Hayakum
Dates are more than a staple; in Qatar, they are woven into rituals of hospitality, communal gathering, and everyday exchange. Hayakum, meaning “welcome,” reinterprets the date container as a contemporary object rooted in this cultural practice. Developed within the Liwan Craft Residency under the mentorship of Cristian Mohaded, the project operated as a focused design exercise within the broader theme of Oasis: Our Design Ecosystem. Within the exhibition, Hayakum functions as a shared node, demonstrating how a single culturally significant object can generate multiple interpretations.
Project lead: Cristián Mohaded
Cristián Mohaded is an Argentinian artist and designer born in Catamarca (1980). His work is held in major museum collections, including the Denver Art Museum (2024), the Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2022), the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2019), and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (2014). In 2023, he presented the solo exhibition Protomorfosis at the Emilio Caraffa Museum, Córdoba, following Territorio Híbrido at the National Museum of Decorative Art, Buenos Aires (2021). He received the Konex Diploma of Merit in Visual Arts in 2022. Mohaded collaborates internationally with brands including Louis Vuitton, Loro Piana, Roche Bobois, CC-Tapis, Moooi, and Gebrüder Thonet Vienna.