THE NINTH BELGRADE DESIGN WEEK LAUNCHED-DIZAJN PARK MAGAZINE

The Ninth Belgrade Design Week officially opened on 7th October, at the old Staklopan factory, Strahinjica bana 7-9 and closed on 12th October. Design Week was launched by the President of the Republic of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolic, under whose patronage the event is taking place. He stressed the importance of the creative industries for the development of Serbian economy.

– The essence of design is its omnipresence, said President Nikolić, it is intended for everyone, and in each individual can see, hear and understand what they find special, what best suits their character. Design speaks the universal language of signs and symbols and we hope that our signs and symbols will be seen in the future, said Nikolic, declaring the ninth Belgrade Design Week open.

The founder of the Belgrade Design Week Jovan Jelovac pointed out that this was the first time that the president of the country opened this design and creative industries event.

– After 10 years and nine Design Weeks in a row, we have completed our mission: to make it possible for our designers to stand side by side, as equals, with the world’s greatest talents. This is a rare opportunity to bring the world to Belgrade and to present Belgrade to the world, said Jelovac, and expressed his gratitude to all the partners, from Serbia and abroad, who have helped organize this event.

– This is a high quality event, which is what we expect of Belgrade Design Week, a young and creative event, which has an important educational aspect, both in the field of fashion, food and comics, and in graphic design and information technologies, and has the ability to increase employment, said Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport.

Embassy of Israel has made it possible for the visitors of BDW see one of the world’s most important exhibitions “Out of the Box” of Design Museum in Holon. Joseph Levy, Israeli ambassador to Serbia, said that this event demonstrated that design is a field that is developing rapidly and that gives a lot of potential for Serbia to improve its business capacities and increase the number of jobs.

The opening ceremony was attended by the Ambassador of the Netherlands to Serbia Laurent Stokvis, Ambassador of Germany Wilhelm Heinz, Ambassador of India to Serbia Narinder Chauhan, Umberto Jose Castro Villalobos, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Embassy of Mexico in Serbia, many other diplomats and hundreds of guests.

The following exhibitions were launched at the opening: Out of the Box – Design made in Israel, Design Museum Holon; Strala is Presence/Tom Strala – CH, Juxtaposition – Nicolas Le Moigne – CH, Imagine, the Wooden Bicycle – Dvoika/RS, Nendo for Lasvit, Nendo JP and Lasvit CZ, Freedom to Reshape, Laufen – CH, Konstantin Grčić/Toan Nguyen, Restons-Serieux, Gavrilo Božović – CH/RS, Phantasms on wheels, Nikola Kolja Božović – RS; The Obsidan Project and Dandelight, Studio Drift – NL, Table T, Irena Kilibarda – RS, Comfort #8, Sabina Lang & Daniel Baumann – CH, People, Branko Stračević – RS.

This year’s Belgrade Design Week was held with the support of the President of the Republic of Serbia, City of Belgrade, the EU Delegation to Serbia, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, the National Tourism Organization of Serbia, the Secretary for Culture of the City of Belgrade, with the support of embassies and institutions from Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, India and Israel and the partner company Gorenje, Audi, Lamda Development and Crown Plaza.