TARA SAKHI STUDIO

Collaborations

CRAFTSMEN

Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council

Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council engages with women artisans across the UAE, Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Central Asia and South East Asia regions to empower them economically and socially through vocational training and up-skilling programmes. In doing so, the Council has been ensuring the preservation of indigenous craft heritage. A hub of global crafts collaborations, Irthi ensures the modernisation of traditional crafts, and creates new market opportunities for local craftswomen by partnering them with international designers and artists, merging Emirati crafts and artisanal techniques with cutting-edge design and innovation to produce contemporary Emirati crafted products. Irthi is an affiliate of NAMA Women Advancement Establishment (NAMA) and operates under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah and Chairperson of NAMA. Read more on irthi.com or follow on @irthicouncil

Laguna B

Laguna~B is evolving into the point of reference in collectible glassware. Looking to fulfill the highest quality standards, the company produces its hand-blown signature pieces with the help of experienced glass masters in Murano. Marcantonio believes in fostering and investing in human creativity and skills at all levels. For this reason, everything at Laguna~B is carefully made by talented human beings. For more info lagunab.com or on @everywhee_lagunab

Fabiano Amadi

Fabiano Amadi is a Glass Master in Murano. Murano is his island, where he took the first steps in his profession. He learnt the technique during the years of the apprenticeship, but most importantly he learnt that passion is the true essence of art.

Glass blowing is not simply a job, it is his world. Every day in the workshop, his ideas are transformed into many different creations thanks to glass, a material with such charm, a material that constantly needs to be dominated in the workshop. Fore more info fabianoamadi.com

Gilbert Debs & Claudia Chahine

Founded by Gilbert Debs and Claudia Chahine, Opus Magnum Studio is distinguished by its rigorous investigation of matter, its seamless integration of craft and design, and its commitment to bespoke production. Operating from their Beirut workshop, the two founders conceive, engineer and hand-cast each piece themselves, controlling every stage from material formulation to finishing, and thus creating works that transcend the boundaries between furniture, sculpture and architecture. Gilbert brings over three decades of R&D experience: his signature innovation lies in combining disparate materials—metals, mineral aggregates, resins, glass and wood—so that each retains its inherent nature while giving rise to unexpected textures, patinas and structures. For more info opusmagnumgallery.com

The Piecemakers

Founded by Taymour Jreissati in 2015, The PieceMakers - originally branded Tawlet - started as just a small business dedicated to table creation when the founder & his wife Lea, noticed there was a large void in Beirut’s furniture market for affordable, modern, quality pieces. Quickly, they built a solid reputation based on trust, quality outcomes & customer satisfaction. This helped them organically grow into a promising platform for design & customization, successfully collaborating with some of the best architects, designers, and entrepreneurs in the country and managed to build a wide & loyal database of individual customers. Read more on thepiecemakers.com or on @thepiecemakers_beirut

Marm Group

Marm Group has over 50 years of stone experience in mining and processing. The company is fully supported by qualified personnel and facilities for the production of dimensional rough blocks and slabs. Being consistent and reliable in the supply of their product satisfies their customers’ requirements and needs, specially after sale contact. Their aim is to put their products between the most demanded ones. Their quarries are well equipped with the latest in mining technology and processing. Read ore on marmgroup.com or on @marmgroup

Marmonil

Born in the 1960’s, Marmonil began with George Abdalla’s vision to take the marvels found in ancient quarries and introduce them to the world. The family grew up with this respect to what our Earth had to offer, and the appreciation of these perfectly, imperfect wonders is what fuels our persistence to hone the intricacies of the craft. Since its founding, half a century ago, Marmonil has evolved a family business to Egypt’s largest vertically integrated stone producer. Their operations cover all aspects of the industry from quarrying, cutting, processing and finishing to packing and distribution of finished stone. Today, as a third generation company with experience in 70 countries, they are considered a world leader in natural stone production. Read more on marmonil.com or on @marmonil

DIRECTORS

Tangents is a series of short-films produced by the studio in collaboration with different directors to immerse the viewer into their projects. It is born from the two sister's eagerness to revisit each space they designed through a fantasy, intersecting architecture with film, fashion and music.

