The 11th edition of Jerusalem Design Week takes place this week in the Hansen House Center for Design, Media and Technology, June 23-30.
The flagship event will showcase a wide range of exhibitions, installations and special projects by more than 150 Israeli and international designers. Rooted in the discipline of design, each one is based around the event’s annual theme: “For Now.” This year’s theme explores the ephemerality of design and the design of ephemerality and asks how time can be harnessed for a positive effect in uncertain periods.
Opening night on Thursday will include musical and interactive performances. Designers will welcome their audience to experience, in real time, what happens when sound sensors are connected to a working pottery wheel, participate in an endless loop created by an Austro-Italian artist, musician and dancer, receive custom-made shoes in 15 minutes, witness a robot grow a structure from the ground and many more exciting surprises.
Highlights include, a performative project by Italian artist Aldo Giannotti will question time and repetition. The artist’s diagrammatic style will envelop Hansen House, alongside an ongoing performance that incorporates music and dance. Clean Motion, curated by Takeshi Yamamura, Natalia Sanz, Arieh Rosen and Noam Levinger, is an exhibition that explores cleaning as part of Japanese culture and the tools used in Japanese cleaning rituals. Istanbul-based design collective Piknik will create real-time illustrations in Hansen House, using its signature electric blue style. Works by Piknik will address the question of time, with content built on both random and planned conversations.
In its fifth year, the “Matchmaker” project is spearheaded by designer Daniel Nahmias. For its “third age” edition, the project will once again connect local contemporary designers and Jerusalem-based artisans, with a focus on the elderly. Working together, older craftspeople and younger designers will create new objects and stories.
An exhibition curated by designer Shahar Kedem, will show both new works and antiquities. In partnership with the Antiquities Authority, the exhibition will explore the connection between archaeological findings and the stories we weave around them.