energy from synergy

author Eva Slunečková

It’s seven a.m. in the overnight train, I’ve got a little bag of two bread rolls and a cute little jar of jam, and I’m in pure bliss. I’m just rolling into Budapest and while I was eating breakfast, the Danube and the colorful foliage zoomed by my window. Even though it was a chilly October day, I wasn’t making the trip to go soak in the spa. Instead I came to compare how Czech design measures up to the Central European competition. I’ve been following the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency for several years now, and on paper they look fantastic. One event that the agency and its main curators, Gáspár Bonta and Arpad Keresztury, have been sponsoring for the past three years is 360 Design Budapest. The show is similar in ambition to Prague’s Designblok –connecting local design with the international scene and proving that borders on maps are an obsolete concept. Slovak, German, Austrian, as well as British and Greek artists often exhibit alongside their Czech counterparts in Prague. The situation is similar in the Hungarian capital, with a greater focus on artists from the Visegrad Four (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic), but also Ukraine and Lithuania. This principle allows one to view the international context through the works of local artists and to get a broader picture about their quality, depth, and unique features in direct comparison with select foreign projects. And during this design trip, it was the differences that surfaced.

Once inside Dutch architect Kas Oosterhuis’s Whale, a surprise awaited me for several reasons. The curators approached the exhibition as a whole, placing works from throughout Europe into five different themes and making their own interpretations. The artists here had no influence on the installation, only the products they selected. Given the exhibition concept, I looked forward to an international crowd, engaging side events, and progressive installation architecture. Although all the boxes were checked and the exhibition was visually impressive, the range was so small that I saw everything down to the last detail in a little less than an hour. But there were a few trends that stuck in my mind and went on to become hits just months later, like the multifunctional design of Variedo, Slovakdesigned cabinets that you can build yourself from a few parts, or the infinitely upcyclable metal furniture by Polish design legend Oskar Zieta. I took a few lessons home with me from Budapest – products from different countries fit together and complement each other nicely. But is so little being created in Central Europe? It can’t be! And so, in my search for the competitiveness of Czech design, I moved on to Vienna, where the Blickfang Designmesse was happening at the MAK. But of the inspiring installations there was not a trace. This is all about wheeling and dealing. Have you got that in another color? How much does that cost? Where do you make it? How many can you make per month? These and similar questions swirled around the exhibition halls, all while the questioners probed and prodded to see how strong the chairs, how sturdy the desks, and how heavy the vases were. The exhibitors were arranged in neat lines, obediently responding and handing out business cards. Vienna means business. Several Czech reps whose pieces I’d seen a few days earlier three hundred kilometers away at Designblok and 360 Design Budapest – Master & Master, zeitgeist. limited, and Fleysen – agreed with this assessment.

Apart from the Czechs, what caught my eye at the MAK was Ursula Futura, an Austrian glass accessory brand. After exchanging a few words, I learned that their candlesticks, vases, and glassware are produced in Nový Bor. I was reminded of The Mama, a glass totem that Polish designer Malwina Konopacka made in North Bohemia four years ago for Designblok. Designers Janský and Dunděra contributed to the Polish brand

Kler – their Cheers sofa recently won awards at the Brussels Furniture Fair and from the German Design Council. And these are just a few Central European collaborations that have come about thanks to Designblok. Established brands are often on the hunt for young talents, who make up a significant share of the exhibitors due to the international graduation projects competition. People come to Prague for inspiration and young creativity. Alongside Designblok, Warsaw Home & Contract is one of the largest design weeks in Central Europe.

The festival in Warsaw is probably closest in concept to Milan Design Week, at least its official part in the exhibition halls on the outskirts of the city. Here, too, I came across Oskar Zieta, but besides him I also saw Dezeen founder Marcus Fairs, star designer Tom Dixon, renowned Italian artist Matteo Cibic, and Italy’s Moroso, which as a rule never travels beyond Italy’s borders except for few select festivals. And yet the seats at the talks given by these stars were half-empty. The verdict therefore is: Poland can pull in big names and exhibitors, but the audience isn’t ready for them yet. That’s something we all have in common in Central Europe – an enormous reservoir of talent and potential, but education is foundering, the public doesn’t consider design to be a normal part of their lives, plus they tend to avoid trade fairs. But this circuit run confirmed to me that art and design in Central Europe knows no boundaries. Neither political nor psychological. And that the aesthetics of the ethnic groups who once lived under the Austro-Hungarian monarchy are extremely close to one another. Now let’s work on connecting to one another and let’s make the most of the synergy! Perhaps one day we’ll make names that are as strong as Scandinavian or Italian design.