RDW Design Flags returns this year to the program of the Romanian Design Week festival, bringing to the public a series of exhibitions, projects and creatives relevant in their fields, at an international level. Developed alongside cultural institutes, embassies and cultural-creative organizations and supported by Château Purcari, RDW Design Flags brings to the forefront the contributions of designers and architects from around the world, from May 24 to June 2, in the iconic building of the former Cina restaurant.
The RDW Design Flags format serves as a connector between the local and international architecture and design landscape, offering a variety of themes, approaches and representations of design and architecture, from sustainable products and services, photography, contemporary traditions and technologies, to studies related to types of housing in the urban environment.
“We are glad that this year we are able to bring back the RDW Design Flags format to the festival program, which will offer visitors consistent and relevant international content, aligned with global directions and trends in design and architecture. We want to thank our partners for their support and we hope that next year even more organizations, cultural institutes and embassies will join the effort, so that the presence of international design at Romanian Design Week will become a tradition” – says Raluca Mirel, Romanian Design Week Project Director.
Under the theme “Unlock the City”, the 2024 edition of Romanian Design Week aims to explore how creativity and innovation can contribute to shaping the cities of the future and revealing their potential. Within this context, the 9 exhibitions in the RDW Design Flags format bring to the fore various perspectives and approaches on contemporary design and architecture, as follows:
Hugo La Pietra. Urban planning for the community – From bollards to gazebos – exhibited with the support of the Italian Institute of Culture in Bucharest, the exhibition refers to Ugo La Pietra’s research on the individual/environment relationship and, in particular, on the collective urban space. Since the end of the 60s, La Pietra has studied the urban territory, a formal expression of the contradictions of social life. From peripheries (Degrees of Freedom, Recovery and Reinvention) to urban layouts, signs that emphasize very well the difference between domestic living and urban living.
Manufacturing in the digital age is a textile and fashion exhibition by DLA students from MOME Budapest, exhibited with the support of the Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Center Bucharest. The work of DLA students at the Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design (MOME) in Budapest reflects on contemporary design, where craft and manual dexterity combine with modern techniques. DLA students’ ongoing research projects explore these themes, providing possible answers in their own field of work such as weaving, knitting, textile design, tailoring or fashion illustration.
Design x sustainable x desirable: french design incubator 2023 – conceived by VIA and presented during Romanian Design Week with the support of the French Institute in Romania, explores the new ways adopted by French designers, publishers and manufacturers to create objects that are more environmentally friendly. The approximately thirty projects on display, divided into five themes, demonstrate new uses, materials and innovative processes to create desirable objects that answer questions related to a new French art of responsible living.
Marius Vasile and Leafhopper Project (David Simon and Blanca Galindo) signs a photography exhibition that invites the public to unlock the everyday beauty of Madrid and Bucharest. In this project, created especially for RDW Design Flags and curated by the cultural management team of the Spanish Embassy in Bucharest, photographers from Romania and Spain establish a dialogue around the cities of Madrid and Bucharest, their dynamic and static elements, the inhabitants and their daily lives. The photographs of Marius Vasile and the Leafhopper Project collective explore what makes cities livable and visitable spaces and confront us with a question that no doubt many people have asked themselves many times: how is it possible that these cities to look alike, even though they are so different?
Swedish Design Movement. Leading the way – brings together Swedish design companies who believe that design, architecture and fashion can accelerate progress towards a sustainable society, encouraging demand for sustainable products and services in Sweden. The initiative is managed by the Swedish Institute in collaboration with Architects Sweden, the Swedish Fashion Association, the Swedish Federation of the Wood and Furniture Industry, Svensk Form (the Swedish Craft and Design Society), as well as representatives from Gothenburg, West Sweden, Malmö, Stockholm , Umeå, Business Sweden and Visit Sweden and exhibited during the Romanian Design Week festival with the support of the Swedish Embassy in Bucharest. Exhibit David design, Fogia, Reform Design Lab, VERK, A NEW SWEDEN, Atacac, maxjenny!, Swedish Stockings, Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects, Kjellander Sjöberg, Tham/Videgård, White Arkitekter, Wingårdhs, Note Design Studio, Carl Engberg.
Greener Together – Liveable Cities – We live in a fast forward world. As the pace of urbanization accelerates, cities face enormous challenges that may not necessarily be obvious or attractive to our daily lives, but which, if left unaddressed, could significantly affect our lives sooner rather than later. Regardless of the particular stage of development of a city, the concern for the quality of life of the inhabitants of the urban environment should be a guiding principle. Greener Together – Liveable Cities is a project exhibited at RDW Design Flags with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark in Romania.
Ibero-American Typography – The Cervantes Institute, in collaboration with the “Iberoamérica Diseña” Association, presents within the RDW Design Flags an exhibition of letter design made by Ibero-American graphic artists and curated by Manuel Estrada, both out of the desire to make known the moment of extraordinary creativity that crosses this discipline, as well as highlighting the value of letter design as a culturally significant activity, inextricably linked to writing, reading and speech, and economically sustainable.
