Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Jelena Fiškuš, Creative Director, Studio Sonda
Photographer: Sean Poropat
We’re ignorant, and not ashamed to admit it. The other day Drago Orlić was trying to explain to us where the church of St. Eleutarius and the old Fisherman’s Square in Poreč are – a town where we live almost forever. While telling us the widely-known legend of the city’s history, you could tell from his face that he did not know whether our confused looks were a joke or they were real, and at the same time he was cursing the educational system and expressing fears for his grandchildren. That’s why we came to you Drago, as the inexhaustible source of knowledge about Istria. Just two years ago, HURA called us and asked if we have anything to report to Effies and we asked what exactly that is. We recently recorded our first TVC and the client talked about the importance of PPM, and we acted as if we understood what that meant and nodded our heads, only to google it afterwards.
For this reason, we use every opportunity to learn something. This year we attended three great festivals in just three months, in three different parts of the world. We couldn’t be more delighted. At Ekrem’s insistence – and anyone who knows him knows how impossible it is to turn him down – I bring you a summary of our experiences.
MARCH
Iceland Design March. We had it in our sights since about eight years ago, when we first saw this video about Iceland
I hope that someone will have the same experience when they see the spot about Croatia by Croatian Tourist Board.
Anyway, DesignMarch is the most important design event in Iceland, intertwining all aspects of design, architecture, fashion … It ideally takes place in the third month, the month when the winters are over for which Anthony Bourdain (RIP) recorded his most boring travel log. It’s the time when nature is slowly waking up, the seasonal tourist crowds haven’t started yet, and most importantly, it’s the last month before the summer, when Aurora Borealis can be seen. Plus, this year Design March celebrates its 10th birthday. “Will you come celebrate with us?” Don’t ask twice, we’re on our way!
The Icelanders reminded us a little bit of ourselves at Sonda. Not that our design is as good as theirs, but they are also detached from everything, and have to improvise in many ways, which creates a unique and specific style. In their case this is much more pronounced, of course, because while we are semi-insulated in a province of a European peninsula, they are literally isolated on an island, with just over 300,000 inhabitants, and Greenland as the nearest land. Their first bigger neighbors, the Scotts, are some 800 km away. Everything is kind of honest and simple, driven by needs for food and heat, modest and without exaggeration, with a lot of respect for nature and the processes of reuse. Many of their homes are about the size of a garage of a wealthier Croat. Looking from the outside, it seems they are doing quite well, so why would they even need the rest of the world, yet, there is still that feeling of yearning for belonging to a whole.
In a bunch of colorful tin houses that resemble homes of some Disneyesque heroes, one building stands out – the Harpa Concert Hall. Oh, what a majestic building by the Island-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, who is obsessed with the play of light, wind and time, and which was opened seven years ago! It’s an ornament of the city that changes constantly, with every change in the position of the sun and its curvature. This was the venue for Design Talks lectures, which was a gift and a curse at the same time. You want to listen and watch every corner of the building at the same time, because at 12:37 and 12:45, it is simply no longer the same building. Design Talks was opened by the prime minister. A young woman. She understands how important design is and how it gives focus to the potential of things that surround us. At the opening, she said that if the people who lead the country could focus in the same way how designers approach tasks, the world would be a better place, and she concluded that perhaps more designers need to be in politics. Later, I read that Katrín Jakobsdóttir has three children and that she has the status of the most trusted politician in her country. And how are you, our prime minister?
One more thing we appreciated in Reykjavik. In the audience were 2-3 mothers with small, newly born babies. Babies are sleeping, and mothers are getting education. When a baby becomes restless, the mother, absolutely naturally, breastfeeds her and returns to the lecture. That’s how the children of the future are born.
Speakers are, as expected, inspirational and mostly all the lectures specifically demonstrate the power that design and creativity have in creating a better future: from Paul Benett, Creative Director of IDEO, who uses creativity as a tool in the fight against radicalism and for helping the most vulnerable groups, through solar designer Marjan Von Aubel who introduced the window-charger for cellphones, then the creative duo Anton and Irene who presented the project onesharedhouse.com, the idea of sharing space and goods that is increasingly needed in the future and was actually not so unusual in the past as Irene herself grew up in one such space: in the feminist experiment of Amsterdam called Alexandra Kollontai. All in all, there was a lot of understanding and anticipation of the future and its integration into today. And finally, a cherry on top, a bit of exhibitionism by the paper fashion designer Bea Szenfeld and the ingenious Henrik Vibskov.
Apart from interesting lectures, Design March is also unique in that throughout the city, for four days, there’s a host of small events, integrations with design shops, mini exhibitions, projections, fashion shows and tastings. All this means that you are moving through architecture and landscapes differently than ever before, you explore on your own, you organize space and time, and endlessly enjoy it, somewhat electrified by the stress-inducing feelings that there is no way you can see everything. And then, along the way, you meet Bjork as you walk by.
My personal favorite was the Food Design exhibition that was created in collaboration with Matis, the Icelandic R&D institute for the food industry and biotechnology, and the design department of the Icelandic Academy of Art. The menu included tasty research, innovation and news from the food world, and the mission was to show how design can change the perception and ways of enjoying food. It’s a much bigger project than just the exhibition at the Design March, which has been in existence for years, and is aimed at combining science, agriculture and design, always taking into account the postulates on which Icelanders lean on: respect for nature, sustainability, reuse. Design students collaborate with the Institute, farmers and students of science, resulting in concrete products such as Icelandic crackers with whey proteins and Icelandic larch – Islandus Kex, rhubarb caramel – Rabarbia, algae mayonnaise, Be Juicy dilution powder (something like Cedevita, only organic and made of green apple, kale and mint), or for example the Ugly product (something like our Vegeta, but organic, eco-friendly, and definitely less yellow.)
Happy birthday to you, endlessly charming Iceland Design Week. You deserve many more anniversaries and a lot of visitors, but in good measure. Don’t let yourself get contaminated, in the name of the Old Gods and the New. As we were leaving, we came to the conclusion that Iceland has an unbelievable sense of design, but no designer of the world will ever outdo the design that nature has done on that island.