Designblok, Prague International Design Festival – is the largest exhibition of design and fashion in central and eastern Europe, held in the creative heartland of the European continent.
The six-day festival starts off with a day dedicated to the experts (Professionals’ Day) and continues with a five-day exhibition for the public which presents new projects from over two hundred carefully selected makers, studios and established brands. The festival’s curated exhibitions react to current social topics, draw attention to the work of both up-and-coming and long-established designers, and offer a creative and professional business platform which provides opportunity for the meeting of designers and companies with the expert public, suppliers and customers. The exhibitions also include a wide-ranging accompanying program in the form of lectures and discussions, field-specific encounters, fashion shows and other special events which open spaces for networking and mutual inspiration.
Over 41 000 people visit Designblok festival each year, including designers, curators, collectors, architects, interior designers, journalists and design lovers.
This year’s Designblok will again bring visitors to some of the most exceptional places Prague has to offer. Due to last year’s immensely positive reception, the festival is returning to Prague Castle, and will also offer the traditional exhibition spaces of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague – which will be called ‘YOUTH Exhibition House’ for the festival’s duration. And for the first time in the festival’s history, visitors will also get the chance to enter the main historical building of the Prague City Museum, which has recently undergone sensitive renovation.
The festival will offer novelties of both Czech and international design from hundreds of exhibiting designers, two large retrospective solo exhibitions of Boda Horak and Daniel Piršč, and a curated exhibition called High Craft which will take place in the Prague Castle Riding School and will offer a new perspective on traditional craft, innovation, high aesthetic standards and a responsible approach to production. The festival will also feature an exhibition of young talent as part of the exhibition of central European schools and universities, and will also feature the Designblok Diploma Selection and Designblok Talent Cards which give space for the presentations of exceptional students of design. There will also be a wide accompanying program in the form of educational lectures, discussions, fashion shows, competitions and field-specific encounters.
Expositions are divided into two concepts:
Superstudio is a space for exhibitions of companies, manufacturers and shops. Superstudio presents novelties of Czech and international manufacturers, presenting products created in cooperation with top designers. All areas of design are presented here, especially furniture, lighting, and home accessories.
Openstudio is a space for expositions of designers, design studios, students, and schools. Laboratory of contemporary design, where product designers, fashion designers, jewelry designers, graphic designers, and illustrators present themselves. Primarily exhibitions of prototypes and small batch production without the participation of a commercial manufacturer.
PRAGUE CASTLE
Designblok is returning to the exhibition space of the largest castle complex in the world again this year. The Romanesque cellar of the Old Royal Palace will offer a unique exhibition portrait of Daniel Piršč, one of the most important Czech designers of porcelain and ceramics. The curator Radek Wohlmuth will introduce the icons of Piršč's life's work as well as complete novelties. The magnificent hall of the Prague Castle Riding Hall will come alive with a special exhibition High Craft. The curatorial selection by Jana Zielinski and Jiří Macek will offer a showcase of thirty successful Czech designers and brands that artfully combine traditional crafts and innovative, environmentally friendly production methods with the highest aesthetic standards. The elevated floor of the Riding Hall will feature books by leading Czech publishers.
Designblok will be the first to open the Prague City Museum’s main building at Florenc after its overall renovation. The exhibition spaces will be taken over by Superstudio – novelties from both Czech and international producers, developed in collaborative projects with the world’s most eminent designers. Apart from stellar quality and fair production methods, it was the collaboration with designers that constituted a basic criterion for the exhibited projects’ selection. All fields of design will be on display here, predominantly furniture, lightings and home accessories.
Novelties of original Czech and international design, inspiration and creative dialog, all within the backdrop of a neo-renaissance architectural gem. The exhibition spaces of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague will be taken over by Designblok's Openstudio – an exhibition of designers and design studios. A laboratory of contemporary design, bringing together product, fashion and jewelry designers, illustrators and graphic designers, mostly featuring prototypes and limited series made without the oversight of a commercial producer. The spaces will premiere the solo exhibition of legendary Czech postmodern designer Bóda Horák, and will provide a view on the future of European design while giving a taste of revolutionary trends in the works of the digitally-savvy Generation Z in the form of the finale of the prestigious Designblok Diploma Selection – a competition of European graduates – as well as the Designblok Talent Cards presentation of exceptional student works. And the crowd-pleasing Art House exhibition will top it off, consisting of a unique presentation of collectors’ design items, this year under the curatorial oversight of Eva Slunečková who delved into the museum’s permanent collections and appropriated them for her intervention.
Designblok is traditionally attended by dozens of galleries, showrooms, pop-up shops, and stores that prepare their own themed program and special events for visitors during the festival. The exhibitions in their own space are offered by small and large brands, but also by Prague art schools, which exhibit the work of graduates and students in their space. Museums that exhibit and collect designs also participate.
The crème de la crème of Czech design at the most prestigious address in town. The Prague Castle Riding School will host the special High Craft exhibition. The exceptional curatorial project of festival director Jana Zielinski and Designblok’s creative director Jiří Macek will introduce the foremost designers, design studios and firms whose work connects the best of innovative and environmentally sound production approaches and traditional craft with the highest aesthetic standards
The second Prague stop of a unique traveling exhibition that spreads the good name of Czech design in the Czech Republic and around the world. In a spectacular metallic capsule on six wheels, Designblok Cosmos brings ten original glass works by ten leading Czech designers against the backdrop of an immersive audiovisual show of cosmic infinity. The exhibited objects reflect the distinctive authorial approach and experiments with traditional Czech materials, the craftsmanship and know-how of Czech glassmakers as well as the different technologies and latest production processes of Czech factories and manufactories. The exhibition was initiated and supported by the PPF Foundation.
A special exhibition on the 70th birthday of Bohuslav Horák, co-founder of the legendary Atika group and a legend of Czech postmodernism. Curator Danica Kovářová has selected the most important objects of Horák’s life works, presented together for the very first time. The exhibition will feature both unique collectors’ items as well as brand new pieces. The exhibition will be found in The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. The exhibition will open as part of Designblok and will remain open to the public until the end of October 2024
Whiteout is a phenomenon where white changes the normal parameters of perception or interpretation of reality. In the context of the original work of one of the most important Czech ceramic and porcelain designers, Daniel Piršč, whiteout is perhaps the most appropriate label for any of his realisations. The exhibition is a non-correct selection of the artist's works over a period of about ten years and takes the form of a spatial-optical-time game in which porcelain white and object-meaning subversion play the main role. The curator of the project is Radek Wohlmuth. The exhibition will be opened as part of Designblok and will be open to the public on the Romanesque Floor of the Old Royal Palace at Prague Castle for one week after the end of the event.
The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague will host the special Art House exhibition, exploring the boundary between art and design. The curatorial intervention of Eva Slunečková into the permanent collections of ART, LIFE. Umění pro život (ART, LIFE. Art for Life) will present unique collectors’ items of art design by both Czech and international artists.
A hotbed of talent and revolutionary ideas. Young blood, fresh ideas, and innovative concepts pushing the limits of the state-of-the-art, all in one place. A presentation of the foremost central European design schools offers a taste of what’s to come in European design through the eyes of contemporary students and representatives of Generation Z.
The final of the international diploma competition in product and fashion design. 30 future stars from several European countries in an exhibition and fashion show. The project is developed in cooperation with EUNIC.
They still study, but you can already hear about them. Every year, Designblok presents a selection of talented young students as part of the Openstudio.