Belgrade Design Week 2011
From May 26-28th : conference FUTURE2
Belgrade Design Week is definitely one of the top international creative festivals, which successfully promotes Serbia and Belgrade around the globe, and brings numerous international guests every year. BDW has successfully forged intercultural and business connections between the global design scene, the regional creative industries and the city of Belgrade. BDW reinvents with its concept the tradition of grand international festivals of culture such as Bitef, Fest and Bemus in Belgrade, within a new contemporary context of design. Filling the gap of the missing presentation of the creative industries in South East Europe, BDW is adding for the first time ever Serbia onto the global design map, while demonstrating a clearly international and cosmopolitan philosophy.
The 6th Belgrade Design Week will be held between the 23rd and 28th May 2011 at Jugoslovensko dramsko pozoriste. BDW will be partnering this year with the "Belgrade 2020" project, which focuses on the capital of Serbia's candidacy for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2020. As part of the Design Week from the 26th to the 28th of May, famous three-day educational conference, this year under the name FUTURE², will once again present the leading global creative thinkers of the 21st century. The BDW festival is recognized to promote Serbia and Belgrade in the best way worldwide. The "Beograd 2020" and Belgrade Design Week cooperation is aimed to promote the Serbian capital, provide conditions for jobs creation, social development and try to prevent the brain-drain of intellectuals in the country.
The conference FUTURE2 will be focused on scenarios for the future: finding solutions, ideas, models, tendencies for future needs based on European values and standards, with the goal to define, understand and establish frameworks for the future society. Delegates will have the opportunity to inform themselves about latest global developments from the creative industries, to learn from the leading international companies, brands and individuals on how to adapt to changes in the future economy. For the first time within the Belgrade Design Week, our traditional late night program of passionate BDW Dizajnights is planned as a full blooded urban music festival, with the appearance of world-known superstars five days in a row. Additionally, our well-established BDW Dizajnlabs workshops and masterclasses, will complement as each year the city -wide satellite daily program of film projections, exhibitions, cocktail receptions and promotions, known under the name of BDW Dizajnpremieres.
At the press conference in December 2010, Jovan Jelovac, founder and curator of Belgrade Design Week, emphasized the main goal of this festival - introducing citizens of Belgrade and the region to the treasury of global knowledge and creative achievements through this truly unique event in the region between Vienna to Istanbul.
Aleksandar Pekovic, Deputy Secretary for Culture of Belgrade : " The Organizational Board in charge of Belgrade’s Application for the Title of European Capital of Culture 2020 supports Belgrade Design Week as a partner project of strategic importance to Belgrade. BDW increased the reputation and standing of Belgrade's cultural offer on both local and international level, while the "Beograd 2020" project is the most important one a city can develop within the framework of European integration”.
Raising the bar each year, Belgrade Design Week has to work hard to justify the label of being one of "the best creative conferences in the world", by critiques such as the Financial Times among others. The Israeli designer Arik Levy whose works are exhibited in museums around the world is just one name from a 50 plus list of global leaders of the creative industries, who will be presenting their works to the public during the upcoming 6 day festival. Others are the award wining Croatian architecture duo Penezic and Rogina, famous Spanish artist and designer Javier Mariscal, German furniture designer Stefan Diez, the probably most popular global design award Red Dot Award with its founder Peter Zec from Germany, German art director Mike Meiré famous in magazine circles for designing two of the most innovative magazines of recent times – brand Eins and Econy, architecture studio Snohetta from Norway, Switzerland's ever-avantgarde musical legends Yello with its virtual concert and lecture by Dieter Meier… If you visit the festival, you will have the opportunity to enjoy lectures, works, presentations and exhibitions from world famous creative leaders and brands from the UK, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, USA, Australia, Spain, Portugal, Norway...
