Raouf Rifai

Born in Lebanon in 1954, Raouf Rifai received his Bachelor’s degree in Decorative Art from the Institute of Fine Arts in Beirut in 1982. He earned his PhD in Urbanism at the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1995. Later on, he began teaching in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Lebanese University. The Dervish, a simple man evolving in virtual or real spaces is one of the recurring themes in Rifai’s work. The diverse and colourful dervishes mirror the Middle-Eastern society itself, with their myriad of expressions, attitudes and emotions. In 2010, he was awarded the first prize of the Sursock Museum's Salon d'Automne in Beirut.