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When asked why hold a festival such as Belgrade Design Week, Jovan Jelovac the man in charge of the festival answers: "Because it is incredibly important to explain through design and creativity the changes taking place in the world in a region boasting fifty million people, from Milan to Istanbul, and from its central point – Belgrade. New communications, new democracy, and a new way of thinking are today tantamount to new life and new opportunities, especially for ‘small nations’ and ‘new states’.
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If the world wishes to have a successful South Eastern Europe – it must come to Belgrade to show us what is good and opportune in the near future".
Ambitiously conceived as a combination of a business/educational conference with more than fifty exhibitions, premieres and presentations throughout Belgrade as part of Belgrade’s cultural festival, Belgrade Design Week is definitely an event not to be missed.
The conference part of the program is intended for a mixed audience of business professionals of diverse profiles, ranging from designers, architects and advertising and branding experts to people from the field of media and visual communications. It is divided into three thematic wholes designed to rally, educate and create space for a meeting of global standards in design and regional business. |
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Parallel with change, as the permanent state of a new global economy, the conference also focuses on the creativity of women, presented in the works of leading women in industrial design, architecture and business, innovative publishing, and through the appearance of publishers and editors of the leading design and lifestyle magazines in the world, such as Frame, Creativity Review and Domus, and by the conference’s partner state – Holland – in a category designed to effect exchange of experience with a country whose culture has a long tradition in design, a developed designer scene and accompanying industries.
Some of greatest contemporary thinkers – the people who are changing the world today and creating the world of tomorrow – will deliver their lectures at the conference to an audience thirsting for new input.
Rem Koolhaas is undoubtedly one of the most influential architects in the past two decades - his analytical approach to designing with a dash of skepticism has exerted an influence on the work of most young architects today. This author, who possesses the ability to shape an entire course in thinking about architecture, is the chief designer and partner at the OMA architectural office and its conceptual branch office AMO, which stresses the social, economic and technological development in the course of exploring such areas that can be found beyond the mere architectural and urban planning interests.
Bevk Perović leads one of the most successful younger architectural offices in Slovenia. His projects are characterized by solid design and perfection in technical execution and in developing architecture with pronouncedly recognizable authorship as regards to detail, his studio has come up with solutions emerging as a result of a systemic analysis of function, structure and aesthetics.
The youngest star of the international designer scene - Ora Ito – heads a multidisciplinary studio working in the areas of industrial design, architecture, communications and multimedia. Proceeding from a simple concept, he combines futuristic and retro elements, creating sensual products of purified lines. His style is "simplexity" – creations that appear simple but at the same time evoke a complexity of its emergence process.
Powerful women who have penetrated into traditionally maledominated disciplines – design and architecture - will demonstrate just what is it that is revolutionary in "the women’s creative principle".
Zaha Hadid is the first woman to receive the prestigious The Pritzker Architecture Prize, twenty-six years after it was established. She is known for her visionary, radically new approach to designing and dramatic architectural designs that reflect the chaos of modern living.
Winka Dubbeldam is the director of the Archi-Tectonics studio in New York and Holland, which analyzes and explores the efficiency of architectural programs, the specificity of urban areas and innovative materials as well as possibilities of hybrid materials and "intelligent buildings".
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In her multidisciplinary practice, Matali Crasset explores the boundaries of personal and public space, transforming everyday rituals into new exhilarations. Her works can be found in collections at museums of contemporary art throughout the world. Hella Jongerius combines the techniques of traditional crafts with hi-tech materials to create objects that are new, different and provocative. Ceramics, textiles or furniture – in everything she designs she leaves on view references that point out the imperfections and unusual combinations of materials and techniques.
Virtually unknown until a few years ago, Patricia Urquiola has assumed the status of the leading female star in the world of industrial design. Her design reflects the paradoxical combinations of firmness and anarchy, conformity and individualism. She has worked for Alessi, Cappellini, Cassina, B&B, Kartell, Driade, Knoll and a host of others. Gaye Çevikel is the founder of the first Turkish company, Gaia and Gino, to create a recognizable international brand with a Turkish identity. They have cooperated with Karim Rashid whose modular collection Morphscape has met with incredible success.
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Editors of renowned magazines Frame, Creative Review and Domus are participating in the conference as well as founder and curators of the Salone Sattelite in Milan – Marva Griffi n, the group called Droog Design, which is known for its revolutionary approach to design, branding agency BSUR, which changed the rules of the game among its competitors, the most distinguished British consultants for design, branding strategies and project management – The Partners, the post-production house called The Mill – an Oscar recipient, representatives of regional authorities of Rioha and the chief tourist officer of the Istria district.
Belgrade Design Week aims not only at presenting the creative process but also at placing it into a defined social context, through exploring business prospects relative to design and how to make design an instrument that would make a certain economy more efficient and visible on the ever-increasingly competitive world market. |
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Design no longer involves creating fine objects – design bears an influence on all forms of communication in the modern world.
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