'matchmaker' pairs senior artisans with young designers at jerusalem design week

Matchmaker at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

On the occasion of Jerusalem Design Week (JDW) 2022, the collaborative initiative Matchmaker connects local senior artisans and young contemporary designers, spawning a series of new products. Returning to JDW for its fifth time, the project which is curated by Daniel Nachmias and Gretel Judith Scheiner includes a variety of concepts, including assemblable medals, traditional embroidery-like lighting fixtures, and an intricately knitted sea pouf. 

Every year, the project’s true power is revealed, not only in the carefully chosen products on display but also, and perhaps more significantly, in what is not seen in the exhibition: encounters that give life to a rapidly vanishing professional sector and young designers looking for a sense of place.

the Matchmaker project at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

all images by Dor Kedmi, unless stated otherwise

focusing the spotlight on senior artisans

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years has shed light on seniors; their loneliness, vulnerability, and distress in the face of what is happening in the world. This year, Matchmaker focuses the spotlight on them from a different angle, one that highlights and develops the skills, information, and experience they possess, as well as their capacity to transmit it to us, the next generation.

Like all exhibits in the Jerusalem Design Week 2022 (see more here), Matchmaker focuses on time which can be estimated, evaluated, and measured in many ways — from the degradation of a material to the roughness of a worker’s hands to the accuracy of a skilled creative’s motion. A number of elaborate pieces were produced as the result of this latest endeavor which brought together experienced artisans and young designers. Although the curating process started out as an exhibition-focused operation, it quickly evolved into a labor of recording, tracking down, and preserving the elder craftsmen’s work.

‘The matchmaker project is challenging every year. This is a project that repeatedly reminds us that design has great power and meaning in our lives — whether it’s driving the local economy, inspiring a young breeze in an old work environment, or whether it’s creating a new language and way of telling the story or giving new tools to young designers. Finally, we deal with alchemy. It is not always as romantic as it seems. The end result, and the stories in the connections themselves between people from different sectors and cultures, are at the heart of the project and are showcased as a glimpse into small micro cosmoses that make the city of Jerusalem.’ share curators Daniel Nahmias and Gretal Judith Shiner.

the Matchmaker project at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

from plastic dowry vessels to a knitted sea pouf

In ‘Dio-composition’, industrial designer Geffen Yamin has collaborated with multidisciplinary recycling artist Tova Peneri use common materials like plastic to make sacred dowry vessels. Meanwhile, jewelry designer Yael Friedman and artisan Eitan Posner have joined forces to create a set of medals for everyday recognition, ‘because at some point in life, each one of us can become a hero or heroine.’ These medals may be changed, disassembled, and reassembled, similarly to how typesetters in old print factories would rearrange the letters for each new printing.

A collection of playful lighting fixtures called ‘A Moment of Clarity’ by soft metal turner
Shem Tov Mar Haim and ceramic designer Assaf Cohen aims to give each ‘moment’ an aesthetic position not only in the history concealed within the object, but as a clear element of the finished result. Neomi Chana Shtilman, a visual artist, and Natalie Lifshitz, a textile workshop leader, have designed a pouf enveloped in knitted pieces that resembles the vibrant layers of the sea. Knitters were asked to forego the use of conventional and precise methods in order to create the desired texture in this conceptual challenge. The fact that all of the knitters in the workshop are elderly women added to the gentleness and timelessness of the project.

the Matchmaker project at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

‘days of creation’ illustrations & expressions of time

In ‘Satin Sheen’, glass artist Majdi Nadr Ashhab and embroidery artisan Aamal Jamel Hamadeh Sabbah create chandeliers fashioned out of stiffened fabrics that highlight Islamic decorative motifs and the iconography of Palestinian towns and villages. For the ‘Days of Creation’ project, illustrator Naama Lahav and craftswoman Hava Katzcreated created quilt bodies for each of the days of creation in the Book of Genesis. Each body represents a different natural element: light and dark, sea and sky, earth and plants, the heavenly bodies, birds, and fishes – and humans – man and woman.

In ‘Bird’s Nest’ by Industrial Designer Bat El Hirsh and metal caster Moshe Kiczales draw from Jerusalem’s Old City to combine ceramic and metallic materials and sculpt miniature time capsules. This project seeks to investigate the nexus between preservation and renewal, the expected and the unexpected. Last but not least,  the ‘Eternal Traveler’ by architect Georgina Abboud and upholsterer Arie Tempelhof introduces a collection of objects that focuses on the expression of time, by means of rounded shapes, wood lamination, and 3D printed embroidery.

Dio-composition by Geffen Yamin and Tova Peneri for the Matchmaker project at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

Days of Creation by Naama Lahav and Hava Katzir for the Matchmaker project at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

Days of Creation by Naama Lahav and Hava Katzir for the Matchmaker project at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

Calm Seas at Noon by Neomi Chana Shtilman and Yad LaKashish for the Matchmaker project at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

Bird’s Nest by Bat El Hirsh and Moshe Kiczales for the Matchmaker project at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

Eternal Traveler Lamp by Georgina Abboud and Arie Tempelhof for the Matchmaker project at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

Satin Sheen by Majdi Nadr Ashhab and Aamal Jamel Hamadeh Sabbah for the Matchmaker project at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

Everyday Medals by Yael Friedman and Eitan Posner for the Matchmaker project at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

Dio-composition by Geffen Yamin and Tova Peneri for the Matchmaker project – image by Oded Antman

A Moment of Clarity by Assaf Cohen and Shem tov mar Haim for the Matchmaker project – image by Oded Antman

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Satin Sheen by Majdi Nadr Ashhab and Aamal Jamel Hamadeh Sabbah for the Matchmaker project - image by Oded Antman

Satin Sheen by Majdi Nadr Ashhab and Aamal Jamel Hamadeh Sabbah for the Matchmaker project - image by Oded Antman

Dio-composition by Geffen Yamin and Tova Peneri for the Matchmaker project - image by Oded Antman

Dio-composition by Geffen Yamin and Tova Peneri for the Matchmaker project - image by Oded Antman

Everyday Medals by Yael Friedman and Eitan Posner for the Matchmaker project - image by Oded Antman

Everyday Medals by Yael Friedman and Eitan Posner for the Matchmaker project - image by Oded Antman

A Moment of Clarity by Assaf Cohen and Shem tov mar Haim for the Matchmaker project - image by Oded Antman

Bird’s Nest by Bat El Hirsh and Moshe Kiczales for the Matchmaker project - image by Oded Antman

Bird’s Nest by Bat El Hirsh and Moshe Kiczales for the Matchmaker project - image by Oded Antman

Eternal Traveler Lamp by Georgina Abboud and Arie Tempelhof for the Matchmaker project - image by Oded Antman

project info: 

name: Matchmaker 2022
curator: Daniel Nachmias and Gretel Judith Scheiner
designers and artisans: Geffen Yamin, Tova Pener, Yael Friedman, Eitan Posner, Assaf Cohen, Shem Tov Mar Haim, Neomi Chana Shtilman, Yad LaKashish, Magdy Lader Ashhab Aman Jamil Hamadiya Sabah, Naama Lahav, Hava Katzir, Bat El Hirsch, Moshe Kitzels, Georgina and Raphael Abboud, Aryeh Templehof
event: Jerusalem Design Week 2022