the two of them in this personal way and wish them all the best for the future, a ton of fun and fresh ideas!

 

Fotos: Achref Guesmi

 

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Die Recherchereise nach Tunis und Thessaloniki im Rahmen des ECO DESIGN FORUM international veranstalten wir als Kooperationspartner der Stadt Köln. Das Projekt wird gefördert durch die Stadt Köln aus Mitteln der Partnerstadtprogramme und Engagement Global aus Mitteln des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.

The Collectif Creatif

The Collectif Creatif is ökoRAUSCH’s cooperation partner in Tunis supporting our network and research activities. The NGO aims to promote cultural activities and the creative industries in Tunis, to improve the social and economic state of the Medina (the old town of Tunis), to provide creative activities for youth and to rise environmental awareness among the inhabitants of Tunis. The initiators come from the creative fields themselves. For example, we were accompanied by Dhafer Ben Khalifa, a designer and design lecturer at the Higher Institute of Fashion Design of Monastir, and Leila Ben Gacem, who with her Bluefish agency works on developing the social and economic potential of the Medina by restoration and crafts.

To understand the Collectif Creatif’s approach it helps to take a look inside the architectural and social structure of the medina: Beautiful large mansions provide space for large families to live closely together. Yet the structure of these buildings is inconvenient for a modern lifestyle with small families demanding privacy and individual freedom. So, many inhabitants have moved to the modern city centre of Tunis. A number of the empty mansions has stayed neglected, others have been filled by villagers moving in from the countryside and enjoying the close neighbourhoods and networks the medina is offering. This process led to a rather economically disadvantaged population mix, bringing along social problems like high unemployment amongst youth.

To tackle these problems by creative and cultural means the Collectif Creatif since its starting in 2016 realized a number of impressive projects and events, always involving and activating the inhabitants of the Medina.

In 2016, 2018 and 2020 the International Light Art Project „Interferences“ gathered several Tunisian and foreign light artists in the Medina of Tunis. The inhabitants of the medina, especially youngsters, were actively involved in the realization of the event as volunteers. So, they were activated not only in supporting the international artists getting installed in the Medina but also in improving their English skills.

Some of the volunteers acquired their skills in another project of the Collectif; „Doora-Fel-Houma”, an initiative to educate young people between 18 and 30 years old, living in the Medina of Tunis and its suburbs, to become guides for tourists and for artists involved in the Collectif Creatif’s projects. Valorising the knowledge of their daily living in the medina enables them to re-appropriate their living space. At the same time, they create an innovative urban tourism offer by offering guided tours in selected neighbourhoods. Another means to make the voice of the medina heard is the „Journal de la Medina”, a journal for the medina written mostly by the people of the Medina that traces the thrilling everyday life in the old town of Tunis.

With „El Warcha” the Collectif Creatif installed an open maker space where the local community meets to develop projects around urban furniture and public space with a focus on upcycling techniques. With „Fantek” the Collectif offers a digital art school and residency program that offers workshops and trainings in the fields of sound, visual and interactive digital arts and is especially aimed at reaching and activating youngsters. „Dar El-Harka” is a co-working space and cultural hub where several Tunisian and foreign young people meet to learn Tunisian dialect, foreign languages or calligraphy and to exchange around cultural projects.

In 2018 the Collectif’s collaboration on the international project „The Sea… Final destination?“ (by the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, supported by Drosos Foundation) in the Medina meant the starting point of the Collectif Creatif’s environmental activities. They dedicated three special issues of the Journal De La Médina to this topic and a series of zero waste creative workshops during which Tunisians were invited to explore sustainability in a playful way, e.g. upcycling weaving with women artisans, DIY composting, plastic shredding or recycling. Since then their engagement on environmental topics has increased; they focus on involving various stakeholders such as the Municipality of Tunis, the high schools of the area and the Medina community. With „Trash to Treasure” (2019/2020) the Collectif developed an educational curriculum for environmental clubs at high schools in Tunis focused on waste management, waste reduction and upcycling –in collaboration with the municipalities of Tunis and Cologne. Following the wish to initiate a movement of urban agriculture in the Medina uniting environmental commitments with economic development opportunities and strengthened social links the „J’nina Fel M’dina”, an urban garden on the rooftop of an ancient Medina House, was inaugurated (with the support of the German embassy). A second urban garden was initiated 400 metres away at another building’s courtyard. Hydroponic systems, trays for growing vegetables, a mushroom growing space and sitting areas were installed. El Warcha was and continues to be closely involved in the set-up, not only in building the physical structure of the gardens but also in continuing to maintain the gardens, involving the inhabitants, mentoring students from the neighbourhood’s schools and organizing cultural and gardening workshops.

