Major new exhibition of work by leading Czech designer and founder of the Atika design group
15 Aug 2013
Exhibition: 7 January – 20 February 2012
Symposium: 20 January 2012
Exhibition opening times: Monday – Saturday, 10.00am – 5.00pm
University of Brighton Gallery, Faculty of Arts, Grand Parade, Brighton
Buy tickets for Pelcl Symposium here
This exhibition is a major British premiere of the recent work of Jiří Pelcl, one of the foremost Czech designers today. Over recent years he has had close links with the University of Brighton and in 2006, the same year in which he was awarded the Czech National Design Award and the Form 2006 award in Germany, received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in recognition of his international contribution to design and to design education. At the time he was Rector of the Prague Academy of Art, Architecture and Design that had, in the previous year, celebrated its 120th Anniversary which was attended by colleagues from Brighton.
Pelcl’s furniture, product design, interiors and architectural design have been widely recognised in international cultural and creative circles since he first attracted attention as founder of the radical Atika design group in 1987, which had reacted against the restrictive nature of design in the socialist state of Czechoslovakia.
Pelcl’s work featured in the exhibition 'Czech 100 Design Icons (of the 20th and 21st centuries)' that had received its British premiere in the University of Brighton Gallery in November 2005, having been displayed previously in the National Museum in Prague, the Kulturhuset in Stockholm, as well as in Bratislava and Berlin. Pelcl contributed a keynote address to the closely linked international conference entitled 'Czech Design, Culture and Society: Changing Climates,' also held at the University of Brighton. A Visiting Professor at the University, he has also provided support and encouragement for Brighton’s creative community through regular attendance at the summer degree shows.
Jiří Pelcl has received many highly celebrated design awards, numerous prestigious invitations to lecture around the world and has authored a number of books on design. With more than 20 solo and 110 group exhibitions globally, his work is also represented at the current exhibition 'Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990' at the Victoria and Albert Museum (2011-2012), co-curated by Jane Pavitt, former University of Brighton Principal Research Fellow at the V&A.
His place as an influential figure in design futures is evidenced through the work of a selection of present and former students included as the conclusion to 'The Incredible Lightness of Being: Jiří Pelcl – Czech Design' exhibition at Brighton. The show has been designed by Jiří Pelcl and curated by Sylva Petrova (University of Sunderland) in collaboration with Jonathan Woodham (University of Brighton Faculty of Arts).
20 January 2012
Sallis Benney Theatre, Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton, Grand Parade, Brighton, BN2 OJY
Symposium
Drawing on original contributions from design professionals, critics, theorists, historians and curators from the Czech Republic, the UK and Estonia, this symposium will consider the ways in which Czech design horizons have changed since the 1980s. The retreat from the centralised ideologies of the Eastern Bloc was reflected in the turning away from the ‘official’ language of functionalism (or, perhaps, modernism in extremis) towards a vocabulary that explored more pluralist, expressive and imaginative visions that could be associated with notions of democracy. These tensions will be explored in papers that situate such discourse in a wider Eastern European context as well as in the Czech Republic itself.
The pathway from the Atika group, of which Jiří Pelcl was a founding member in 1987, through to greater international recognition of Czech design in the twenty-first century, will be mapped via the increasing premium on design innovation in small co-operatives rather than large-scale state factories. Attention will also be paid to the importance of design education, in which Jiří Pelcl has played a significant role - as a student in the 1970s and 80s; Head of Studio in the 1990s; and Rector of the Prague Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (AAAD) in the 2000s. The day will conclude with a screening of Vit Klusák and Filip Remunda’s documentary film Czech Dream (Ceský sen) – the Hypermarket for a Better Life (2004).
Speakers will include: Jiří Pelcl (AAAD, Prague), Sylva Petrova (Director of the Institute for International Research in Glass, University of Sunderland), David Crowley (Royal College of Art, London), Jyri Kermik (University of Brighton), Dagmar Koudelkova (AAAD, Prague), Martina Pachmanova (AAAD, Prague), Iva Knobloch (UPM, Prague) and Jonathan Woodhamn (University of Brighton).
Registration Fees (including lunch and refreshments): Full fee £50; Concessions £30; University of Brighton staff and external students £25; University of Brighton students £18.
To book a place on the symposium. click here. For further information, please contact Madeleine Dutton: 01273 643720 or m.j.dutton@brighton.ac.uk
