The European design calendar is dominated by a few mega events, colossi whose shadows not only define the calendar but tend to hog the media and therefore the popular perception of contemporary design, not least since that media became primarily the unreflective echo chamber of Instagram; yet colossi whose (invariably stupidly high) costs mean that only those with the deepest of pockets can hope to find success at such events, only those with the deepest of pockets can hope to register on the popular radar. Wealth wins. Which surely isn’t in the interests of either design or the design industry that relies on selfless creative energy and a singular desire to approach contemporary solutions for the sake of the solutions themselves rather than for the rewards such solutions (might, potentially) bring. Alone serves the organisers of such events and the nefarious ends of the lifestyle industry and it faddy, if very profitable, tat.
In addition, we’d argue, the masses of exhibitors, media and visitors who flock to the mega events means that they have long since ceased to be ecologically sustainable, have long since become part of the problems, thus denying them any right to claim to offer solutions to our current malaises. But who are egotistical enough to claim they can.
A healthy design in Europe, a healthy design industry in Europe, and a healthy planet demands an end to the tyranny of the mega events and more small scale regional events.
Events such as Zagreb Design Week.
An event we’ve long sought to visit. Never managed. Have in 2024…….
Established in 2014, so just some six years after the smow Blog, just sayin’, for all that Zagreb Design Week is without question a platform for Croatian creativity it has long had a wider view, and the 11th edition is no exception, hosting projects and creatives from, for example, Chile, Spain or Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also from this years partner country: Italy. An Italy, an Adriatic neighbour, represented by a special showcase highlighting some of the more interesting and informative female creatives who have contributed so much to the (hi)story of design in Italy over the decades. But who through not being male are invariably ignored in the popular discourse on design in and from Italy; are absent in the narrative of design (his)story in and from Italy. Are to all regards anonymous. Or when known then reduced to a couple of commercially successful products.
A showcase that not only allows for reflections on how the narrative of design (hi)story is written, and by whom and why, but which can also very much be considered in context of Zagreb Design Week 2024’s theme: Breaking the Glass Ceiling.
A demand that the organisers have very pleasingly expanded from its conventional meaning in terms of gender parity to a more general demand to break design and design industry conventions and allow space for more varied voices, allow those often unheard in our contemporary age to contribute; and which brings us back to the vast, unhealthy, shadow cast by the mega events and the glass ceiling they have erected to protect themselves that is very much in need of breaking. As is the western gaze on design in Europe: the western gaze on the (hi)story of design in Europe and the western gaze on contemporary design in Europe.
One could build an argument that the challenge is Breaking the Glass Ceilings. Is a multi-layered challenge.
Zagreb Design Week 2024 won’t manage that alone. But can be a place to start gathering tools that may be useful.
Staged in the former Jadran Film studio complex in the east of the city, a complex that welcomed a great many western actors and directors in the years when it stood east of the Iron Curtain, has long been a location that reminds us that our differences aren’t so great once one ignores the political rhetoric, once we stop constructing artificial divides be they curtains or ceilings, Zagreb Design Week 2024 is a relatively small affair in terms of exhibitors and programme points, it’s in the nature of regional events, they can be no other and in many regards shouldn’t be; if an event wide in scope and which in addition to featuring semester projects by design schools and curated platforms proposing various approaches to breaking the glass ceiling in a variety of design genres, also features the ZGDW Award exhibtion with its presentation of the finalists across its half dozen categories; a ZGDW Award that has been a central pillar, physically and conceptually, of Zagreb Design Week since 2017.
A 2024 Zagreb Design Week that, in our viewing, features a lot of graphic and media design, which isn’t a complaint, just an observation. As is the desire on our part for more creatives presenting their work independent of the Award, design schools and curated platforms, more creatives bringing their positions, and their expressions of those positions, to the event. To the discourse.
The complaint is that it is only in one location: nothing against the Jadran Film location, we instantly felt at home there, but for us one of the raisons d’etre of any and every design week is to allow you to get out and about, to enable you get to know a city through journeying from location to location, showcase to showcase. However such is a minor complaint in context of that which is on show.
Including live music and DJs in the evenings. But we’re in bed by then……..
In the coming days and weeks we will bring you some of our thoughts and reflections on some of those works and projects and positions experienced, and some of our thoughts and reflections on Zagreb Design Week 2024.
And for all in or near Zagreb, Zagreb Design Week can be viewed and experienced at Jadran Film, Ul.Rudolfa Kolaka 12, 10000 Zagreb until Sunday September 29th.
Entry is free.
Full details can be found at https://zagrebdesignweek.com