Team
Director
Mai Abu ElDahab
Raised and educated in Cairo, Mai Abu ElDahab is a contemporary art curator living in Brussels since 2007. Her curatorial projects have been concerned with “how we work” as much as with the “what we do”. Before joining as director of Mophradat in fall 2014, she was most recently co-curator of the 8th Liverpool Biennial, and from 2007 to 2012, she was director of Objectif Exhibitions in Antwerp. She has edited and co-edited many publications including These are the tools of the present (2017), Final Vocabulary (2016), Circular Facts (2011), The Agreement by Hassan Khan (2011), amongst others, all from Sternberg Press. She also commissioned two records, Both Sides of the Curtain by The Dwarfs of East Agouza (with Unrock, 2017) and Behave Like an Audience by Concert (with Sternberg Press, 2013).
Grants Coordinator
Krystel Khoury
Born in Beirut, Krystel Khoury has since 2006 been working as a cultural consultant and coordinator for organizations in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, France, and Germany, for which she coordinates and implements projects engaging artists from the Arab world and Europe. Trained originally as a dancer, Khoury holds a Masters in Performing Arts from Université de Lyon and earned a Ph.D. in anthropology of dance and intercultural dynamics from Auvergne Université in 2014. Her research focuses on embodied knowledge and political discourses, dance education, artistic processes, and anthropological theories. Her latest contributions include Theatre Against Borders (Arts Mdpi, 2018) and Dancing In The Waiting Room (ASA 18, Oxford University). She is also the editor of Lullabies from the Worlds of Islam (Al Ayn museum, 2018) and com(.)com (2019). Since 2019, she is the head professor of ISAC, Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, in Brussels.
Communication Coordinator
Doreen Toutikian
Born in Beirut, Doreen Toutikian joined the Mophradat team in 2020. With a background in human-centered design, she is the founder of Beirut Design Week and MENA Design Research Center since 2011. She has worked as a consultant with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Lebanon and the International Organization for Migration in Iraq, region, Kurdistan (Creative & Cultural Industries development). She lectures MA students on design research at Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts, where she is also a member of the pedagogical committee. In 2018, she co-founded LOOP/Listen Observe Organize Prototype/ in Greece, a nonprofit promoting diversity in artistic and cultural life. She holds a BA in Communication Design from Notre Dame University in Lebanon, and an MA in Design Research from Köln International School of Design. She speaks six languages, and volunteers at Khora as an interpreter for Arabic-speaking asylum seekers in Greece. In 2019, she was an Arts Fellow at State of Concept in Athens, a program for Arab arts practitioners set up by Mophradat.
Accountancy
Art Consult
Translation
Ziad Chakaroun
Graphic identity
Julie Peeters
Web design and development
Arthur Haegeman
Additional design and Arabic typesetting
Valerie Arif
Former team members are Alberto García del Castillo, Amal Khalaf, Carl Cappelle, Jenifer Evans, Lauren Wetmore, Marie-Nour Héchaimé, and Nadia Cherif.