Design Hotel Kuwait City Mirror House
The most incredible and totally unexpected place I visited in Kuwait City is surely The Mirror House. This place is a private house turned into a museum and tourist attraction. It is owned by Mrs. Lidia Al Qattan, a phenomenal artist who was born in Italy and moved to Kuwait when she met her husband Mr. Khalifa Al Qattan, a pioneer of Kuwaiti contemporary art!
This is the only house in the world covered with mirror mosaic, outside and inside, handmade by Mrs. Lidia! We can say that this is her life-time masterpiece, started in 1966 and completed after decades, going through difficult moments, like fighting the termites in 1981. ( click here for the full story )
The tour of the house lasts normally 2 hours and I booked it through WhatsApp: +96550747677
The group of visitors is never bigger than 10 people each time.
The Mirror House Tour
When I got inside the house I was already so fascinated by Mrs. Lidia, due to her unique funky look. I started talking to her and one of the first question was: "Where are you originally from?". Her accent was too familiar to me and in fact she told me: "I am Italian, from Venice! And you?" "I'm Italian too!!!" and we obviously started to speak Italian straight away. It was so unreal to me looking at this lady speaking in Italian with a very strong Venetian accent, in Kuwait City, in that house! I loved that moment!
When all the guests arrived, Mrs. Lidia served us a delicious cake made by her with some juices and delicious cinnamon tea. I recognized the Italian way of welcoming people. And I hugely loved it!
While we were enjoying the yummy cake with the tea in the living room, Mrs. Lidia started telling us how she met her husband, when she first moved to Kuwait and how her journey has been from that moment till now. What a story, I was incredibly fascinated and she was so engaging with her audience!
After a while, Mrs. Lidia turned on the neon lights, and all of a sudden the atmosphere completely changed. Every artwork looked different and everybody in the room felt the magic!
The majority of the paintings in the house has been made by her husband, Mr. Khalifa Al Qattan, a brilliant Kuwaiti artist who founded in the early '60s a new art theory called "circulism". ( click here for the full bio ). In the living room we enjoyed already several ones from the collection!
After the tea session, Mrs. Lidia gave us a tour of the first floor of the house: every room is full of mirror glasses, even the toilet, the shower, the bedroom! I've never seen anything like that! 🙂 I loved walking around the house!
The Art Gallery in the upper floor
The upper floor is entirely dedicated to the couple's art production, a colorful art gallery divided by thematic sections. Through the paintings, Mrs. Lidia explained to us the history of the region and all the conflicts of the past century. It was extremely educational and I learnt a lot during that tour. Immensely grateful!
To have a general idea, in Mr. Khalifa's section we can find themes like "The Egg" or "Evolution", "The Apple" or "Sex and it's implications on the family and society", "Women I Saw" and "The Prophesy" or "The Iraqi Invasion on Kuwait and it's aftermath".
In Mrs. Lidia's section there are the "Art Therapy" Gallery, "Women and Society" Gallery, "Experimental" Gallery, "The Art of Recycling" Gallery and "The Galaxy Journey" Gallery.
In the last room she showed us, at some point she turned off the light and put on a very relaxing music to let us go through a quick spiritual journey.
One of the most interesting parts of this place is their mission to talk about several and precise themes: "Planet Earth" Hall, the "Zodiac" Hall, the "Universe" Hall, the "Knowledge" Hall, "My World" Hall, "Corridor of the Nations", the "Shark Basin", "Sea World" Hall, and "Stairs to Inspiration".
The Library
On this floor, we saw also their interesting library and a small room full of Mr. Khalifa's prizes!
My favorite moment has been when Mrs. Lidia was giving us a lecture about the house and their studies. During her speech, she highlighted the importance of 'diversity' in this world, which is really precious for humans, not something to be afraid of. And I fully agree. Cultural diversity is such a blessing and I personally love learning all the time something new and finding inspiration from people with a different mindset and historical background.
If you will ever visit Kuwait City, this is a must visit!
Great job Mrs. Lidia, you rock!
And you… are you lusting for the sublime?
Always,
Carlotta
Design Hotel Kuwait City Mirror House
Source: https://lustforthesublime.com/art-culture/mirror-house-kuwait-city/
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