With this impressive range of projects, the Collectif Creatif is very well connected into the creative scene all over Tunis, and thus a splendid cooperation partner for ökoRAUSCH on exploring the sustainable design scene of Tunis and bringing exhibitors to the ökoRAUSCH Festival in Köln.

Fotos:

Interference: https://www.facebook.com/intunis.net/

Doora Fel Houma: Doora Fel Houma 2018, Photo-Med-Ali-Agrbi, http://doorafelhouma.net/

El Warcha: El Warcha, https://www.elwarcha.org/

Trash to treasure: https://www.facebook.com/برنامج-الفضلات-ثروات-109108353836794/

Jnina Fel M’dina: Collectif Creatif, www.facebook.com/Collectif-Cr%C3%A9atif-Tunis-113476726674662/

 

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Die Recherchereise nach Tunis und Thessaloniki im Rahmen des ECO DESIGN FORUM international veranstalten wir als Kooperationspartner der Stadt Köln. Das Projekt wird gefördert durch die Stadt Köln aus Mitteln der Partnerstadtprogramme und Engagement Global aus Mitteln des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.

ökoRAUSCH international – visiting our partner city Tunis

We, the ökoRAUSCH team, are currently preparing for our next ökoRAUSCH festival in 2020. Again we will invite designers and artists from different partner cities of Cologne to take part in our exhibition on sustainable design and in the international ECO DESIGN FORUM held during the festival time. In 2016/17 we cooperated greatly with our partners from Istanbul, Barcelona, Tel Aviv and Bethlehem (Ramallah/Auja). Now, in 2019/20 we are undertaking research and networking trips to integrate new partner cities into our activities as well as to widen our network on sustainable design in Europe and the MENA-region (Middle East and North Africa). The first new city is Tunis, partner city of Cologne and capital of the Arab spring. During a four-day-trip my colleagues Anna Kamphues, Liliana Marinho de Sousa and I researched the scene of sustainable design and social arts in the city, networked like crazy, held a small event to give a presentation on the ökoRAUSCH festival and also visited a design and fashion school in Monastir. Tunis is teeming with sustainably working creatives and vibrant with exciting initiatives supporting the development of social and ecologically responsible design. The initiatives are surely enjoying the democratic freedom established by the revolution that gives them the possibilities to engage themselves for the topics they care about. The creative approaches revolve mainly around three central topics: reviving the medina (the old town) of Tunis, handicrafts and upcycling. On our trip we were accompanied by our cooperation partner, the Collectif Creatif, an NGO promoting cultural activities and creative industries while embracing sustainability in its economic, social and environmental aspects. They realize events and projects that often stand in context to reviving the Medina, from „Interferences“, an international light arts festival, over the upcycling-space El Warcha, where they activate youth to build upcycling furniture for public spaces, to developing a curriculum for environmental clubs at high schools. We were accompanied by Dhafer Ben Khalifa, himself a designer and a teacher at the Higher Institute of Fashion Professions of Monastir, and Leila Ben Gacem, who runs the Bluefish agency. With the support of our well connected partners the days were filled with exciting encounters and insights: Thursday 31.10.2019: Higher Institute of Fashion Professions of Monastir We visited the Higher Institute of Fashion Professions of Monastir where our cooperation partner Dhafer is teaching accessories design. The state institute firstly amazed us with its location at the seaside but also with its extensive equipment of fashion industry tools. Lecturers of the institute showed to be very interested in sustainable approaches to design and joined our talk about the ökoRAUSCH festival. Then we were presented an exhibition of a project on upcycling fashion and accessories that the students had undertaken during the last semester and who keenly introduced their absolutely amazing works.

Friday 1.11.2019: Networking like crazy

We ran through a tight programme of visiting four different design initiatives and one vernissage: First we met Flayou, the agency of two product designers focused on cool, humorous, sustainable design. Did you ever want to pack the most intriguing architectural sights of a city into a small box to carry them home with you? Flayou makes it possible. The next stop was Cogite, a coworking space comprising several shared workplaces as well as offices and support programs for start-ups, and – a swimming pool. We met with Houeida Anouar, Chief Executive Officer, who is keen to promote and encourage female entrepreneurship. At the showroom of L’Artisanerie Lobna Saidi gave us insights into their support of artisans all over Tunisia; producers of upcycled carpets, pottery, basketry and palm wood carpentry are assisted in improving the organization of their work, in price-making, design and distribution. Finally we got to know Minassa, an incubation hub for creative businesses located in a beautiful Medina mansion. They support start-ups from the fields of fashion over animation and media to décoration and artisanat (crafts), marketing e.g. new lines of pottery products. In the evening we had the chance to visit the vernissage of the exhibition „Utopia“ initiated by the Goethe Institute Tunis on the occasion for 100 years of Bauhaus. Tunisian designers and artists were invited to create works commenting the concept of the Bauhaus. We again met the designers of Flayou and El Warcha who had contributed works to the exhibition.