Designers (Re)drawing the world – The Cervantes Institute, in collaboration with the FIDO (Feminism in Design Office) platform, presents a selection of twelve Spanish creators particularly relevant in the Spanish contemporary design scene, in all fields (product design, textile, graphics): Marta Ayala, Eli González, Júlia Esqué, Amalia Puga, Cristina Omarrementería, Ingrid Picanyol, Inés Sistiaga, Verònica Fuerte, Miriam Miguel, Raquel Buj, Silvia Ferpal and Elena Rohner, one of the pioneers of design in Spain. The exhibition is curated by Gloria Ruiz.
Soul of Moldova – Traditions through contemporary art – The exhibition represents the collaboration between the artist Victoria Peev and the fashion designer Oxana Munteanu, through the Kasandruta brand. In their creations, the two artists form a deep connection between the past and the present, an ingenious mix between tradition and minimalism and the technologies of contemporary art.
The 9 exhibitions within RDW Design Flags are organized with the support of Château Purcari and are presented in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Culture in Bucharest, the Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Center Bucharest, the French Institute in Romania, the Spanish Embassy in Romania, the Swedish Embassy in Bucharest, Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark in Romania, Cervantes Institute in Bucharest.
The theme of the Romanian Design Week 2024 festival: Unlock the City
The 2024 edition of Romanian Design Week aims to investigate the ways in which creativity and innovation can shape the cities of tomorrow and at the same time contribute to the exploration of Bucharest and the discovery of its potential and layers, creative spaces in the city and cultural organizations or projects that they animate and define them.
The edition invites the citizens of Bucharest to discover the creative specificity of some areas of the city, to discover original design projects and multidisciplinary approaches, but also to contribute to the definition of dialogue spaces, thus demonstrating the importance of the processes of collective imagination and co-creation of a more friendly.
The theme of the RDW2024 festival wants to contribute to reconnecting the people of Bucharest to the city and especially to its communities, rediscovered this time from the perspective of the potential of local creative industries.
All these exhibitions will be accessible to the public during the Romanian Design Week 2024 festival, which takes place between May 24 and June 2, at the former CINA restaurant (Str. Benjamin Franklin 10). Access tickets can be purchased from on the festival page. Pupils, students and pensioners have free access, and holders of a UniCredit card from Mastercard benefit from a 50% discount when purchasing tickets, discount applicable in the payment step.
The Romanian Design Week festival is a project of The Institute, presented by Unicredit Bank, financed by the Ministry of Culture.
More details on the website, Facebook and Instagram.
Romanian Design Week it’s a project The Institute.
Presented by: UniCredit Bank
Cultural project funded by Ministry of Culture
Partners: IQOS, Château Purcari, Cemacon, Kozel, Globalworth, Rompetrol, Oral B, Mega Mall, Promenada
Cultural partner: Romanian Cultural Institute
Powered by: Bucharest City Hall, through ARCUB – the Cultural Center of the City of Bucharest
Strategic media partners: PRO TV, Kiss FM, Euromedia, YOOH
Media partners: Radio Romania Cultural, Igloo, Haute Culture, BIZ Magazine, Zeppelin Magazine, Molecule F, Designist, Modernism, B365.ro, feeder.ro, munteanurecomandă.ro, Propagarta, Atelierul Magazine, IQAds, RADOR, Agerpres, Days and Nights, SpotmediaPRwave, Glamour, The Woman, Happening, Inspirationist, Business Magazine, Arthood, Business Review, Metropolis, ALIST Magazine, Dreamingof.net, Daily Magazine, Nine O’Clock
Creative team: Radu Manelici, Claudia Draghia, Sebastian Pren & Polychromic
Monitoring partner: MediaTrust
Exhibition design: Attila Kim Architects
About The Institute
The Institute promotes the creative industries in Romania, aiming to contribute to the modernization of Romania. The Institute has been initiating and organizing events for over 25 years and has built a community that brings together entrepreneurs, professionals and the public of the creative industries in Romania. Through everything it does, it contributes to building a strong infrastructure for the development of creative entrepreneurship in the country, increases and diversifies the audience of workshops, designers, small businesses, agencies and manufactures, promotes entrepreneurs and creative professionals nationally and internationally. He is the founder of Romanian Design Week, the DIPLOMA festival, the Civil Society Gala, Internetics, Cartierul Creativ, combinat.ro and initiator of ASAP Romania.
About UniCredit Bank
UniCredit Bank is part of UniCredit, a simple and successful pan-European commercial bank with an integrated system of Corporate and Investment banking services, offering its client base a unique Western, Central and Eastern European network. The group is present in Romania through: UniCredit Bank, UniCredit Consumer Financing, UniCredit Leasing Corporation, UniCredit Insurance Broker, UniCredit Leasing Fleet Management and UniCredit Services.
Tags: Romanian Design Week June public admire international exhibitions RDW Design Flags format
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