ZDW Exhibition Design Lab

ZDW Exhibition Design Lab is a project created on the basis of a growing demand for interdisciplinary and capable young designers, artists and managers. A project that brought new collaborations, ideas and visions.

As part of the project, we focused on the interaction between the work of art and the audience, both offline and online. Our goal was to provide participants new skills and support sharing across different cultures and parts of creative industries.

In February 2021, we hosted the ZDW Exhibition Design Lab Conference, inviting several interesting personalities to present their views on the presentation of art in a virtual environment. We continued with a workshop for young artists from the Visegrad region and Serbia, created an online exhibition for Zlin Design Week 2021 and finally we met in person in Zlín.

What’s next? The ZDW Exhibition Design Lab is officially over but further networking and sharing of know-how is certainly not. We are currently working on new things and let you know about them in time!

How did the ZDW Exhibition Design Lab look like?

A group of young cultural managers, designers and others involved in the creative industries met during the last meeting in Zlín. In addition to exploring our favorite city, the program included a workshop with Richard Loskot and the UAII Studio during which participants discussed current approaches to presenting a work of art, interacting with the audience and created their own exhibition concepts.

The project partners were also given space to hold a diverse range of lectures related to their focus and we met with local entrepreneurs who introduced what is currently happening in the field of creative industries in Zlín.

Online talk: Journey to Trenčín 2026

Did you miss the ZDW Exhibition Design Lab this year? Don’t worry! We saved one online lecture for you with our partner, the festival of digital arts Sensorium. Lucia introduces you to the journey of the Slovakian city of Trenčín to become the European Capital of Culture 2026.

ZDW Exhibition Design Lab Conference

Want to learn more? You can also watch recordings from the Conference on exhibition design in the online environment. This is the great combo of lecturers who you can learn from:

Curating in Pandemic Times: from Challenges to Advantages
Design experiences for safety, intimacy, and delight
Designing a video exhibition: bringing a physical experience into the screen
Festivals: Virtual Worlds and New Audiences
Moving online? Not so fast. Exhibitions between physical and virtual environments.
Anything Else Besides the Logic of Gaming and Film?
WebXR in art and education
Creating an online experience

The first workshop and outcomes

Full of a new gained inspiration from the conference, we threw ourselves into practical testing of possible tools and approaches for creating online exhibitions. 25 participants lead by Anika Kronberger from FH Joanneum in Gratz created a concept for the upcoming exhibition Zlin Design Week 2021. The exhibition presented dozens of projects by young designers from several countries on the topic of COOPERATION. The exhibition is already closed but you can have a peek into its catalogue or the video:

Who are the project partners?

The project is supported by the Visegrad Fund