Belgrade Design Week 2014
The central part of BDW 2014 - workshops, conference and exhibitions - were staged at the OLD STAKLOPAN FACTORY, Stahinjica Bana Street 7 - 9, in Dorcol, 6th - 12th October, under the patronage of the kind owners - GORENJE. Our motto was "BRAND NEW WORLD”, accurately describing what we did. We invited the world’s best of 2014 to Serbia, carefully selected from over 20 nations and all walks of the global creative industries, and at the same time, presented to the world the best that Serbia has to offer. For the first time in history under High Patronage of the President of the Republic and the Mayor of Belgrade, we presented our complex, but laser-sharp five programs during a packed Design Week.
During the ninth Belgrade Design Week, Belgrade was once again the global capital of creative ideas and host to a most impressive participants list from over 20 countries: Ralph Nauta, Studio Drift /NL, Ido Garini, Studio Appétit /NL, Tom Strala / CH, Jonas Wagell /SE, Nicolas Le Moigne /CH, Nicholai Wiig Hansen /DK, Marc Viardot, Laufen /CH, Ugljesa Vrcelj, Dvoika /RS, Irena Kilibarda /RS, Magdalena Klasnja /RS, Nikola Kolja Bozovic /RS, Bojana Draca, Farrah Floyd /DE, Farshid Tavakolitehrani, Fuksas Studio /IT, Kim Herforth Nielsen, 3XN /DK, Christian Kerez /CH, Sabina Lang & Daniel Baumann, Lang/Baumann /CH, Michel Rojkind /MX, Idis Turato /CR, Aleksandru Vuja and Milan Đuric, Dva Studio /RS, Igor Pantic RS/UK, Milos Dimcic RS/DE, Dragan Zlatkovic /RS/IT/ES, Satya Sheel, Metro Valley /IN, Astrid Feldner & Svein Haakon Lia, Studio Bleed /NO, Guido Woska, Designit /DE, Omar Sosa /ES, Igor Kordej /CR, Sasha Vidakovic, SVIDesign /UK, Aleksa Gajic /RS, Sudhir Horo /IN, Zuzanna Skalska, 360inspirations / NL, Jeremy Ettinghausen, BBH /UK, Gavrilo Bozovic & Nicolas Paupe, Restons- Sérieux /CH, Zarko Veljkovic and Ivana Zekovic, Saatchi & Saatchi /RS, Galit Gaon, DMH /IL, Ivan Zivkovic, The School of Life /RS.
The ninth Belgrade Design Week Grand Prix awarded to Christian Kerez.
BDW 2014 was the ninth international festival of creativity in row, that happened in yet another “forgotten” iconic urban location, reclaimed by BDW from years of neglect and complete wipe out from the collective memory of the citizens of Belgrade. After finding and rejuvenating the at that time empty Palace of Federation, the bombed out Hotel Jugoslavija, the abandoned Kluz department store, the shut down Museum of Contemporary Art, along with numerous other iconic locations in past ten years, BDW in 2014 proudly presented another polished gem of Serbian industrial architectural heritage: the old STAKLOPAN factory, smack in the middle of Belgrade’s bustling “Silicon Valley” - thefamous Strahinjića Bana Street - yet covered by a thick layer ofinvisibility - like the famous Phantom building in the movie "The Shadow".
The Ninth Belgrade Design Week officially opened on the 7th October at the old Staklopan factory in the heartof old Belgrade, by the President of the Republic of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolic, under whose patronage the event was taking place. He stressed the importance of creative industries for the development of Serbian economy: "The essence of design is its omnipresence, which is intended for everyone, and each individual can see, hear and understand what they find special, what best suits their character. Design speaks the universal language of signs and symbols and we hope that oursigns and symbols will be seen in the future" - said Nikolic, declaring the ninth Belgrade Design Week open.
"This is a high quality event, which is what we expect of BDW, a young and creative event, which has an important educational aspect, both in the field of fashion, food and comics, and in graphic design and information technologies, and has the ability to increase employment" - said the Ambassador Michael Davenport, Head of Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia.
The Embassy of Israel had made it possible for the BDW visitors to see one of the world's most important exhibitions - “Out of the Box” by the Design Museum Holon. Joseph Levy, Israeli Ambassador to Serbia, said that this event demonstrated that design is a field that is developing very rapidly and provides a lot of potential for Serbia to improve its business capacities and increase the number of jobs. BDW's opening ceremony was attended by the Ambassador of the Netherlands, Laurent Stokvis, the Ambassador of Germany to Serbia, Wilhelm Heinz, the Ambassador of India to Serbia, Narinder Chauhan, the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Embassy of Mexico in Serbia, José Umberto Castro Villalobos, and many other diplomats, as well as thousands of guests.
Fourteen international exhibitions were presented at the Belgrade Design Week: Out of the Box - Design made in Israel, Design MuseumHolon; Strala is Presence/Tom Strala - CH, Juxtaposition – Nicolas Le Moigne - CH, Imagine, the Wooden Bicycle - Dvoika/RS, Nendo for Lasvit, Nendo - JP and Lasvit - CZ, Freedom to Reshape, Laufen - CH, Konstantin Grcic and Toan Nguyen, Restons-Serieux, Gavrilo Bozovic - CH/RS, Phantasms on Wheels, Nikola Kolja Bozovic - RS; TheObsidan Project / Dandelight, Studio Drift - NL, Table T, Irena Kilibarda - RS, Comfort #8, Sabina Lang & Daniel Baumann- CH, People, Branko Starčević - RS, Numbers, the Center for Popularisation of Science - RS and Studio Struktura - RS. BDW Dizajnpark exhibitions were part of Belgrade Design Week 2014, which was generously supported by Gorenje.
BDW again staged BDW 100% FutureSerbia, the urban exhibition of fresh local talent, displayed in over 100 shop windows in the city center from Kalemegdan to Slavija. Add to this BDW DizajnPremiers, our vibrant evening vernissage program with openings, VIP dinners and parties, and we were happy to have completed another thoroughbred edition of BDW which, though much smaller in size this year, has exploded throughout the city thanks to the partners, sponsors, and visitors.
