MEMORABILIA - designing souvenirs

wants to be a call for the evocative power of the objects which have the ability to stimulate our memory.

The memory creates a time reciprocity, between past, present and future, and a space reciprocity, between here and elsewhere.

The aim of this call and of the exhibition MEMORABILIA - designing souvenirs is to gather a selection of objects which contain representative et recognizable traces of the history of each designer, of his/her place of birth or living, of his/her ethnic group, of his/her cultural background, in order to offer to the public a mosaic of little hints of souvenirs, of ways to the memories.

While we are living in a time of multiculturalism and of migrations, of identity and of diversity, of belonging and of nomadism, of “local products” and of globalization, we are trying to create new “madeleines of Proust”, at the same time marks of the past and awakenings of conscience, able to bring an innovative look on an evolving society.

 

Eligibility

• The call for projects is open to designers and design students of all nationalities, working alone or in a team.
• The proposed project must concern a functional object which evokes memories, habits and customs, whatever they are: cultural, religious, culinary, etc., through a form, a technique, a material, a use.
• The project can be a product or a prototype and it can have a maximum volume of 0,5 m³. The exhibition will only accept finished objects, products or prototypes.
• The applications and the submission of the necessary documentation can only be made through this website (see registration).

An acknowledgement of receipt will be sent as soon as we get your file.
Documents sent under other formats or incomplete documents will not be accepted.

 

Schedule

• Deadline for the applications: 15th March 2012
• Meeting of the international selection committee: 25th March 2012
• Answer from the selection committee to the selected designers: from 27th March 2012
• Submission of texts and necessary information for the presentation of the project to be featured in the catalogue: 15th April 2012

The dates of reception and removal of the selected objects in the exhibition space will be given to the designers, following the results of the selection.

 

Exhibition & Catalogue

The exhibition will take place in the “Espace Saint-Antoine”, a desecrated church in the “Musée de la Vie wallonne” in Liège, from 5th until 28th October 2012, within the framework of RECIPROCITY.

Each selected project will be published in the catalogue of RECIPROCITY.

 

The Selection Committee & the Prizes

The selection committee is composed of international personalities :

Anna Bernagozzi (design consultant and teacher at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris), Guus Beumer (director of Marres and  artistic director of NAiM/Bureau Europa, Maastricht), Jan Boelen (artistic director of Z33, Hasselt), Virginio Briatore (journalist Interni and other media), Julie Brunel (representative for UDB, Belgian Designers Union, in Wallonia and Brussels), Moniek Bucquoye (journalist and consultant for the Design Museum Gent), Florence Conradt (Clap), Françoise Foulon (executive director of Grand-Hornu, Mons), Alain Gilles (designer), Olivier Gilson (designer co-founder of 'L'agence' and Project manager & residences Centre bruxellois de la Mode et du Design), Pierre Henrion (curator of the Musée en Plein-Air du Sart-Tilman, Liège), Giorgia Morero (Wallonie-Bruxelles Design Mode), Gérard Pitance (executive director of STÛV and co-chairman of Wallonie Design), Natascha Rommens (project manager -  Flanders District of Creativity, Leuven), Alexander von Vegesack (director of Vitra Design Museum) et Anna Yudina (chief editor at Monitor magazine).

The jury will select 40 to 50 objects.

Three prizes with a value 5.000,00€ will be given by the international selection committee: a prize will be given to the best object of a designer born or living in Wallonia, one to the best object of a designer born or living in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine area, one to the best object of a participating designer, regardless of where he/she comes from or lives.

 

Selection Criteria

The selection criteria of the proposed projects are based on the quality of the project in terms of:

• degree of coherence with the theme of the call for projects, the aesthetics, the functionality of the object, the sustainable ethical aspects,
• degree of authenticity, of originality of the conception,
• degree of innovation - function, material, assembling and/or proposed solutions.