Exhibitions

We have prepared several exhibitions for this year’s festival. You can visit the main exhibition dedicated to the issues of the future in a design called Future is! daily at the Zlín Castle. The second exhibition in the G18 gallery is dedicated to the finalists of the international competition Best in Design 2024, which has been tracking new talents in the fields of Product & Industrial Design, Fashion Design, Communication Design, and Service Design for fifteen years. You can also look forward to the Future is ZDW! installation presenting each of the previous years of the festival.

  • Festival exhibition design: Bára Kolondrová and team
  • Festival exhibitions production: Alexandra Recová
  • Graphic output: Vojtěch Kovařík and team

The festival exhibitions are realized with the technical support of the company DATART. You will find KOMA modules with partner content, a chill-out module, and information about the festival by the shopping center, at Café 204 in Komenský Park, and Náměstí Míru.

The exclusive partner of the exhibitions is the company Datart.

FUTURE IS!

Main festival exhibition. What impact does design have on our future? The main festival exhibition of Future is! explores current challenges and trends in design and presents projects that can shape our near and distant future. The selection of projects has focused on meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), resilient design, use of new technologies, and inclusive approaches. Join us for a glimpse of how design can shape the future today.

  • Curator: Michala Lipková (SK)
  • Exhibition concept: Jitka Smolíková, Ondřej Staněk
  • Place: The Zlín Castle, Soudní 1, 760 01 Zlín 1
  • Exhibition date: May 9 – May 24
  • Opening hours: during the festival: 10:00 – 18:00; outside the festival every day 13:00 – 18:00
  • Opening: Wednesday, May 8 at 19:00
  • Accessibility: English version
  • Entrance: free

Michala Lipková, Exhibition curator (SK)

Michala Lipková is a designer and researcher mainly in product design, focusing on interdisciplinary collaborations. In 2015, as an active designer, she received the Slovak National Design Award. She is the head of the Institute of Design at the Faculty of Architecture (FAD) of STU and, at the same time, leads the TR1MTAB product design studio, focused on interdisciplinary practice and early stages of product development. She also focuses on innovative design tools and on promoting Slovak design abroad.

Future is Best of ’24!:  Place in the Future

The future is often perceived as a sci-fi structure, competing with human qualities rather than as the unfolding of predetermined outcomes. The purpose of its exploration by designers is not to predict the inevitable but to discover possibilities for influencing future events. 

Inclusive, resilient, and innovative design has its place in the future of our society. Design is omnipresent and transforms current designs into future solutions, influencing the quality of our lives. 

Let’s explore its place in the future alongside the finalists of the 15th edition of the international competition Best in Design.

For over fourteen years, the competition has provided a platform for new talents to explore ways to influence the direction of design and everyday life. What themes and approaches do they emphasize? How do they see the world and its direction? How does academic ground intersect with business? The exhibition Best of ’24 – Place in the Future combines fashion, visual communication, and industrial product and service solutions. It opens a space for meetings, discussions, and reflection on how to create and support design for the future we desire.

The finalists of the 15th year of the competition will present their works from May 9th to 24th at Gallery G18.

Curator: Kristina Mlynárová

  • Place: gallery G18, Štefánikova 5670, Zlín
  • Date: May 9 – May 24
  • Opening hours: daily from 10:00 to 18:00
  • Vernissage and commented program with the jury and finalists: Saturday, May 11 at 18:30
  • Accessibility: wheelchair access, English version
  • Entrance: free of charge

Future is ZDW!

The Future is ZDW! exhibition celebrates a significant jubilee – the first decade of Zlin Design Week! Through small installations, it presents the history of ten unforgettable years of the festival, with installations based on the memories of the head managers of Zlin Design Week. The exhibition shows the festival’s transformation in its main outputs through the presentation of visual identities, graphic outputs, videos, photographs, and art installations.

  • Place: TBU Rectorate, T. G. Masaryk Square 5555, 760 01 Zlín 1 
  • By invitation only
  • When: May 9 – May 24
  • Opening hours: daily from 8:00 to 18:00
  • Accessibility: barrier-free access, English version
  • Entrance: free of charge

IDENTITY: After Milano 2024

IDENTITY, presented at Milan Design Week 2024, is a selection of designs from five collaborating universities, including the Faculty of Multimedia Communications at Tomas Bata University in Zlín. The exhibition presents a diverse range of objects, physical and digital, mundane and festive, that shape our awareness of our identity and, thus, identity. The projects are, to a large extent, the generational testimony of young designers, who are facing several new challenges: from the ubiquitous search for sustainability, the potential or risks of new technologies brought about by, for example, artificial intelligence, to the discovery of one’s creative self.

Exhibition IDENTITY: after Milano 2024 will be displayed in the Elements bathroom studio in Zlín. Elements Studios represents a whole new, modern concept of showrooms with current trends and the latest technologies, presenting the functionality of products combined with the most precise design.

