We are organizing the exhibition for the 19th time and for the 1st time in Bratislava. Organized 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.
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.
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.
The full material is available both on the website and YouTube channel of Design Without Borders.
- Founding curators of the exhibition: Interior designer Tamás Radnóti and textile designer Szilvia Szigeti
- 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)
- Curatorial guided tours in English:
- at 16:00 on 18.03.
- at 16:00 on 19.03.