Mission, Vision, Revision

National treasure/ Czech craft is here! by the UMPRUM Textile Design Studio at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven was one of the most visited installations. The exhibition Mission, Vision, Revision enriched by the work of Dutch designers in this context now presents topics that are currently moving the design world.

The exhibition is based on the yearly project of the UMPRUM Textile Design Studio, which focused on the traditional craft of glass seed bead production and how it is currently possible to continue handcraft work with these seed beads. Students newly combined machine digital embroidery techniques with seed beads from the manufacturing company Preciosa Ornela, to make knitted fabrics or to re-evaluate seed beads as a raw material from which to make new materials.

The red thread of the Eindhoven show became the theme of new materiality, and thus became the foundation of the exhibition Mission, Vision, Revision, which ties the installation back to UMPRUM. The Textiles Design Studio student project is newly contextualized through their dialogue with Dutch designers. The UM Gallery features selected works by Dutch designers working with new and more ecological materials, and even leaves the physical world and enters virtual reality.

“Access to materials and innovations is very progressive in the Netherlands. Artists, architects, and designers are regularly encouraged to contribute their approach toward materials for a better, ecologically, socially inclusive and creative society. Awards are granted here for new materials. This understanding of the substance of materiality is essential in a changing value system. It is great to see how Stichting Doen, Fonds Kwadraat, and the Het Nieuwe Instituut believes in the potential of artists, designers, and architects, who play a vital role in initiating new material development and designing sustainable responses to the urgent challenges we face today. For Czech society, access to these organisations is an inspiration and our great wish is that these various concepts we are working on can be put into practice. We need to support these approaches!”, as the curator, Jitka Škopová emphasizes the very important role of design.

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