Saturday 2.11. Talk Event in Dar Ben Gacem

Together with the Collectif Creatif we organized a talk and network event where we gave a presentation about the activities of the ökoRAUSCH Think Tank and sustainable design in Germany to Tunisian designers. We had decided on a rather cosy event of about 20 people, so all the designers present had time to introduce their work and there was plenty of time for intense exchange.  Again, the merging of traditional crafts with modern design and upcycling materials marked the way of sustainable production for the Tunisian creatives. We were impressed by the participants – many run their own company selling their product line. And many of them are women. Just like Mariem Ben Abid, founder of the successful company Suddart, puts it: „If you want to get things done, work with women. So in my company, I work only with women.” 1.) Association Djerba Insolite (initiative supporting crafts in Djerba) 2.) Nina L. (upcycling leather bags) 3.) Suddart (cement tiles) 4.) Khansa Yazidi (bathroom taps and basins) 5.) Kimaenti (upcycling jewellery made of used clothes) 6.) Regliz Kidz (embroidery) 7.) Tin Hinan (leather bags) 8.) Naila Jendoubi, Sana Tamzini,(Ecole Superieure Des Sciences et Technologies Du Design: DDD Design Pour Le Développement Durable Des Productions Artisanales Locales): Master Studies on Design for Sustainable Development 9.) Sana Tamzini (artist)

Sunday 3.11.: More networking

The last day again was full of encounters. We visited the atelier of Marouan Zbidi, a member of the Collectif Creatif, who impressed us with his interpretations of traditional crafts. During a visit of the DIY and-Design-fair „Handmade“ in the Acropolium de Carthage we connected with the initiative Sejnenia which supports a groupe of women who are producing a certain kind of pottery in a traditional technique only existing in Sejnenia and rewarded as world heritage. Finally a guided tour with Wajdi Borji, another member of the Collectif Creatif, offered us more insights into the social structure of life in the Medina and thus a deeper understanding of the work of the Collectif Creatif. Our visit finished with a dinner with Leila Chennoufi who is the initiator of Envirofest, an environmental film festival taking place all over Tunisia.

And now?

We were impressed by the variety and vibrancy of the sustainable design scene of Tunis and are already looking forward to presenting and seeing the creatives we met on the ökoRAUSCH Festival in Cologne. We thank our cooperation partners, the Collectif Creatif, for their great support!

 

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Die Recherchereise nach Tunis und Thessaloniki im Rahmen des ECO DESIGN FORUM international veranstalten wir als Kooperationspartner der Stadt Köln. Das Projekt wird gefördert durch die Stadt Köln aus Mitteln der Partnerstadtprogramme und Engagement Global aus Mitteln des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.

One of our fieldtrips during our ECO DESIGN FORUM in Tel Aviv past October 2016 was to „ONYA City“. Heela and Yoav of the ONYA Collective – a gathering of architects, activists, community leaders, and volunteers – took the time and showed us around one of their impressive projects at the New Central Bus Station in South Tel Aviv.

Here are some impressions of our trip and a glimpse at who the ONYA Collective is and what they are doing in their own words:

The Onya Collective started in 2014 as part of the WorldWide Storefront contest, to reimagine alternative futures for large urban landscapes. We focused on the Central Bus Station in South Tel Aviv, an enormous concrete structure that has destroyed the surrounding neighborhoods and is a center for drug use, prostitution, and crime. We launched the Collective with a two-month-long festival on all seven floors of the bus station, showcasing artwork and creative urban agriculture such as hydroponics and a library with a green wall.

Since that time, we have continued to be active at the bus station with a community garden and space on Neve Shaanan street. We give tours of the bus station to highlight the unique challenges of this massive building, which today stands 60% abandoned, but also provides a home for the city’s marginalized populations.

We are working towards turning the “Rampa Garden” on Neve Shaanan St into a community resource available free of charge to the diverse communities of South Tel Aviv.

