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Pearls from the depth of the mysterious sea

The new Ama lights showcase intricate and thoughtful design, as well as BOMMA’s outstanding technical abilities. Ama visually evokes the delicate shells of mussels that produce treasured pearls. Meticulously cut glass of substantial size encases a pearl in its center in the form of a light source providing soft ambient light.

The following experts, curators, and art theorists helped select the best achievements in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Austria in 2022/2023: Klara Czerniewska-Andryszczyk (independent curator, Warsaw), Judit Horváth (curator, Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest), Tatiana Kollarová (organizer, DAAD Festival, Bratislava), Eva Slunéčková (independent journalist, Prague), and Alice Stori Liechtenstein (curator, Schloss Hollenegg, Graz).

Awards are given, awards are accepted, awards are infinite, and no rule limits how many there can be. So perhaps the number of awards is inflationary, the Pulse awards will be one of many awards announced in Europe each and every year, and eventually they will fade into obscurity. It is possible, but bestowing an award does not create merely a bond between the presenter and the recipient; where and why an award is granted is also important.

For example, this year only one award will be given out in our new PULSE project – the Jan Kaplicky Award for lifetime achievement in design and architecture. Coming to accept the award in person is a Jewish-American architect and native of Łódź, Poland, Daniel Libeskind.

The famed architect of the Jewish Museum Berlin and creator of the competition-winning designs for Ground Zero in New York City and the Denver Art Museum will come to Prague in June. His motivation for accepting the award is quite different from the reasons why another Central European, Austrian playwright and humorist Thomas Bernhard, showed up at award ceremonies. In his brilliant essay My Prizes, he mocked the soulless formalities and social rituals and expressed his frequent contempt for the prize, especially the jury, and the city where the prize was awarded. However, he would grudgingly appear because the prize was accompanied by a cash injection.

Daniel Libeskind won’t receive any money from us, and he doesn’t need an award to “buff up” his reputation. And yet he will accept it for the very same reason why we decided to create PULSE awards in the categories of architecture, design, and interior design, which will go to creators from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia starting next year: because these countries form not only the physical center of Europe but are figuratively the beating heart of Europe.

And we who, like Daniel Libeskind, were born in this part of the old continent, we know or sense that we’re not a part of Scandinavian culture; we’re different from the Mediterranean; Europe’s East is far from us; and we differ from the West due to our history, aesthetics, style, Weltanschauung, and mores.

These five countries are fatefully linked by so many historical and present ties, they cannot be broken. Establishing PULSE, a Central European platform for architecture and design, is thus a logical and natural step, not a whim. Mutual positive meetings and confrontations are beneficial for us, and comparisons help make us look beyond the fences of our own gardens of thought.

We hope that PULSE will creatively pulse in our heads for a long time to come.