ART & CULTURE · DUBAI
Reading time: 5 minEvery November, Dubai Design Week fills the city with design, but Editions is the corner of it where things get personal. As the Middle East’s fair for limited-edition and small-batch work, it is where the object stops being a product and starts being something you might actually collect. I spent time on the floor this year, and these are the six stands that stayed with me.
Where the fair gets personal
Editions has quietly become one of the most rewarding things to see during Dubai Design Week. Running within Downtown Design on the d3 Waterfront Terrace, it bills itself as the Middle East’s fair for limited-edition art and design, and it lives up to that: more than fifty galleries, studios and collectives showing photography, ceramics, prints and collectible design, deliberately pitched at a point where serious work meets approachable price. It is the platform that bridges the audiences of Art Dubai and Downtown Design, and in doing so it makes collecting feel possible rather than remote.
That is what I like about it. Alongside the scale and specification of the main fair, Editions adds discovery. Each stand holds a story, a process and a point of view, and the pleasure is in uncovering them one at a time. This year felt especially strong, rich in material experimentation, craft-led thinking and a real sense of regional identity. Below are the presentations that earned their place on my list, chosen for craftsmanship, concept and sheer ambition.
AASSTTIINN: Vertical Drift
The most quietly transporting stand at Editions was AASSTTIINN’s Vertical Drift, a composition built around elevation and the slow dialogue between earth and sky. It traced a passage upward, catching the layered horizons of the atmosphere in material and form. At its centre sat the Lapis Chair, a geological fragment shaped into presence, and around it seven clay candle holders rose in measured steps: seven skies, seven gestures toward ascent. The effect was less a product display than a cosmic map, matter reaching toward the infinite.
What made it work was how human it remained. To sit is to ground yourself in stone; to light a candle is to send light on its way upward. The arrangement owes much to the curatorial practice of Made in Tehran, which treats space as language and objects as its syntax, letting the composition itself do the thinking. Set against a muted grey backdrop, the vibrant pieces were given room to breathe, and the whole thing read as a pocket of stillness in the middle of the fair. It was, visually, one of the standout moments of the week.
Moiré Gallery Milano
Moiré Gallery of Milan made a striking Editions debut, bringing the gallery’s instinct for blending art, design and material experiment to a series of sculptural lighting pieces in which light itself became the medium. Each object set up a seamless dialogue between material and illumination, a sense of movement and presence held against a deliberately neutral backdrop so that texture, shadow and glow could all be read clearly.
It was one of the most visually memorable stands of the fair, and a confident showcase of Italian craftsmanship in a new market. I covered Moiré’s arrival in Dubai in more depth separately, in my piece on the gallery’s Dubai Design Week debut, which is worth reading alongside this.
Szkło Studio: Liquid Feelings
Few stands pulled you in as immediately as Szkło Studio’s Liquid Feelings, a vivid display of hand-blown glass sculptures that celebrated the material’s fluidity and its refusal to sit still. Created by Aleksandra Zawistowska and her team, the pieces were made without traditional moulds, so each took a spontaneous, one-off form, turning ordinary notions of glassware into something poetic and slightly unpredictable.
The process was as compelling as the result. You could feel the experimentation in the finished objects, an argument for the beauty of imperfection and individuality over uniformity. What impressed me most was how the curation held it together: each fluid form was allowed to shine while the stand as a whole kept a clear rhythm, so a display of very different pieces still felt cohesive. It made the simple act of drinking from an object feel like something worth pausing over.
Badih Ghanem: Remember Love?
Badih Ghanem’s Remember Love? was one of those installations you notice from across the room. It set raw construction blocks against polished metallic objects, then softened the whole thing with delicate fields of wheat pushing up through the voids. The contrast of industrial and organic, permanence against fragility, utility against poetry, created a landscape of real tension and quiet harmony.
The curation was immersive and considered, leading you through a space where ordinary materials became vessels of memory. By folding natural elements into industrial forms, Ghanem framed design as an act of care, elevating the mundane and inviting you, as the title asks, to remember love in its simplest forms. It was one of the more emotionally resonant things at the fair.
The Rooster Gallery
The Rooster Gallery offered one of the most refreshing fusions of art and design at Editions, pairing a solo installation by Sandra Strele with the gallery’s debut art-driven furniture collection. The premise was simple and effective: furniture that doubles as an expressive canvas. Tables, chairs and sculptural forms served their function while also acting as surfaces for artistic intervention, so everyday objects became immersive works in their own right.
I loved how comfortably the collection blurred the boundary between utility and expression. Nothing felt sacrificed on either side, and the result had a dynamic, contemporary character that stood out on the floor. It was a thoughtful, beautifully curated reminder that design can carry narrative and emotion without ever giving up on being useful.
Duali
Duali brought charm and real craftsmanship to Editions with a curated selection of teaware and crockery that put storytelling first. Based in India, the studio showed several of its collections, each a distinct narrative expressed through meticulous hand-painting. The highlight was Uninvited Guests, a witty series that renders the humble housefly across plates and teacups with startling precision, turning a dining table into something to smile at.
There was depth alongside the humour. Shadows, a more introspective collection, worked in a near-monochrome palette broken by a single splash of red, an unexpected note of feeling woven into the tableware. The studio also showed what it describes as the world’s lightest teacup, a small flex of technical finesse. Across it all, Duali balanced playfulness, craft and refinement, and made contemporary Indian design feel joyful and alive through the everyday rituals of eating and drinking.
The takeaway
Editions 2025 did what the best editions of this fair always do: it showed the depth and range of the design talent shaping this region and beyond. From sculptural lighting and experimental glass to conceptual installations and witty tableware, the common thread was craft in the service of storytelling. As Dubai Design Week grows year on year, so does its power to connect and to spark new conversations, and Editions remains the part of it where those conversations feel closest to hand.
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