An acronym for the Middle East and North Africa, MENA refers to a grouping of countries situated in and around an expansive geographic region, typically considered to include around 19 countries – though the definition can be stretched to comprise up to 27, including Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman,…
A key event in China’s cultural and culinary calendar, the Mid-Autumn Festival, falling this year on Saturday 10 September, marks the point at which the moon is at its brightest and roundest, when loved ones typically gather for communal feasting and toasting. To pay homage to this auspicious occasion, Bun House founder Z He has…
Born in Tokyo in 1894, celebrated potter Shōji Hamada was a key figure in the Mingei Japanese folk-art movement, developed from the mid-1920s in Japan by philosopher and aesthete, Yanagi Sōetsu. Some years prior to the movement’s emergence, in 1921, a young Hamada travelled with his close friend and fellow potter Bernard Leach to the…
A veritable melting pot, contemporary Peruvian culture has been shaped by the gradual blending of Amerindian cultures with European and African ethnic groups, as well as in parts, Chinese and Japanese influences, over centuries. Through history, the diversity and rugged geography of Peru allowed varied traditions and customs to co-exist and proliferate simultaneously. The establishment…
A forerunner of textile making until the 19th century, weaving practices flourished in India since the Bronze Age, with cotton cultivation and processing emerging during the time of the Indus Valley Civilisation. In medieval times, cotton textiles were imported to Rome through the maritime Silk Road and Arabian-Surat merchants traded fabrics with Basra and Baghdad…
The Aztec serpent god Quetzalcoatl is the muse of Mexican architect Javier Senosiain’s psychedelic and slithering apartment complex just north of Mexico City. Now available to rent via Airbnb, at least in part, El Nido de Quetzalcoatl, or Quetzalcoatl’s Nest, is a truly unique creation situated in the verdant ravines of Naucalpan de Juárez. Quetzalcoatl,…
Hiroshima-based composer Meitei, working under the newly coined alias Tenka, has announced the launch of his upcoming album Hydration, set for release on 14 September via Métron Records. The album explores the rich natural ecosystems and wild ambience of the rural surroundings of his Japanese residence, navigating colour, sound, smell, humidity, touch, atmosphere and even…
Bread was inexorably linked with the formation and proliferation of early human societies. From the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, where wheat was domesticated, cultivation spread north and west, to Europe and North Africa, and east towards East Asia. This in turn led to the formation of towns, as opposed to the nomadic lifestyle,…