The theme of the 27th Designblok is Courage!
5. 1. 2025
The 27th Designblok will take place from October 7–12, 2025, at the Prague Fairgrounds, Prague Castle, the Museum of Decorative Arts, and the Rudolfinum in Prague. The main theme of this year's event will be Courage. For the first time, Designblok will host a conference for designers, architects, and other professionals on October 7, marking an exciting new addition to the program.
“For me personally, courage is one of the most essential ingredients of quality design. For Designblok, it is about the desire of individual exhibitors to push the limits of their own work, go where no one has ventured before, or about using new technologies alongside traditional craft methods. Welcoming new solutions and original artistic expression is a basic ingredient of success. Designblok 2025 will also be about the courage to make connections among disciplines, place design in the social context and find improved solutions. It will also be about paying due attention to female designers and all women who have impacted the world’s design sphere in recent years,” says festival director Jana Zielinski, adding: “The eminent British architect, design theorist creative director of Design Academy Eindhoven, Alcova Milano and Alcova Miami, Joseph Grima has called Designblok a ‘caring subject’ which helps transform the heritage of central Europe into a modern, prosperous society – without exhausting resources and by means of creativity, responsible approaches to production and the spreading of awareness among the wider public. We hope for courage in the continuing fulfillment of this mission.”
The program of Designblok 2025 will significantly focus on women in the context of the wider design disciplines – fashion, art, architecture, photography and, of course, product design. Courage is a fundamental ingredient for any woman aspiring to play her part in fields which continue to be predominantly male-dominated. The topic will be addressed also as part of the Art House exhibition, which this time will be curated by curator Michaela Kádnerová. Her curatorial concept focuses on the mutual aid women provide each other in their mission to effectively work in the field of design, and she has selected some of the foremost representatives from various design fields (Liběna Rochová – fashion, Eva Eisler – jewelry, Lada Semecká – glass, Barbora Škorpilová – interior design, Lucie Koldová – product design, Zuzana Lednická – graphic design, Martina Lukič – design and AI, Šárka Radová – ceramics, Renata Rozsívalová – textile design).
Designblok’s honorary guest will be Mary McCartney, who will present her exhibition “Portraits.” These iconic and intimate, provocative and sensuous images open new issues by showing well-known faces. The exhibition includes people like Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, Kate Moss, Emma Stone, Morgan Freeman and Joni Mitchell, and delves deep into the core of their lives. This new selection of works looks back on her career of thirty years and will be curated by Mary McCartney herself particularly for Designblok audiences. The exhibition will also be accompanied by a zine which will present heretofore unpublished works from the most well-known photo shoots while providing a look into the artist’s own extensive archive. The work of Mary McCartney pays homage to the art of portraiture. Her connection to the person in front of the camera is intimate, personal and gripping and makes the viewer both a participant and an observer of these private moments.
Information about applications, venues, and main exhibitions will be published throughout February 2025.
