Museum as Hub

Graphic designer Ben Wittner presents graphic design from the Arab world and Persia. The graphic design studio eps51— which consists of Wittner and Sascha Thoma—transferred their headquarters to Cairo, Egypt from 2005–2006. Fascinated by Arabic type, calligraphy, and modern graphic design, they started the project Talib Type and a produced the prototype for a book on contemporary Arabic graphic design.

In cooperation with artist Nicolas Bourquin, the project has been expanded to include graphic design from all of the Middle East, involving more than 100 designers and artists from Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon. The final result— Arabesque —collects examples of innovative and groundbreaking design work inspired by the richness of the region’s visual culture.

This program is part of Museum as Hub: Antikhana, a project organized by the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo, on view in the fifth-floor Museum as Hub space through September 21, 2008.

*This event is free but tickets are required. Tickets can be reserved online or at the Museum prior to the seminar’s start.

Together with Sascha Thoma, Ben Wittner founded the graphic design studio eps51 in 2004. Working on a wide range of projects including illustration, print media, type design, Web design, motion graphics, and photography, eps51 mostly serves international clients from the cultural sector. From 2005–2006 eps51 transferred their headquarters to Cairo, Egypt and started the intercultural type project Talib Type, which deals with the hybridization of Latin and Arabic typographic forms, exploring the effect of globalization on contemporary graphic design. Eps51 has had photography and design exhibitions in Munich, Milan, Cairo, Paris, Berlin, and Dubai.