2nd Dec 2005 - 3rd Dec 2005
University Gallery
This conference was held alongside the Czech 100 Design Icons exhibition which had its British premiere on 22 November, 2005 at the University of Brighton Gallery and was opened by the Czech Ambassador.
Speakers addressed different perspectives in Twentieth and Twenty-First century Czech design in the context of the country’s changing cultural, social, political and economic climate. Their expertise covered architecture, automobile design, education, dress and national identity, graphic design and publishing, product and furniture design.
Speakers included the celebrated architect and designer Eva Jiřičná; distinguished designer Jiří Pelcl (Rector of the Prague Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design); design theorist Jan Michl (Oslo School of Architecture); design theoretician Ivan Margolius; dress historian Professor Lou Taylor (University of Brighton); curator and design historian Jane Pavitt (University of Brighton Research Fellow at the V&A); Barry Foley, Managing Director of Techo (UK); graphic design historian Jim Aulich (Manchester Metropolitan University); Michal Froněk of avant-garde design group Olgoj Chorchoi and Pavel Zelenka and Jana Vahalikova of the graphic design Studio Marvil.
Jiřičná is one of the best known Czech architects and designers, with many striking interiors in London, Paris and New York to her name. She trained in Prague before coming to Britain following the uprising of 1968. More recently she has been invited to undertake a number of high profile commissions in Prague, including the orangery in Prague Castle and offices for Andersen Consulting in Frank Gehry’s ‘Fred and Ginger’ building.
Jiří Pelcl is also a high profile Czech architect and designer well represented in the Design Icons exhibition. Founder of the radical Atika design group in 1987, which reacted against the restrictive nature of design in a Socialist state, he is also the author of Czech Design 1995-2000 (2001).
The Conference Steering Group comprised Professor Jonathan Woodham (University of Brighton) and Ladislav Pfimpfl (Czech Centre) alongside Pelcl and Michl.
Prior to its Brighton showing, Czech 100 Design Icons was displayed at the National Museum in Prague, the Kulturhuset in Stockholm and also in Bratislava and Berlin.
