Pekinpah Association

The Pekinpah Association for cultural, publishing and production activities was established in 2007 uniting professional designers, architects, linguists, musicians and dancers in order to facilitate their creation as well as to develop the related theoretical discourse. The association focuses on organising and producing exhibitions, lectures, congresses, and research into new media and information practices. Pekinpah is also the producer of the KINK dance group and the Silence music group. The lecture series about visual communications theory On Information Design was prepared in collaboration with Petra Černe Oven and Pekinpah Association, starting in November 2009 at the Museum of Architecture and Design, and continuing throughout the year 2010.

In autumn 2010 the SPIDER Athens Festival was organised by the Pekinpah Association, Kink Kong (SI), Collectif Loge 22 (FR) and Kinitiras Dance Spectacle (GR) presenting international artists at various venues and in the streets of Athens.

Background

The main reason for establishing the association was to promote and carry out activities regarding design theory and theoretical work, which is often disregarded in Slovenia in comparison with practical work, as the latter is visually attractive and appealing to the professional, media and public. The lack of theoretical work is even more evident in design, as only a handful of studies on theory of design have been published in Slovenian language.

Lectures and exhibition programme

In 2008 Pekinpah in collaboration with the Museum of Architecture and Design (former Architecture Museum Ljubljana) organised a series of lectures about sustainable alternatives in design, hosting international lecturers.

In 2009 they conceived an overview exhibition on the development of design at the Slovene company Iskra. The project marked the 30th anniversary of the launch of Iskra's internationally recognised telephone, the ETA 80, by the distinguished Slovene designer Davorin Savnik. In February 2010 the exhibition was presented through lecture An Overlooked Giant: Iskra, Non-aligned Design 1946-1990 by Barbara Predan at the Fourth International Conference on Design Principles and Practices at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Publishing

Back to Design: an Anthological Survey of Design Theory in Slovenia was published in Slovenian language in summer 2007 by Pekinpah together with Litera Publishing House.

In November 2009, the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAD) and the Pekinpah Association released Sustainable Alternatives in Design: It's High Time We Start Losing Time, a book of lectures on design theory edited by Barbara Predan and Cvetka Požar. The book is available either in English or Slovenian language and features texts by Dieter Rams, Ezio Manzini, Jonathan Chapman, Clive Dilnot, Per Mollerup, and Victor Margolin.

The book ISKRA: Non-aligned Design 1946-1990 accompanied the exhibition with the same title in November 2009. A separate Slovenian edition was also published; both in collaboration with the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAD).

In September 2009 the association published the new album of the duet Silence, The Passion of the Cold, a limited edition handmade book containing two CDs, featuring music from or inspired by Slovene director Tomaž Pandur's plays Barroco and Kaligula.

The SPIDER project

The SPIDER project was initiated by three dancers and choreographers: Matej Kejžar (Slovenia), Michaël Pomero (France), who met in Brussels (at Rosas) and Antigone Gyra (Greece), with an aim of extending neurotical edges of national borders, festival formats and artistic practices. The project weaves a web of mobility with around 40 artists from different countries and cultures and from various artistic fields and milieus (dancers, choreographers, musicians, writers, sculptors, visual artists).

The first festival takes place in Greece: THE SPIDER NET goes out to the streets and invites all Athenians: Greeks, immigrants, straight, gay, unemployed, working, retired, married and single. At the festival in Athens also Slovene artists are involved as choreographers, actors, visual artists and writers (Matej Kejžar, Leja Jurišić and Teja Reba, Urša Vidic, Andreja Kopač). The SPIDER will continue its (net)work at the Španski borci Culture Centre in Ljubljana (March 2011), Lyon (November 2011), Zagreb and Salzburg (December 2011). The SPIDER makes also a part of the Maribor, European Capital of Culture 2012 programme and plans the inclusion of Maribor, Istanbul and Sofia in The SPIDER 2012-2014.

External links

Gallery

ISKRA, Non-Aligned Design: 1946-1990 exhibition

Spider project (Athens) poster, 2010

Karel van der Waarde's lecture on visual communication design, 2010

Clive Dilnot's lecture on Sustainable alternatives in design, 2008

Dieter Rams's lecture on Sustainable alternatives in design, 2008

Silence

Pekinpah Association

Contents

Background

Lectures and exhibition programme

Publishing

The SPIDER project

See also

External links

Gallery

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