The Dia Al-Azzawi Prize for Public Art, established in 2021, is the region’s only award dedicated to recognising transformative artworks within urban settings. This prestigious prize honours artists and architects who redefine public spaces, foster dialogue, and enrich communities through their creative and contextually sensitive interventions. It plays a vital role in the cultural landscape, celebrating those who push the boundaries of public art in the Arab world and beyond.
In this series of interviews, we introduce the finalists shortlisted for the 2024 Dia Al-Azzawi Prize. These artists and designers have shown an exceptional ability to engage with urban environments, transforming them into platforms for expression, connection, and change. Their work challenges conventional perceptions, inspires public interaction, and leaves a lasting impact on the cities they touch. We invite you to explore their journeys, inspirations, and the influence of their remarkable creations.
This interview features Mais Al Azab, a Jordan-based architect and designer whose work exists at the intersection of art and architecture. In 2022, Mais’s Flatland Pavilion, a multi-faceted architectural installation, was highly commended in the Dia Al-Azzawi Prize for Public Art. Here, Mais discusses the beginnings of her practice, her experiences with public art, and the inspiration behind her site-specific installation Borderline, which is shortlisted for the 2024 Dia Al-Azzawi Prize for Public Art in the Arab World.
What do you aim to achieve during each project you work on?
Design excellence in the public realm of cities, embracing site-specificity and curated human’s experience as crucial modalities for a sensible intervention and an enjoyable urban experience.
Tell us about starting your own Studio?
My very first versatile studios were all appropriated corners in the public libraries of Amman, starting from the art library of Darat al Funun to JNGFA’s library to others. Having my 1st client/ commissioner as a conceptual installation artist (Kiluanji Kia Henda) was a twist of professional fate and hence the direction and themes of what I call ‘my architectural studio’s early career form’.
How does the Borderline installation challenge conventional perceptions of borders and barriers?
The design aspiration of the installation was to heighten the ‘presence of a barrier wall’ by slowing down the flow of physical movement along one of the main spines of the JNGFA’s park – yet without obstructing it entirely. The breaking down of the wall segments was intentionally frozen in the physical design composition of the installation’s footprint to highlight that mediated moment of a permeable ‘barrier-wall’ that connects rather than separates.
How did the installation interact with its surroundings and the public, particularly in the context of Amman Design Week 2019?
Borderline installation offered an accessible and interactive pop-up structure that called for a more equitable public domain and aimed for a counter message to social exclusivity. One of the most rewarding outcomes of being part of the larger city-wide Amman Design Week platform was meeting a group of performers and dancers who improvised and reacted to the installation and its concept. It was beautiful to see the appreciation of the message and the interaction with the work from the community and the other ethnic groups living in Jordan*.
In what ways does the installation reflect the socio-political landscape of Jordan and the broader Middle East?
The installation resonates closely with the restriction of free movement within and out of the Middle East region, yet it reflects the sad, perplexing reality in the larger world. A chart by the U.N. Refugee Agency shows the increase in the world’s border barriers from 7 at the end of World War II to 77 at the time of the chart’s release in 2017*.
Data source: University of California Berkley, University of Quebec, Montreal
How did the collaboration with structural safety consultants and fabricators influence the final design of the installation?
The collaboration ensured that the temporary light wall segments would retain physical rigidity and safety against lateral force induced by irresponsible public interaction. The impact was manifested in the aspect ratio’s consideration for the broken modular segments.
What was the conceptual inspiration behind turning a physical wall into a zone for free movement and public interaction?
The Berlin Wall murals, the US-Mexico’s ‘Borderwall as Architecture’ project and last Banksy’s ‘Walled Off Hotel’ in Bethlehem.
How do you envision the installation’s impact on public discourse regarding isolation and separation?
I hoped to provoke public thoughts regarding the impact of the most elemental forms of physical gestures (the wall) and its double-edged power. Allowing equal interaction between different community social circles was intended to help people punch holes in their own social and cultural walls. Such designed or ‘conditioned’ set-ups, I believe, have great potential to address some of these difficult social challenges as they enable people to express their reaction against the work and, therefore, have a voice.
What sparked your passion and interest in Public Art?
Ismail Fatah’s sculpture against the old Amman’s city fabric at Darat Al Funun and my first time visiting the Serpentine Pavilion in London (2006).
Meet our other finalists: Alaa Maan, Dalal Mitwally, Shouq Al-Mana, Manal AlDowayan, Najla El Zein, and Dana Awartani.
Meet Our Finalists series is a compilation of interviews with those who have been shortlisted for our awards. Mais Al Azab is a finalist for the Dia Al Azzawi Prize for Public Art, which awards artworks within the urban context that have had a transformative impact on their communities in the Arab World.