  • Place: Bathroom studio Elements, building 64/2 (7055 Sedmdesátá Street, Zlín)
  • When: May 9 – May 31
  • Opening hours: outside the weekend every day from 8:00 to 17:00 
  • Opening: Thursday, May 9 at 17:00
  • Entrance: free of charge

LD Seating

The image of Lotus is not limited to abstract spiritual concepts such as state of mind, purity, and eternity. The symbol can also be found within the chair design by LD Seating, which evokes the southeastern flower with its elegant and harmonious form. The “Lotus” chair impresses with its unique design, which combines a three-dimensional shell with perfect lines and a subtle yet distinctive open window between the seat and backrest.

The installation of LD Seating in the KOMA Module was prepared by first-year students of the Studio of Spatial Design under the guidance of Ing. Arch. Kamil Koláček. 

  • Place: KOMA module, náměstí Práce, Zlín
  • Date: 8th – 14th May

DESIGN X SCIENCE

With the exhibition project DESIGN × SCIENCE, the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava presents a new platform for dialogue between design research and science. During Zlin Design Week, the KOMA Module will present Ph.D. projects by Vladimír Boron (Informed Creativity), Petra Hurai (Experience of Time), Filip Maukš (Mixed Reality Workflows), and Lucie Suchá (Phygital Materiality). 

The collaborative platform Trimtab|Prototyping Change aims to actively search for new industrial partnerships and accelerate technology transfer through design research and multidisciplinary collaboration between STU faculties.

  • Place: KOMA module, náměstí Míru, Zlín
  • Date: 8th – 14th May

STORY OF TRANSFORMATION FROM THE BESKYDY MOUNTAINS

The exhibition covers the journey of the foothill village Trojanovice (Frenštát region), lasting over 140 years. The village and its surroundings are a popular tourist destination attracted by its picturesque Beskydy nature. Trojanovice builds on its solid roots with ideas for a sustainable future, resulting in the satisfaction of the inhabitants and the well-being of the area. You can see the exhibition ” Story of Transformation from the Beskydy Mountains,” displaying a cross-section of the development on Školní Street.

  • Place: Školní Street (the junction of Tomáš Bata Avenue and Štefánikova Street)
  • Date: 8th – 14th May

BEYOND

The Beyond project will take visitors into the virtual world of the ideas of the students of the Graphic Design and Industrial Design studios of the Faculty of Multimedia Communications at Tomas Bata University in Zlín. A series of posters were created during the Working with Artificial Intelligence workshop, showing the students’ visions of the future and the potential of cooperation with this new technology. The posters will be complemented by a series of virtual sculptures, which reflect the current possibilities of AI in 3D modeling and visual creation on the border between art and design. The virtual gallery in which the Beyond exhibition will be presented will allow visitors from different parts of the world to meet in a shared time and space. The entire exhibition will be enhanced with audiovisual elements and authorial commentary on each work.

In their teaching with students, the project was realized by MgA. Jakub Hrdina, Ph.D. from APD and MgA. Jana Dosoudilová from AGD with Ing. Štěpán Dlabajá, Ph.D. from UAŘT FAI.

The metaverse partner of the BEYOND exhibition is AVONET s.r.o.

Mirrors of Zlín

A multimedia exhibition about the history of the city of Zlín

The multimedia exhibition aims to give visitors an authentic experience that combines artistic value with the emotional subtext of the history of Zlín and its significant moments. The Mirrors of Zlín are more than just a static display of the past – they are an interactive expression of the regional cultural identity, just like the Zlin Design Week festival itself. That is why, during the festival, the mirrors will be lit up in this year’s red color, symbolizing the collaboration between the two projects.

  • Place: Sad Svobody, Soudní 1, 760 01 Zlín
  • Date: permanent exhibition
  • Enterance: free of charge

what previous ZDW exhibitions looked like?

View of the white gallery space. In the middle of the space there are white blocks with exhibited projects. In the background you can see several clothing design projects hanging from the ceiling.
The photo focuses on white sneakers, and a hat and handbag that are made from upcycled sneakers. The installation is placed on a metal stand. In the background there are crowds of people.
A view of the wall with 10 posters featuring projects from the Best in Design competition. On the left is a TV screen showing a radiator. In the foreground the installation is mounted on a metal stand. White sneakers are placed on the ground and a hat and a handbag, which are made just from upcycled sneakers, are hung on the metal stand.
A younger woman with her hair in a ponytail looks at an exhibition on the topic of misinformation. The exhibition is in the form of posters on the wall. The posters have a red background and white text and are accompanied by graphic elements.
A view of the white gallery space with pictures on the walls and an interesting pink fan-shaped armchair.
A view into the white space of the G18 gallery. In the view there is a white column and behind it a poster of one of the installed projects.
A view of the wall with red posters with white lettering depicting an exhibition on desinformations
A view of the wooden installation with white banners presenting the exhibited projects. A wooden stool is placed next to the installation. The exhibition was titled long life and the projects on display are about upcycling and recycling.
Close-up of a stool with a paper from mamazin magazine on white paper showing letters in various decorative fonts.