Interview: Offgrid
Luca Curci talks with Offgrid during MIXING IDENTITIES, third appointment of CANVAS ART FAIR, at THE LINE Contemporary Art Space in London.

“My art work is guided by the deeply personal and the infinitely complex relation between human motions and emotions and is expressed through an abstract affinity between shapes, materials and structures.”

Lama Khayat Salloum is a Lebanese interior and product designer, founder of Offgrid design studio. Offgrid is an interior design studio and exhibition space based in Beirut. Located in Badaro, a vibrant neighborhood, Offgrid is an art platform introducing Lama’s designs and paintings as well as the masteries of local and foreign designers. As an interior architect, Lama has executed scores of residential projects. She has her eccentric signature in reshaping and tailoring the space to integrate with the client’s identity. As a painter, her strokes and maneuvers convey her thoughts in a simple but yet eloquent way. As a product designer, her collections are mused by structural shapes and contours and customized by Lebanese craftsmen to grant Offgrid its unconventional identity.

Luca Curci – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
Offgrid – Basically, I started as an interior designer with an eccentric signature in reshaping and tailoring spaces to integrate creative dimensions. Later, I discovered that experience isn’t complete until we create a feature, a detail, a something of our own.

LC – How did you get to your current artistic practice?
O – As an artist and a product designer, I passed through a journey of conceptual art where motivation, exploration and practice are the keywords. Afterwards, comes the exposure, I attended artistic panels such as Paris and Milan Design Week, I took part at Beirut Design Week and displayed my designs at Beirut Design Fair. In 2020, my cloth valet design ‘To And Fro’ won the furniture category at DNA Paris Design Awards 2020.

LC – Did your style change over the years? In which way?
O – Progress is unattainable without change. Experience is liberating, it generates clearer visionary compositions and bolder frame of mind.

LC – How do you feel when you see your work completed?
O – A beautiful completed work is like a fingerprint that never fades. It is an admirable trophy, an ecstatic feeling of fulfillment and a consistent motivation.

LC – What is your creative process like?
O – For me, each and every state is an inspiration, followed by the visualization. The thought grows into preparation where more ideas and concepts come out of the process, the work itself. Then comes the doubt that is eventually washed out by elaboration. At the end, every single process is a challenging adventure that bring forth a distinctive piece of art.

LC – In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the festival’s theme?
O – Mixing identities theme focuses on the human body as a strong communication system with its own language and expressions. “Ontha” and “Thakar” are two metal sculptures tamed perfectly to transports the same concept. The aligned postures along with the curved details reveal their gender identities.

LC – Can you explain something about the artworks you have in our exhibition?
O – “Ontha” and “Thakar” are two conceptual linear sculptures. The concept behind this design is to highlight the power of posture and body language in revealing the identity, attitude and gender of a human being. The rose gold glossy finish of the two tubular metal adds a skin-like effect that flashes an elegant contrasts with the bare metal base.

LC – Would you suggest a collaboration with us? What do you think about our services?
O – Definitely it is always a bright idea to collaborate with ITSLIQUID GROUP. It is the perfect artistic environment where quality exposure meets cultured creativity.

LC – Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?
O – Proper opportunities and quality exposures are the perfect keys of an artist and a designer success. ITSLIQUID GROUP can provide such an environment.

LC – Did you enjoy cooperating with us?
O – Definitely and I’m looking forward for more collaborations.