Ayed Arafah is a visual artist: “Most of my experience is about creating through different artistic mediums, from painting to sculpture and design. My family is originally from the village of Qastina, and I like to keep its name alive through my design project.“ Arafah is based in Dheisheh refugee camp, north of Bethlehem city: “It is where I grew up, but I was born in Jerusalem in 1983. I studied social sciences and contemporary visual art at the International Academy of Arts in Ramallah.”

— DDFP: Could you tell us more about the Qastina aprons?

Compared to the other artistic channels in which I express my individuality and unconsciousness, the Qastina project is a way of expressing identity as a collective story. Each design comes out of a true story, of something that happened by chance. Like the Qastina aprons, inspired by the cooking instructions my mother used to give me on the phone when I was abroad. The designs are a symbol of connection with her and my original village, although I have never been there. To call this design project “Qastina” is to root myself again into my original land. This is why it is difficult for me to invent or think of other designs without the context of a story. 

Qastina is located in the Gaza strip. Israeli colonisers destroyed it and created a settlement around it. I have been told that the place still exists, but myself I cannot go there. My grandmother used to tell me stories about her life in the village. She shared her memories about farming and cooking together, exchanging food with their neighbours, collecting herbs from the mountain with other women, singing together and finding ways to cook what they had collected. In the Dheisheh camp, there were no mountains in front of us, but she still used to take my mother and me out for a walk in nature and explain what could be used for dinner or breakfast, what could be collected and saved for the winter, and so on. This is makes me excited about exploring more designs out of stories that represent Palestinian collective culture.

— How do you perceive the dissemination of the Qastina products, and its audiences it reaches beyond the art field? 

I am happy that the Qastina designs are distributed in different places. I found a way for approaching a diverse audience compared to my artwork which usually reaches galleries and art collectors. It is a way for showing who I am and reconnecting to the quest for identity of many other Palestinians.

The project brought new collaborations with different people, but also new challenges from understanding technical issues about the fabric to being in the market. I definitely got more experience in managing new and different things. Though, a big challenge is to keep working on continuous quality improvements and look for new designs to be connected with different stories.

— We started to work together when you participated in the workshop that we organised in 2014 with the academy in Ramallah. How do you look back at this experience? 

The workshop made me realise that it is possible to create artistic products to be distributed in alternative ways. I also started to think about how art and design can turn a product into a statement and, at the same time, into a useful object that can be found for example in a house or a restaurant. It marked a turning point in my artistic consciousness and helped me in the process of moving from artwork to design.

In my design project, there is a different relationship with the making and the materials, as they are produced by others and not by myself. Working in a team means putting together different elements and creating a final product in which all those elements have their specific value. I am a contributor, not the author of the final result. This design project is a collective narrative that brings together George (the tailor), my mother, the Qastina village and all those people whom I never met but who relate to the products. For instance, one day I received a long email in which a lady from Australia wrote that she was so happy and excited to see the name of her original village in such a beautiful project!

— You also give many artistic workshops, particularly for young people and children, what do you learn from them?

There is always something new to learn, they helped me a lot in developing my ideas and imagination. Through the years one’s imagination starts to take a shape but kids simply reshape it or make it shapeless again. Through their questions, they open up my mind and together we build something from the ground up, we recycle materials and eventually something incredible always comes out. Children have unlimited imagination and I consider my workshops as a way of exchanging not only imagination but also enthusiasm and good vibes. In the end, I am not teaching but interacting with them.

— What will the future of Qastina designs be like?

I hope this project will grow and involve a bigger team with new ideas and new designs. I would like to develop different types of items, start my own design brand and spread its name as much as possible. In this project, I am celebrating the name of the village I come from, and it is a way of resisting exile and displacement and reconnecting to my roots. Many people think I created a name that sounds like Italian or Spanish, to make it sound like a western project. But I am a refugee and this is the name of my village where I hope, one day, I will return, to live, farm, cook and exchange food between neighbours again. Most Palestinian refugees still have the keys to their houses in the villages. I want Qastina designs to be a successful business that reconnects to the beauty and richness of the Palestinian culture so that Qastina will not cease to exist.

This conversation took place on Wednesday 15 February via zoom with Ayed Arafah, Annelys Devet and Lucia Mansueto

Engage with the designs of Ayed Arafah

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