This year, Elie Berchan came up with a revisited Christmas mood highlighting our roots.
Arabesque Christmas was the main inspiration. Being from the Middle East, the land of religions, Elie Berchan was inspired to develop such a theme which includes mainly letters, candles and wood branches.
How did you come up with the theme?
It was something that I have always wanted to do, since I am from the Middle East, I wanted to develop something around this concept. I was inspired by our rich, oriental heritage. In today’s world, there is so much negativity associated with our culture and our language and this is very unfortunate. That’s why I chose a theme that will celebrate everything that is good and beautiful about our patrimony. We are, after all, the birthplace of religion and we cannot forget this message of peace and hope. The letters themselves are in free flow and can be constructed to spell any word you like. The beautiful and artistic calligraphy lends itself to a fanciful and idealistic world where imagination and poetry have no limits. The theme is an inspiration for people to dream again in the language of their country!
Why did you use these colors and materials?
The marsala burgundy is a very warm color, surely suitable for Christmas, and a dash of gold is always elegant. The styrofoam helps us to do whatever needed thanks to its light weight. In the 430 cm tree we included light for the letters to project on the ceiling thus spreading knowledge to the world. The Arabic letters do not form any specific word, so that any individual can put letters together and come up with the word he or she wishes to hear. It can be for peace.
For more info: www.elieberchan.com