Bahraini creative Nermin Habib is highlighting the kingdom’s heritage on the global stage this year, with her work to be exhibited during the Paris Design Week as well as Cairo Design Week in the autumn.
During Paris Design Week, taking place from September 11 to 13 and Cairo Design Week from November 19 to 28, Nermin is continuing her deep dive into everyday vessels and historical objects, as well as how they connect the region.
“Rather than treating these objects as historical artifacts, I approach them as living forms whose meanings continue to evolve,” she told GulfWeekly.
“My research creates an ecosystem that connects travel, documentation, archival imagery, material experimentation, photography, and ceramic practice.
“Clay becomes both a medium and a method for understanding how objects shape relationships between people, place, climate, and memory.”
Her current focus is Olla Forms - a research-led ceramic series that investigates historic water vessels and the cultural knowledge embedded within them.
With research focused on traditional clay cooling vessels found across Egypt, the Gulf, and the wider region, Nermin’s project is exploring how everyday objects can carry memory, ritual and shared experiences.
During Milan Design Week which took place in April, Nermin presented the project as both an installation and participatory experience, inviting visitors to drink water from the vessels.
“The gesture reactivated the original social function of these forms, transforming the work from a display of objects into a contemporary act of hospitality and shared experience, echoing the communal role these vessels once played across the region,” she added.
She will continue this work with Zir Vessel - a new work created for 1000 Vases during Paris Design Week.
“Inspired by the traditional zir, a large porous clay vessel historically used to cool and store drinking water through natural evaporation, the work draws from a form that once occupied homes, courtyards, streets and gathering spaces throughout the region,” she added.
“Historically, the zir served not only as a functional object but also as a social one, often positioned in shared spaces where people gathered to drink water.
“Its cooling properties, achieved through the natural porosity of clay, reflect generations of material knowledge developed in response to climate and daily life.”
Rather than just recreating these objects, she translates the intelligence behind their material design into contemporary ceramic objects, which walk the thin line between sculpture and function.
She uses hand-built processes and layered surfaces to create forms that appear to be weathered by time, creating objects that feel like they were discovered rather than made.
Field research is an essential part of her practice and through travel, photography, conversations with makers, and visits to workshops, she has traced the social lives of water vessels across different landscapes and cultures.
Nermin will also be the only Bahraini creative participating in Cairo Design Week through Creative Dialogues and Design Point.
She will be working with Egyptian artist Yasmine El Meleegy and UAE artist Alia Al Shamsi, to explore contemporary tableware and lifestyle objects through shared themes of hospitality, material culture, and everyday rituals.
Rooted in regional traditions and branching out into contemporary gathering and living, the project is part of the wider Creative Dialogues programme.
For more details, follow @nerminhabib on Instagram.
