DESIGN_ Organised between 27th September and 6th October, the jubilee Budapest Design Week welcomes a leading force of world design, Italy as the festival's Guest of Honour. It is already history how Italian design started growing into a symbol of a lifestyle, as a result of the collaboration between talented designers and ambitious producers in the mid-twentieth century. It is also common knowledge that Italian design is an exemplary industry where art merges with craftsmanship and mass production, humour follows function, style meets expertise and creativity.
Realised in the framework of the Italian-Hungarian Cultural Season, the Guest of Honour program series presents some of the greatest figures and most outstanding results of contemporary Italian design through the introduction of a wide range of world-famous Italian brands. A highlight of the Italian programs is Triennale di Milano’s Maestri exhibition summarising the ouvre of 21 legendary Italian designers in the Museum of Applied Arts between 27th September and 24th November. The presentation of contemporary Italian design's defining figure, Michele De Lucchi architect and designer in the Auditorium of MOME on 4th October is also part of the Guest of Honour program series.
Enzo Mari, Bruno Munari, Michele De Lucchi, Gae Aulenti, Denis Santachiara, Alessandro Mendini, Gaetano Pesce
The ChiaroScuro exhibition showcasing Italian design lamps is organised by Budapest Design Week in Design Terminal. Open between 28th September and 4th November, the selection illustrates the diversity of light emission forms and the variety of shades between light (chiaro) and darkness (scuro). The Italian Cultural Institute in Budapest serves as the venue for two graphic design exhibitions: the Pizza all’ungherese exhibition of the Hungarian Poster Society displays posters created by 27 designers, while the exhibition of the Society of Hungarian Graphic Designers and Typographers (MATT) titled Woman-blood-lines is about women who celebrate the ouvre of Bruno Munari with the constant instantaneity of graphic design as a profession.
Lady by Marco Zanuso
Casablanca by Ettore Sottsass
Italian design is of primary importance in interior design and decoration, so no wonder a wide range of shops and studios join Budapest Design Week with programs related to these fields. Desidea's Max City shop introduces BTICINO, a brand well-known in over 60 countries, while Fonte Bútor selects traditional pieces and new items from Gervasoni collections pairing them to fashion designer Dóra Mészáros’s pieces, awarded with 1st prize at LineaPelle di Milano. The wallpaper collection representing the unique world of a highly talented figure of 20th century design in Italy, Piero Fornasetti is on view for the first time in Hungary as an exhibition organised by Hephaistos and Code-Decode. In Interni Budapest, a recently opened design furniture shop of the capital, the very finest of Italian design is presented: furniture, interior design accessories, kitchen equipments.
Budapest Design Week is entering its tenth year in 2013; the jubilee festival takes place between 27th September and 6th October. The Hungarian Intellectual Property Office is the patron of the festival, its leading professional partners are the Hungarian Design Council and Design Terminal, it is organised by HIPAvilon Nonprofit Ltd. In 2013 the festival focuses on the crossovers of contemporary design, or the intersections that design creates with architecture, fine arts, crafts or digital technologies. In recent years, contemporary design has been pushed by a range of significant external forces to redefine itself and explore new forms of expression. The economic crisis has increased the demand for cheap products, modern technologies (for example 3D printing) enable practically anyone to become a designer, while professionals these days cannot disregard new aspects like social responsibility or recycling. The economic, social and cultural changes of the past few years, as well as the transformation of the values seen in consumer societies have again pushed the technologies of craftsmanship in the limelight, which have so far been in sharp contrast with the traditional interpretation of design, the image of standardised industrial products.
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