Tristan Tacredi De paoli

Tristan is a student filmmaker based in Venice. He has a poetic approach to filmmaking often lingering on long slow shots to unravel the stories he is telling. for more info @tristantancredi

Rémie Maksoud

Rémie Maksoud, a Beirut-based Lebanese filmmaker, explores the complexities of the human condition through her films. Her work seeks to uncover the hidden aspects of reality, revealing the liminal space between the visible and the invisible, the conscious and the unconscious. She focuses on the emotional complexities of the relationship between individuals and their native land, revealing how interior conflicts shape our relationship to the world. With a decade of experience as a Set Designer, Rémie's unique combination of storytelling and visual styling brings vivid and engaging stories to life on screen. Read more or follow on @remie.mk

Dei El Ayoubi

Dei El Ayoubi is an internationally award winning director - creative director whose unique approach to storytelling involves an ethereal visual style, rich in metaphor and potent in its portrayal of culture and humanity. Her philosophy is simple: solving problems creatively, while imbuing work with emotion and story. Whether as a writer, director or creative director, telling human stories is at the heart of Dei’s work. “Human emotion transcends culture, we all know and understand love, joy, loneliness, separation, and loss regardless of where we grew up or what language we speak. For me, the authenticity lies in bringing truthful experiences to the screen.” Read more on deielayoubi.com or follow on @deil_elayoubi

Mounia Akl

Mounia Akl is a Lebanese director and writer living in New York. She holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from ALBA and an MFA in Directing from Columbia University. Mounia was recently chosen by the Cannes Film Festival’s Director’s fortnight's Factory to represent Lebanon at the 70th Cannes Film Festival as part of Lebanon Factory. Read more on mouniaakl.com or follow on @mounia.akl

Ely Dagher

Ely Dagher is and artist/film-maker working with different mediums and producing work that intertwines on different levels. His work focuses on the layering and constructing of multiple narratives across film, painting and installation. Drawing from his upbringing in Lebanon and his current situation, his work explores the correlation and possibilities created through the play between cultures, histories and fiction. Ely’s artworks function as an extension to his interrogations, joggling between different points of identification and visual structures, from surrealism, science fiction and the occult. His latest short film “WAVES‘98″ (2015) was awarded the short film Palme D’Or at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. His films have been awarded at numerous international film festivals. Read more on elydagher.com or follow on @elydagher

Cyril Aris

Cyril Aris is a Lebanese Director & Screenwriter, with an MFA from Columbia University in the City of New York, currently in post-production for The Swing (2017), his first feature documentary, recipient of a post-production grant from AFAC, and in development for his first fiction feature The House of Glass. His last short film, The President’s Visit (2017), had its world premiere at the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2017. Read more on cyrilaris.com or follow on @cyrilaris

MUSICIANS

Tangents is a series of short-films produced by the studio in collaboration with different musicians to transport the viewer into their projects. It is born from the two sister's eagerness to revisit each space they designed through a fantasy, intersecting architecture with film, music and fashion. Each musician translates his/her own perception of the film into a musical journey.

Fadi Tabbal

Lebanese musician, producer, and sound engineer Fadi Tabbal’s work consists of guitar pieces ranging from stripped acoustics to ambient and electronic-inspired treatments. Tabbal is a full-time member of several Lebanese bands: psychedelic pop band The Incompetents, punk band Scrambled Eggs, electronic duo Stress/Distress. His newest project The Bunny Tylers (with Charbel Haber) veers between drone, electronics, post-rock and noise rock. In addition to handling engineering and production tasks at Tunefork Studios which he founded in 2006, Tabbal is a specialist in sound design and conception, and works on a variety of projects, including sound and music installations for museums, theatre, and films. Read more on faditabbal.com or follow on @fadi_tabbal

Marc Codsi

Marc Codsi is a Lebanese composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was a member of emblematic Lebanese rock band Scrambled Eggs for many years, before focusing his attention on electronic rock duo Lumi and his own solo activities. He currently pursues his career as a musician and performer in solo and with Lumi, and works as a record producer and film composer. Read more on marccodsi.bandcamp.com or follow on @marc_codsi

