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Relay, hosted by Raja Aderdor, is a podcast built around conversations with the people who shape publishing, art, and culture. In each episode, publishers, photographers, designers, artists, writers, and curators come together to reflect on their work, their creative processes, and the ideas that eventually take form in books, exhibitions, and printed matter.
We are Clavis Aurea: a dynamic team of publishing professionals working on innovative marketing and communication in the industry. Based in Leiden, we eat, sleep, and breathe publishing.
Hi. I'm your host Raja Aderdor from Clavis Aurea podcasts, where we explore publishing, art, culture, and storytelling. This episode is in collaboration with Tasmeem Doha twenty twenty six, and I'm joined by the three co curators of this year's edition, Hind, Reham, and Sara. Together, they've shaped the Hawwil Curatorial Framework, which centers knowledge as something shared, passed on, and continuously transformed through collective learning. Alright.
Raja:Let me start with you Hind. So we're currently here at Tasmeem twenty twenty six and in the middle of the print fair. And I'd love to know more on how do prints, independent publishers, and design studios work together here to communicate ideas and transfer knowledge. When we were thinking about this Tasmeem or this edition of Tasmeem and how it's going
Hind:to revolve around the idea of knowledge sharing, we thought it was going to be very fitting to kind of launch this edition with a print fair which is the first time Tasmeem has included print fair within its programming. And because it's all about knowledge sharing and printed matter is a very kind of like when you think about sharing knowledge, like thinking about books and thinking about printed matter and writing down ideas, it's kind of like so linked together, like those two ideas are so linked together that it just felt so fitting to kind of open the Tasmeem with a print fair and to celebrate independent publishing and design studios that are kind of working on a smaller scale or like at a smaller speed to kind of produce work and share their knowledge instead of it being just like a corporate normal publisher or something like that. And so we really wanted to kind of bring that scene to Doha and kind of show the community what it would be like to kind of create work and kind of sell that work through independent means, whether like creating a small collective or like a science studio, kind of generate work or like create work and share that work with the world.
Hind:And the reception has been really great to kind of see people really react positively to it and kind of really, we're looking for that space to kind of interact with within Doha.
Raja:That's beautiful and from, I mean, I grew up in Qatar, and this is the first time I see a print and publishing fair, so congrats on that.
Hind:Thank you so much.
Raja:It's really impactful, and it really brings together a lot of exhibitors, as well as like local artists.
Hind:Exactly, and it's nice to also see all the students get engaged with it and kind of actually get engaged with Tasmeem, and even through like small talk with all the publishers, they can kind of get an insight into their processes and how they're operate or how they produce their work.
Raja:Lovely. As this first part of Tasmeem, which is the print fair concludes, what kind of ideas or practices do you think it aims to pass on beyond the fair itself?
Hind:I think it's really inspiring to kind of meet different artists from around the world like with this edition of the Print Fair, we kind of aim to kind of highlight studios or publishers from all around the world, so we have people from The US, from The UK, but also from the region, so we have from Tunis, from Lebanon, from Cairo, we also have from Asia, we have from Vietnam, and Hong Kong, and China, and so we thought it was really important to kind of bring the whole world to Doha, like pieces of the world to Doha, that we can kind of get a mix of different opinions and different perspectives, and kind of also learn about all the different mechanisms that are different and that you can learn from, but also kind of share similar experiences and kind of connect on that level as well, and also they're like artists and creatives at different stages in their careers, and it's also really inspiring to kind of hear how they started, or like hear from them advice on how they kept going, and to kind of understand how to kind of also keep going and keep making as an artist and a creative as well.
Hind:Even if you face like burnout or a creative block, like you can get tips and kind of get a new perspective to kind of fuel you and move forward as well with your own practices.
Raja:Absolutely, also the environment definitely gave me personally a lot of inspiration, and I'm sure it did for other people who participated, so.
Hind:Yeah, I think having a podcast as part of this print fair as well was very fitting because we always and when we were planning this Tasmeem, we really wanted to include podcast recording as part of the programming, and we really think that podcasts are today's kind of format or medium of how people kind of listen to knowledge and gain knowledge, and we like even though printed matter is like the original or like the oldest kind of way of gaining knowledge, but still podcasts are today's format of kind of getting knowledge and having them side by side is a really interesting opportunity to have.
Raja:Yeah, thank you for having us.
Hind:Of course,
Raja:thank It's you been for a pleasure to also meet the publishers and the artists and you as curation team. So, it's also our pleasure.
