Hozan Zangana

KAMI
Kami is an ongoing body of work initiated through an invitation from Akita Prefecture to engage with Urushi, one of the oldest continuously practiced lacquer traditions, now endangered by a dwindling number of masters and successors. Rather than preserving it as an artifact, the project extends the tradition through transformation, sustaining knowledge accumulated over centuries.
The work was realised in collaboration with Dutch master Dave van Gompel, trained in Japan, alongside Japanese Urushi artist Mamiko Masumura. From this convergence of Kurdish Iraqi design vision, Japanese lacquer mastery, and a Dutch analytical approach to form and process emerged a language shaped through sustained dialogue between hand and material.
The collection brings together objects shaped by dual inheritance, drawing on Japanese craft tradition and the visual and symbolic languages of the ancient Near East. They move between cultures without resolving the distance that separates them.
Rooted was previously exhibited at the Nitten Exhibition in Tokyo, marking Zangana as the first European and Middle Eastern artist included in Japan’s national craft showcase, and was later presented at World Expo 2025 in Osaka. It has also been selected as a finalist for the Design Doha Prize 2026.
Kami proposes something both simple and demanding: endangered craft is sustained not by memory alone, but by the courage to transform what we value.