Mme Chandelier

Mme Chandelier is a Lebanese composer and producer. He is an expert in long division and the guitarist of Kinematik, an instrumental rock band from Lebanon, whose music blends elements of 70's psychedelia, progressive rock and post-rock. Read more on mmechandelier.com or follow on @mmechandelier

Walid Sarouh

Walid Sarrouh is a music composer and producer based between London and Beirut. His musical compositions join the East to the West, creating mystical blends of Oriental and Western music. His work has been featured in prominent advertising campaigns, TV shows and feature films. His repertoire also expands to playful children's music for live shows and animated series. Read more or follow on @walidsarrouh

PERFORMERS

The studio collaborates with performing artists to revisit each space they designed and translate his/her own perception of the work into an extension of their body, movements and emotions.

Jadd Tank

Jadd Tank’s passion for dance spans across 10 years of exploration in the boundless possibilities in which bodies, objects and events relate to each other: the spaces we create and the identities that spaces create for us. Raised by a Lebanese mother and Midwestern father in Dubai, Beirut and the US, his aesthetics are a delicate and bold melange - urgency, vulnerability, globalism and gesture - all brought together through a neo-nomadic lens. Read more on jaddtank.com or follow on @jadd_tank

FASHION DESIGNERS

Tangents is a series of short-films produced by the studio in collaboration with different fashion designers to immerse the viewer into their projects. It is born from the two sister's eagerness to revisit each space they designed through a fantasy, intersecting architecture with film, fashion and music. Each fashion designer translates his/her own perception of the film into a statement garment.

Second St.

Animating classic forms, using unique fabrics and methods such as geometry, dynamic design, and patchwork, Second st. gives classic styles and forms a playful twist for the contemporary urban lifestyle. The brand is run by its partners Sarah Hermez, Tracy Moussi, and Georges Rouhanna, who also lead and manage Creative Space Beirut, a free school for fashion design offering quality design education to talented youth who lack the resources to pursue an education at increasingly expensive institutions. The innovative initiative aims to promote equal opportunity into the creative sector and make the design world accessible to those with vision, flair, and the driving impulse to create. Read more on second-st.com and creativespacebeirut.com or follow on @second.st and @creativespacebeirut

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Each photographer translates his/her own perception of the projects into stills and memories.

Lorenzo Basadonna Scarpa

Lorenzo is a photographer and videomaker based in Venice. Since 2006 he have developed a passion for digital photography and started experimenting with this form of communication, focusing on the documentation of exhibitions, architecture, setup and construction processes, and performances. In the meantime, he devotes myself to personal research, using the traditional process of developing and printing gelatine-silver black-and-white images. For more info lbsfotografia.com and @lbasadonnascarpa

Romain Bassenne

Romain Bassenne is a young French photographer who explores the different dimensions of territory, space, history and its inhabitants. Through reports or personal projects, he questions the presence of man and his own place activity. By his passion for craft, he is led to follow the way of producers, architects or designers. Born in 1986, Romain Bassenne graduated from l'École Nationale Supérieure Louis Lumière and lives in Paris. Read more on romainbassenne.com or follow on @romainbassenne

Ieva Saudargaite

Ieva Saudargaite is a conceptual artist and a photographer of architecture, artifacts and territories. She grew up between Lithuania, United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. She attended the Lebanese American University as well as École Spéciale d'Architecture, and received a Bachelor's degree in Architecture. Ieva has been based in Beirut since 2007. Read more on ievasaudargaite.com or follow on @ieva.saudargaite

Tony Elieh

Tony Elieh is a musician and self-taught photographer based in Beirut. Working as a professional photographer since 2008, he specializes in architecture, fashion, food, and product photography. His work appeared in a variety of magazines and campaigns and he regularly collaborates with young local creatives - from artists and architects to design studios and music labels. He also has an impressive record of portraits from the Beirut culture scene. Read more on tonyelieh.com or follow on @tonyelieh