Majallet Onboz is the first of its kind interdisciplinary illustrated Arabic magazine for curious youth and thirsty adults! It stems out from the philosophy of Dar Onboz. Dar Onboz is an independent publishing house of Arabic picture books for adults and children based in Beirut, Lebanon. Founded in 2006 by Nadine Touma and Sivine Ariss, we are a creative interdisciplinary platform bringing together writers, artists, designers, typographers, composers, musicians, puppeteers, storytellers, animators and filmmakers, all driven by a passion to provide what the private or the public sector isn’t providing in the Arab world, which is profound powerful content, a trigger for the imagination, a delight of senses, tools for critical thinking, innovative pedagogies, all in the finest production quality possible making art and literature accessible to an audience that would have never had access to it. We have won 25 international awards amongst the best awards in the world for our work including 4 awards at the Bologna Ragazzi Award in Italy which is the most prestigious on in the field, the latest award being this year for our book Sama. Majallet Onboz is the fruit of everything we love and believe in. One theme-several roads leading to it. Theme 1- Flight. We created Majallet Onboz because We believe that in each and every one of you there is an artist a scientist an explorer a reader a Hakwati and much more waiting to be awakened in ways long forgotten and yet so inspiring and powerful. We might finally have found the answer for joy and a cure for boredom. Majallet Onboz will make your world go round, have you travel across time and space, grasp art and weave it with science, fly to the moon and back and rediscover that Arabic can speak to our aspirations and to what we dream of. Each issue has one theme, addressed through science, games, stories, comics, architecture, archeology in collaboration with the Lebanese Ministry of Culture and the National Museum in Beirut, Arabic calligraphy both history and practice, cinematography, art history, folktales, info graphics, paper sculptures, geology, origami, cartography, old photographic archive in collaboration with the Arab Image foundation, art from the region, facts…
It will be published bi annually in several forms:
In print with special paper supplements
A digital interactive application
A website www.majalletonboz.com
Majallet Onboz Films ranging from documentaries, to fiction, to the artists at work…
Majallet Onboz Recordings of stories and folktales
A tour all over Lebanon with Hakawati performances and activities.
The tone of Majallet Onboz is humorous, informative without being didactic, profound without being heavy, and linguistically friendly.
The Digital interactive application allows the reader to navigate their journey, to read, interact, watch, and listen, not just flip pages. It is a sensorial experience that utilizes the digital format as a medium not a tool. So in the same manner we treated the paper format or the films or the recordings we treated the digital experience to be catered, unique and specific to each entry in the magazine.