Designblok presents the theme and exhibition locations for its 26th edition
1. 7. 2024
This year’s Designblok will again take its audiences to exceptional locations across Prague. The festival returns to the location of Prague Castle due to popular demand, and will also traditionally set up in the spaces of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague where it will exhibit creative talent across generations. The historical main building of Prague Museum at Florenc will open its doors and neo-renaissance exhibition halls for the first time after an extensive renovation, and the neighboring, modern Bastion Florenc building will open a few of its floors for hosting the festival program. This year’s main theme for the largest festival of design and fashion in central Europe is YOUTH. The organizers invite the general and expert public to come celebrate endless inspiration, fresh ideas, revolutionary approaches to materials and business, as well as up-and-coming talents and established stars of contemporary European design. Over two hundred designers, studios and brands will exhibit their work and the event will feature experimental and sustainable projects, international guests, thematic exhibitions, fashion shows, lectures and discussions, workshops and a program for children. The 26th Designblok will launch on 1 October 2024 with the Professionals’ Day which will be attended by five thousand architects, interior designers, developers, journalists and other experts, and the festival will open its doors for the public between 2–6 October 2024. Tickets will be available for presale at designblok.cz from 1 August 2024.
“Youth. A period connected with new beginnings, love, grand plans and expectations. Time flows slower and nothing is impossible. In 2023, Designblok celebrated a quarter century of its existence in grand style. Although it is among the oldest design exhibitions in the world, it is still young in its dynamic development. Design itself is a relatively new discipline in the historical and social context, but it is certainly a great mover of the 21st century. With a bit of hyperbole, we can say that design is one of the key ingredients of youth and longevity, which we all long for. It brings innovation as well as functional and aesthetic progress to the world and is able to prolong life and improve its quality. This is most certainly the case with quality products, so come see for yourself at this year’s Designblok,” says festival director Jana Zielinski.
The international design festival again returns to the prestigious exhibition spaces of the world’s largest castle complex. The grand hall of the Prague Castle Riding School will come alive with the special exhibition High Craft – this curatorial selection of festival director Jana Zielinski and creative director Jiří Macek, and in collaboration with the prestigious magazine Vogue CS, offers a showcase of over thirty successful Czech designers and brands which uniquely combine traditional craft and innovative, environmentally conscious production methods with the highest aesthetic standards. The floor of the Prague Castle Riding School will feature the thematic exhibition High Craft Books, presenting bookmaking and book works produced by foremost Czech publishers.
On Thursday, 3 October, an independent, international jury chaired by Ben Hobson, journalist and co-director of the prestigious British Dezeen magazine, will acclaim the winners of the Designblok Awards 2024 – the festival’s most prestigious prizes given out for exceptional works. The ceremony will take place in the Lobkowicz Palace at Prague Castle. On Saturday, the public and the international expert jury are invited to the fashion show of the finalists of the all-European graduate exhibition Designblok Diploma Selection. The festival visitors will have reduced admission to the ongoing exhibition Art of Books taking place at Queen Anne’s Summer Palace at Prague Castle and organized by the Prague Castle Administration in collaboration with Identita – The Story of Czech Graphic Design and the Museum of Czech Literature, which explores the medium of the book not so much in terms of content, but rather its form.
Designblok will be the first event to be held in the building of the Prague Museum at Florenc after its total reconstruction. “We are looking to be a modern museum, one which would be attractive for the younger generation, and so our collaboration with Designblok is a great opportunity for us. The connection of modern design and the museum’s historical building from the 19th century provides an interesting contrast which the visitors will surely appreciate. And it will also provide a unique opportunity to see the newly reconstructed spaces before their official opening, which will take place early next year,” says the director of Prague Museum Ivo Macek. The Superstudio will occupy the grand exhibition halls and present novelties by producers from both Czechia and abroad and works which were produced in collaboration with the world’s foremost designers – along with high-quality, environmentally-conscious production, this was one of the central criteria for selecting the exhibitors. All spheres of design will be represented, with furniture, lightings and interior accessories taking center stage. The second floor will host the Designblok Respekt Stage which will offer daily lectures, debates and educational programs with wide social impact.
The Bastion Florenc modern development project stands directly behind the Prague Museum and will be filled with exhibits by designers, studios and central-European universities. The Openstudio will take place in the setting of contemporary architecture, offering a laboratory of contemporary design and bringing together product and fashion designers, jewelers, illustrators and graphic artists. These are mostly exhibitions of prototypes and small-scale serial production projects without the input of commercial producers. Foremost European high schools and universities focusing on the field of design will also present their works at the exhibition School Today. “Our projects involve architects and planners, as well as designers of interiors, furniture, lightings and other features. We organize public competitions and tenders for artworks which further develop the buildings we built along with their surroundings. We take Designblok as an opportunity to join forces with other talented creators. We were glad to have provided the spaces for this wonderful event in the Bastion Florenc building, which comprises a gateway for the future development of the entire Florenc neighborhood,” adds Miloš Kocián, Senior Leasing Manager at Penta Real Estate. Dozens of showrooms, shops and stylish cafés are taking part in the festival and will form the Karlín Design District at Prague 8, offering various inspiring programs and experiences from morning till night.
The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague is hosting Designblok for the fourth time already and will offer a showcase of original and inspiring design, exploring the future of Czech and world design. Apart from other presentations as part of the Openstudio, the festival will offer a retrospective exhibition marking the 70th birthday of Bohuslav Horák, co-founder of the legendary Atika group and living legend of Czech postmodernism. Curator and editor-in-chief of VOGUE CS magazine Danica Kovářová has for the very first time compiled Horák’s fundamental works from his life-long oeuvre, unique collectors’ items as well as entirely new works. The exhibition Bóda Horák: Biosphere will open along with Designblok and will last until 28 October 2024.
A view of European design through the eyes of generation Z – that is the finale of the prestigious Designblok Diploma Selection graduate design contest, the ongoing School Today exhibition and the Designblok Talent Cards, which acclaims exceptional student works and provides select students with free exhibition space at the festival. This year, the popular Art House exhibition of collectible design will take the form of an intervention into the museum’s permanent collections under the curatorial oversight of curator and Managing Editor at ELLE Decoration Czech Republic Eva Slunečková. Radim Vondráček, director of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, adds: “Design is about constant innovation, perennial youth, as well as respect for where we come from and the work of those who have preceded us. The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague has been focused on these values since its foundation, and we are very glad that we can also link our building and collections with such an eminent festival as Designblok. This year, we will open the entire museum premises to the visitors and will offer numerous special exhibitions, interventions and presentations of the works of world-renowned designer Bóda Horák, whose work we greatly respect and also include as part of our collections at the MoDA.”
After last year’s premiere and two successful stops at Milan and Liberec, Designblok Cosmos – the travelling exhibition offering the best of contemporary glass – is coming back to Prague. A spectacular metallic capsule contains ten original glass works from the workshops of ten foremost Czech designers, framed in an immersive, audiovisual show. The exhibition will open its doors for free for the festival’s entire duration. The exhibition’s production was initiated and supported by the PPF Foundation. Apart from the main exhibition locations, Designblok will also draw visitors to dozens of galleries, showrooms and shops which have prepared their own topical program and special events.
The 26th Designblok will take place 2–6 October 2024 at Prague Castle, Prague Museum, Bastion Florenc, Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague and other locations around Prague. The exhibition Bóda Horák: Biosphere will last until 28 October 2024. Tickets will be available for reduced price from 1 August 2024.
