Punch needle tapestry exploring queer Arab identity through insurgent memory, sacred symbolism, and ancestral craft, transforming traditional textile practices into acts of resistance, reclamation, and queer futurity.

These ex-votos, central to the work, are not relics of tradition but living rituals—queer sanctuaries embedded within the fabric. Some draw from ancestral signs, others are newly imagined, carved into the cloth as constellations of remembrance and resistance. They honor lives and lineages often rendered invisible, reclaiming cultural space through the sacred act of making. In Kurban’s hands, rug weaving becomes more than craft—it is an embodied archive, a poetics of insurgent memory.

This work interrogates the intersection of queer identity, Arab heritage, and textile art, drawing from queer theory, Middle Eastern art history, and textile studies. It situates itself within a lineage of queer Arab artists who reclaim cultural memory through traditional practices, challenging the colonial gaze and Western narratives that have long marginalized MENA voices. Kurban’s practice queers the sacred archive, not only preserving but transforming it—offering a future woven with resilience, visibility, and love.

At its core, Thread Bare is a bridge between past and present, a tapestry of grief and joy, mourning and celebration. Through the integration of a zine—a low-cost, anti-institutional format rooted in community knowledge-sharing—Kurban extends the work beyond the white cube, embedding it into the same radical lineage of resistance from which it draws.

After-movie for the 11th edition of Les Traversées du Marais, an artistic and cultural festival in Paris.
Developed during Kurban’s time with L’agence So for Marais Culture+.

Traverse is a collective curatorial experience in virtual reality, bringing together immersive works within cultural spaces. This project was developed in collaboration with Victoria de Lagausie during Kurban’s time at L’agence So, as part of a collaborative initiative led by Diversion, Futura, Hacnum, and ArtExplora.

Logo Design

The logo conveys a sense of passage, threshold, and transition between realities.

Rather than referencing a “hard” or technological aesthetic, it evokes a sensitive, almost organic and immersive experience – suggesting movement, permeability, and transformation.

Various creations and production for the new Cinéma Alice Guy in Bobigny, France.
Developed during Kurban’s time with L’agence So for Est Ensemble.

Logo desgin and visual identity developed for RaveScreen, a hybrid cinema experience created within the Futura Incubator, blending film, live music, and collective engagement. Developed during Kurban’s time with L’agence So.

Developed within the Futura Incubator, RaveScreen explores new ways of experiencing cinema by responding to the growing desire for collective, embodied, and participatory cultural formats. The project proposes a hybrid model where film, live electronic music, and mediation coexist — reintroducing movement, presence, and shared energy into the cinematic space while preserving the integrity of the film.

As part of its development, L’agence So provided creative direction, shaping a visual identity that reflects this intersection of worlds. The logo combines bold, contemporary typography (Nohemi) with a radiant, halftone light motif that evokes both rave culture (strobe, vibration, energy) and cinema (projection, focus, screen). Designed as a flexible and scalable system, the identity adapts seamlessly across formats — from digital interfaces to large-scale projections — mirroring the project’s hybrid, modular, and evolving nature.