We Attended the Designmonat Design Festival in Austria. | 05/29/2019TRADITIONAL ARTS ASSOCIATION

DESIGNMONAT - GRAZ EVENT REPORT

May 2019

Dr. Aslıhan Erkmen - Dr. Şehnaz Biçer

Traditional Arts Association Attended Designmonat Design Festival in Austria 

Istanbul Design Bureau's invitation to the 15 to 19 May 2019 Date held between the city of Graz in Austria "Designmonat" design who participated in the festival scope of activities Traditional Arts Association board member of Design Talks panels in traditional arts and gave a speech about the current situation in Turkey .

 Located in the UNESCO Design Cities Network since 2009, Graz organizes the Designmonat event every year and brings design together with the public. Istanbul was selected UNESCO Design City in 2017 and continues its communication activities to strengthen its relations with other design cities. In this context, the cooperation between Istanbul and Graz was achieved with an active participation in Designmonat. Industrial products of design, architecture, fashion, traditional arts, plastic arts, etc. Istanbul, which has a high capacity in its fields, also has a wide design knowledge with its multicultural structure from the past to the present. In Designmonat, panels, workshops, speeches were made for three days on the artificial island “Murinsel” on the Mur River passing through Graz, and current issues related to design and Istanbul were conveyed to Grazians.

16 May 2019 - Panels

In Murinsel, with the organization of Designmonat, the panels attended by representatives of creative industries and non-governmental organizations, product designers, architects, artists and university students started with a session titled “All Aspects of Design in Istanbul”. Panel Turkey Industrial Designers Association President Sertaç Ersayın designers found in the transfer of information on relationships with industry. Deniz Ova, Director of the Istanbul Design Biennial, explained the biennial history and talked about the components of the design in Istanbul. Mehmet Kalyoncu, a member of the Board of Turkish Design Foundation, conveyed the construction and moving processes of the New Istanbul Airport through the eyes of a designer. General Secretary of Traditional Arts Association. As the last speaker of the Aslıhan Erkmen panel via traditional Ottoman examples of the evolution of art in Turkey was described briefly. Then the current situation of the association's "Masters of Turkey" through the project, presented with numerical data. At the end of the speech, he showed the reflections of a deep-rooted artistic past today visually through the works of artists working both in traditional style and in the field of contemporary art.

 In the second session, "SO?", Which was founded by Sevince Bayrak Göktaş and Oral Göktaş, a couple of architects and designers. Design-oriented projects carried out by the company in Istanbul, London and Rome were introduced by them.

 "Learning, Teaching, Sharing Istanbul" day of the last session of the Industrial Designers Can Yalman, designed for companies that operate in Turkey, where brands, products, packaging and so on. presented samples. Fashion designer Arzu Kaprol introduced not only the fashion show but also the "Fashion Show", which she designed as an original design event. (The last show that he used VR -Virtual Reality- technique could also be watched in the “Istanbul Design Collection” exhibition, which will remain open during Designmonat in Graz.) The last speaker of the session and the day, Traditional Arts Association Board Member Şehnaz Biçer talked about the past and future of traditional arts with the eyes of an artist. ; He said that in order to be a “real” designer, it is necessary to know the tradition and the masters very well. In his speech, Biçer emphasized that the main concern of the artist was to find his own unique visual language and style rather than technique.

18 May 2019 - Workshops

Both workshops and exhibitions were organized to introduce Istanbul as a design city within the scope of Designmonat. In the workshops in Murinsel, Serap Ekizler Sönmez directed “Geometric Patterns”, Fatma Çiğdem Ertem “Ebru”, Mehtap Arda “Jewelry Design”, Rukiye Çalışkan “Wood Burning” workshops and many people of all ages participated in handicraft works.

 In addition, an exhibition called “Istanbul Design Collection” and “World Wide Things” exhibition where works from UNESCO Design Cities Network member Istanbul, Puebla, Mexico City, Detroit, Saint-Etienne and Graz were exhibited during the festival in Graz.

 During the event, we met with the mentioned speakers, the Advisory Board, the architects of the Graz event of Istanbul, and the NGO managers in Graz, on various occasions and exchanged views on the events that can be planned together in the future.