Design Without Borders
We cordially invite you to the exhibition Design Without Borders in the Umělka gallery.
Venue:
UMELKA Gallery, Dostojevského rad č. 2, 81109 Bratislava
Duration:
March 10 – April 9, 2023
Open: Tue - Sun: noon - 6 p.m.
During the duration of the exhibition, the curators will organize two guided tours:
- March 18, 2023 at 4 p.m.
- March 19, 2023 at 4 p.m.
Founding curators of the exhibition:
Interior designer Tamás Radnóti and textile designer Szilvia Szigeti
Design Without Borders
We are organising the exhibition for the 19th time and for the 1st time in Bratislava. Organised without any institutional background, the project has undergone enormous development over the years and has become one of the most significant design and all-arts events in the region.
All in all, the Bratislava exhibition features the works of 115 artists from 15 countries.
Slovak exhibitors:
- Andrea Ďurianová
- Patrik Illo
- Stanislav Meliš, Jozef Michalko
- Kristýna Španihelová
- Klára Věntusová
- Linda Viková
- Petra Zelisková
- Zuzana Zmateková
- Nina Abramovičová
- Tímea Kepová
- Igor Kováč
- Paula Malinowska
- Žofia Poljaková Mrocková
- Ladislava Repková
- Dorota Sloviaková
- Emil Taschka / Branislav Laho
- Klára Valušková
- Zuzana Pukačová
About the project
Design Without Borders focuses on the interoperability between genres and themes; its name is a reflection on internationality, regional dialogue, European unity and the influence of individual art forms on each other. The express intention of the organisers is to present the wider interpretation possibilities of design. By broadening the concept, they place the creative approach and innovation into focus. In accordance with the practice of previous years, the presented works, projects, and objects connect the most diverse fields: design, visual arts, and performing arts.
In addition to the objects of designers, furniture designers, textile and jewellery designers, glass designers and glass artists (in connection with the International Year of Glass programme organised in 2022), the exhibition's diverse material includes works by visual artists and architects that are close to object creation.
AFAD is one of the most significant and one of the oldest partners of the Design Without Borders project. Our collaboration began in 2018 with the Budapest presentation of the S+M+L_XL Metal and Jewellery Studio's exhibition CONSTELLATION originally shown at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich in 2017. 2019 saw the presentation of a representative selection of the work of several departments of the academy, including material from the Students of František Burian's Studio of Art and Design exhibition organised in the Nedbalka Gallery in 2018-2019, which presented rich material from the works of the university's students. (The exhibition includes two works from there.) Every year since then, a significant selection of the works of the academy's students can be seen at the Design Without Borders exhibition, like now: the works of several departments are on display in two rooms.
The jewellery designers’ section presents, in addition to emerging designers, renowned jewellery artists such as Margit Hart and Susanne Hammer from Austria, Silvia Weidenbach from Germany, Jorge Manila from Mexico who teaches in Norway, and Tanel Veenre from Estonia. It is tradition that jewellery selections from major festivals and schools are also presented every year. This time, the jewellery of the teacher-artists and students of the Milanese Istituto Europeo di Design’s Jewellery Department, the winning works of the Legnica Jewellery Festival’s SILVER prize, the selections of the KHiO – Oslo National Academy of the Arts, LSFDA of Plzeň, MOME of Budapest, as well as VŠVU/AFAD Studio’s S+M +L_XL – METAL AND JEWEL will be on exhibit.
The exhibition features quite a few internationally recognized artists, including Dutch architect Kas Oosterhuis, Hungarian-Dutch Ilona Lénárd, the Austrian mischer'traxler studio, Helena Dařbujánová and Lukáš Jabůrek from Czechia, Oskar Zięta from Poland, and internationally recognized Slovak glass artist Patrik Illo's objects. The section of up-and-coming talents includes the works of Zuzana Zmatekova and Linda Vikova who have achieved success both in Slovakia and internationally; and from Hungary the objects of the Itthon brand’s founders, Bálint Szalai and Adrienn Király, who have won major Hungarian and international awards, as well as the results of the TEXHIBITION project created by textile designer Szilvia Szigeti several years ago.
An exciting part of the selection is the films that were made in place of the Bratislava and Vienna exhibitions that had been planned for 2021 but were cancelled due to Covid. To present a project that literally has no borders, the organisers created a platform innovative even on an international level called the DWB VLOG. In artistic short films the works of the 2020 Design Without Borders exhibition’s 154 participants from 15 countries come to life with the help of internationally recognized contemporary dancer Rita Góbi.
Web of DWB: design-without-borders.eu
The exhibition is part of the Design Without Borders event series and was realised with the main support of the International Visegrad Fund and the cooperation of the Slovak Union of Visual Arts (Slovenská výtvarná únia)