Today, the Onya Collective is made up of a core group of architects, activists, community leaders, and volunteers. Through our work at the bus station, cities from across Israel have turned to us to copy our approach to Neve Shaanan and do “placemaking” in their challenging neighborhoods. We utilize community organizing principals to design public spaces that serve the needs of all of the residents of the areas where we work.

iota is a social brand designing beautiful handmade objects for the interior while creating jobs for otherwise unemployed people worldwide. iota’s foundations are based on three fundamentals: the use of handmade elements to create new, unexpected designs; the usage of luxurious bespoke yarns and materials; and being a social business. Our collection gives stage to our unique textiles which we develop and design and is based on the technic of Crochet knitting. Our products vary from rugs in different sizes to poufs, stools and benches, pillows and swings, everything textile oriented, some with complimentary materials or structures. We design our products respectively to our vision so they can be crafted in the homes of otherwise unemployed women whom we train and groom. All our products are handmade by these women who create knitted elements in the comfort of their home and then send them over to our studio to be assembled into the final products. Our name has a meaning: ‚iota‘ stands for „a bit“ in Latin and as it is, little by little, from a single element to the final product, from the individual to the global, we aspire to make an impact on the lives of our clients, our employees and our community.

The vision behind ‚iota‘ is to establish a movement that allows different people from around the world to learn the technique of traditional hand-craftsmanship, to provide them employment and allow them to earn an honest living. This idea contains a social responsibility and a way to maintain traditional arts by extenuating the importance of knowledge and skills. It also portrays the belief that regardless of the infinite possibilities that technology offers, people still seek for a personal and unique hand print.

The main concept in our design is creating innovative products from a traditional starting point, and changing the perception of what can be done using hand techniques. As they are conceptually built up from pieces, our products have a tactile nature which calls to create playful contact and combinations between shapes, colors and textures. iota’s products fit into the “in-between” spaces of our lives, filling emotional and practical needs by creating beautiful objects which also carry a social cause. The search for products and materials is done by physical research. We learn old techniques combined with modern knowledge and come up with new strings in colors that are unique for us. All these create a new textile language that combines various materials into unlimited products. We make tradition contemporary.

iota was founded in 2014 by Shula Mozes, a social entrepreneur who had a dream to utilize the craft of knitting, which she loves, into a social opportunity. Knowing there are countless communities of women worldwide who are not able to work outside of the home, she felt that a design brand based on knitting could offer a solution for them and simultaneously be a platform for exciting and bespoke design. Shula reached out to Tal Zur, an Industrial designer with an inclination to crafts and an understanding in textiles, to be the creative mind behind the project. Tal fell in love with the idea, and together they set to build up their dream.

Today, iota first of all is a social-business, both ecologically and socially conscious, with a commitment to sustainability and community support. The majority of profits from iota’s product sales are invested in welfare and educational programs worldwide. We aim to work within communities with high rates of unemployment, and provide mentoring and training programs for women. We work with people with no prospect of employment, giving those opportunities as we invest in their training and mentorship. We give our employees the option of working from home and reward them with fair pay, while creating a sense of community and empowerment. Our production process is completely transparent, and we absolutely condemn child labor and sweat shop environment.

We teach methods of re-appropriating traditional craft techniques, which requires teaching of skills. We believe the importance of skills does not lie only in the final product but rather in the process. The process of hand craftsmanship, which necessarily requires time and attention from the craftsman, creates an emotional connection between him and the final product he created. This connection creates emotional products. The products embody the craftsman’s unique finger print and thus making him an inseparable part of the final product. As opposed to a machine which creates anonymous products, our handmade products have a past, a background and a memory.

A skill, if utilized, can have rewarding qualities; rewarding to the product that is created as a one of a kind element; and rewarding to the craftsperson, whose skill makes him an expert, and therefore meaningful. This empowerment, deriving from owning a skill, is what we strive to preserve and enhance.

The photos from our visit are taken from Sabine Stein sabinestein.com

This is the second part of the reports from the participants of the ECO DESIGN FORUM. What happens when designers and artists from four different countries go on a trip together? The five-day programme with presentations, excursions and a good amount of exchange – first in Tel Aviv, Israel and then in Auja, Palestine – really made an impression on everyone and gave rise to a lot of questions.

Aviya

Produktdesignerin / Tel Aviv, Israel

Participating in the workshop was a great pleasure. Meeting some great designers from different countries that are most importantly, interesting lovely people that I’m happy I have met. We had many opportunities to connect and getting to know each other and I think that just this, for itself, is an amazing opportunity.

In addition, It was pleasantly surprising, that although the workshop was held in my home city, ökoRAUSCH group found the way to expose us locals to some great content and experiences within our own city that we haven’t heard or seen before.

I personally think that as designers, everything that we experience is absorbed in our system and at the end comes out in our work in one way or another.

Going on a trip together is always an adventure and you experience a lot. What happens when designers and artists from four different countries go on a trip together? The five-day programme with presentations, excursions and a good amount of exchange – first in Tel Aviv, Israel and then in Auja, Palestine – really made an impression on everyone and  gave rise to a lot of questions.