Hind:Thank you so much.
Raja:Now I move to you, Reham. So how will centers on transmission and Relay, how do systems and processes or tools shape the way knowledge moves through the sprint focused context?
Reham:Great, that's a really great question, I would say. The reason also behind, I would answer this by giving you kind of like the reason of why we decided of going with a print fair as part of Hawl and Tasmeem Transmit. Thematically, Hawl is about the idea of the open source and sharing knowledge, knowledge circulation, and there's no better way than actually reading books and you know publications and print work to actually circulate knowledge, and so this is I would say like the perfect kind of like scenario or context where knowledge finds its place to be circulated in the context of art and design of course but also within life and the context of life in general. So yeah, we really enjoy going to art book fairs. Unfortunately, we haven't gone to many.
Reham:We've participated in one and we see how much joy and life it brings to people, but at the same time, how much knowledge you could get by getting yourself exposed to someone else's practice through their art and, know, their knowledge that they share in the form of art in a printed form. Yeah. And it was something that we, when we sat down and we were brainstorming and working on Tasmeem is that we really want to do a print fair. We want to bring this culture here into Doha. We wanted it to be focused on art and design because not as much we usually see this.
Reham:Usually we have like the regular book fair that happens on a yearly basis, but we wanted more focus on art and design and independent publishers who would be able to kind of like share their practice with everyone. So yeah, like a print fair or a book fair is the best place for knowledge circulation through publishers as well. Yeah.
Raja:Great. So it also has different ways of transferring knowledge, as you said, and some of those methods or ways are not immediately visible. And I want to hear more from you in terms of how do the, let's say underlying structures influence what and how audiences engage with, especially at this book fair.
Reham:Yeah. Just like from the top of my head, the different interactions that I had with students, like my students that I taught or visitors that I, you know, like that got invited or like found about the Prince Fair. They were super excited. Most of them are like, we found so much inspiration. And so like we learned about so many things by talking to these publishers, to these design studios.
Reham:Yeah. And then telling us a lot about how they started, how do you usually reach out to people. And, you know, in that context, speaking of it in an art and design context is very important for the students and for the community at a whole to be able to get a glimpse of what is possible of the work that they do. Like what kind of like formats it could transfer to become basically. It could be a poster, It could be a sticker.
Reham:It could be a postcard. It could be a zine, a book, a cassette, you know, music, sound, it could be, you know, designed objects, and you know, cool merchandise in so many different ways that not directly scream at your face. It's nicely and beautifully designed, but it also holds a lot of information and knowledge within it. In regards of it being something that's visible or invisible, I think we see the visible part of it, We see the outcome, the tangible outcome, but within that there goes a lot of research and you know, like conceptual development into these projects and works and publications that these publishers work on. We've had we wanted also to open up the stage for people to kind of like speak about their practice and speak about certain projects that they worked on.
Reham:So we've had a few talks and discussions between the publishers between design studios about, you know, their process to share their process with everyone. Because again, like I mentioned, we do see the outcome, but we don't know what goes behind, you know, all of all of the creative work that they produce.
Raja:Yeah. Thank you so much, Reham. Thank you so much, Rejha. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Raja:So now I move to you, Sara. Being involved in a fair centered on print and independent publishing, what kinds of conversations or reflections did you hope to open through with the work presented here?
Sara:That's a very tough question, but as a creative, I was always interested in printed matter. And I've collaborated with the research lab, Water with Water. And I created with the multiple zines that made it to New York Book Fair and many print fairs that happened like all over the world, also one in Berlin. And I always wished that we could have something here in Doha. And then when we had the opportunity to be the co creators of this Tasmeem edition and they accepted our proposal, that was one of the things that came to our mind and we should, let's do a print fair because what's beautiful about these kinds of creative print fairs is that they allow creative individuals to express themselves through printed work.
Sara:Yeah. So I would say the kind of conversation I hope it starts is basically a new way of self expression, but a way that you can also share it with others by having it being printed, documented and sold. Yeah. You know? So I think it's very important to have this kind of practice in the region and in Doha.
Raja:Thank you so much, Sarah.
Sara:Of course. Thank you.
Raja:Hind, Reham, and Sarah, thank you so much for joining me and for sharing your perspectives on Hawil. And thank you to everyone listening to this episode. This has been Clavis Aria podcasts, and see you next time.
Sara:Thank you. Inshallah.