We're Open

Contemporary design is defined by a multitude of actors and approaches. As ambiguous as this may sound one thing is certain: today, when we are confronted with the very substantial damage that the mad cycle of consumerism has inflicted – and continues to inflict – on our environment, design can no longer serve as a source or means of endless consumption and economic growth.

The global environmental problems we face today demand immediate change; and signal an urgent call for a different type of designer – one that acts to challenge and change the existing models of production, as well as the mentality of consumers and producers alike.

Today, a substantial number of new generation designers are developing projects around social, critical, radical and/or conceptual design inputs that question the existing situation and strive to develop alternatives to the prevailing system, indeed to everyday life as we know and live it. The exhibition project We’re Open! curated by Mika Cimollini and edited by Jeff Bickert presents another design position that seeks out alternatives within the tangible domain of product design solutions. The products presented herein have been conceived and developed through an assessment of the local conditions, particularly in relation to the means of production.

If we are to understand the various current approaches applied in Slovenian design today, we should first outline the still lingering experience of socialism, where design was treated as a means to construct a new and better world for everyone through the state–supported apparatus of mass industrial production.