Design Forum 2023. Humanity in design

Opening: May 17, 5:00 p.m

How to make the world around us more humane? It is also possible with a design that is humane, empathetic, inclusive, caring, fair, meaningful, useful, emotional, healthy, socially beneficial, economically beneficial, ecologically responsible and sustainable, in one word: humanistic!

The idea of design applying humanistic concepts and methods is currently spreading around the world as an acceptable alternative for the creation of objects, environments, systems and communications, which leads to a socially just, healthy and economically secured future of human civilization and at the same time to the preservation and prosperity of the entire ecosystem. As the well-known design theorist Richard Buchanan expressed in 2001: “Design is not only an ornament of cultural life, but also a practical discipline of responsible action.”

The exhibition Humanity in Design – Design in the Context of Crisis presents a selection of design projects that represent humanistic approaches to design creation. Through the implementation of 36 male and female students and also collective projects from four universities teaching design in Slovakia, it wants to encourage thinking about the social and cultural, ecological, ethical, economic, technological, psychological and anthropological aspects of design. It focuses on several areas of design: furniture and interior design, product and textile design, visual communication and also experimental design, in a unique collage of designs, research projects, models, experimental installations and prototypes ready for production.

The exhibition is a unique reflection of the design of the pandemic period, as it presents projects that were created during several years of the pandemic (2020-2022) and have not yet been exhibited anywhere, or also proposals that could not be implemented due to anti-pandemic measures. Several of the projects are graduation theses, others were created directly for the exhibition.

The creation of conscious, responsible and sustainable design by the upcoming generation of designers overflows with invention, creativity and optimism, handed down for the benefit of a better life for every person, at the same time without an adverse impact on the next generations of human society or other living organisms on our planet. However, for our world to be truly more humane, it is essential that we all overcome our limits of thought, imagination and action. The measure of success is the actions of all of us.

Author of the text, concept and curator of the exhibition
Silvia Seneši Lutherová

Exhibition designer
Andrea Ďurianová

Graphic designer of the exhibition
Peter Nosáľ

Production
Gabriela Rybáriková, Silvia Seneši Lutherová

Exhibition partners
DREVONA
College of Fine Arts, Department of Design, Department of Textile Design, Department of Visual Communication; Industrial design studio, Experimental design studio, Interior design studio, Textile design studio, Space studio;
Slovak Technical University, Faculty of Architecture and Design, Institute of Interior and Exhibition Design; Atelier Kotradyová, Atelier Kočlík, Atelier TR1MTAB, Atelier Paliatka, Atelier Kubušová
Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Arts, Department of Design, Innovation Studio, Visual Communication Studio;
Technical University in Zvolen, Faculty of Wood, Department of Furniture and Interior Design

Authors: Pavlína Árendášová, Martina Bajteková, Silvia C. Bárdová, Ondrej Bukovec, Damián Cehlárik, Simona Duchoňová, Ondrej Ferianec, Šimon Galanský, Natália Golianová, Ivana Gondová, Simona Hanesová, Žofia Horová, Eva Jenčuráková, Timea Kepová, Terézia Kováčiková . Trup, Miroslav Vašek, Petra Vicianová, Jana Vlčková, Martina Zacharová,

+ a group of students from the Industrial Design Studio, VŠVU: Andrea Bišťanová, Natálie Česláková, Viki Fehérová, Vira Fesenko, Veronika Gruberová, Andrey Golovashev, Samo Hartiník, Katarína Jurčišinová, Beata Juritková, Zuzana Kasanová, Barbora Kvietkova Radovan Labaš, Ernest Marko, Aneta Mintálova, Tomáš Ružinský, Georgios Somarakis, Pavol Soukal, Laura Šunová, Juraj Trojan and Ferdinand Chrenka

Collaboration: Ferdinand Chrenka, Michala Lipková, Elena Farkašová, Dušan Kočlík, Mária Fulková, Veronika Kotrádyová, Katarína Morávková, Tibor Uhrín, Andrej Haščák, Sylvia Jokelová, Zuzana Šebeková, René Baďura, Miroslav Debnár