Project: North

Gallery 1 / 20. 3. 2024 — 6. 4. 2024

 

Curator: Adam Štěch

Exhibition Architecture: Matěj Činčera and Jan Kloss

Graphic Design: Přemysl Zajíček

 

Northern Bohemia, the Sudetenland, the Ústí nad Labem and Karlovy Vary regions. A region at the crossroads of geographical units and dramatic historical events. A region that has grappled with numerous fundamental changes and upheavals throughout its history. The exhibition “Design at the Crossroads: 50 Stories of Design from the Ústí nad Labem and Karlovy Vary Regions” assesses its contributions in the fields of design, artistic crafts, industry, and architecture. The region is presented not only as one of the cradles of Czech industry and creative consumer sectors, but also their current renaissance. The exposition is not a detailed historical probe into the development of industry, crafts, and design, but rather an inspiring collection of diverse examples of applied arts, artistic crafts, industrial design, product design, interior design, as well as new technological achievements and the overlap of design into social services, tourism, or contemporary interpretation of history. Under the auspices of the Faculty of Art and Design, this often-overlooked region is presented in the DUÚL gallery as an inspiring place where diverse forms of past and present design creativity have arisen and continue to arise.

Exactly fifty individual examples from the history and present of the region tell famous and lesser-known stories of the Ústí nad Labem and Karlovy Vary regions, acquainting visitors with various phenomena related to design and applied arts. The exhibits offer an excursion into established and unknown creative stories, from the tradition of local industry and crafts, through unique designer works in architecture or the work of contemporary renowned creators who can consider Northern Bohemia their birthplace. The exhibition is a collage of various disciplines and historical stories from the industrial revolution at the end of the 19th century, through the economic boom of the interwar era, the weight and successes of socialist design and architecture, to contemporary creators, graduates of FUD, and its students.