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Friday, 28 March 2008 | Levent OZLER
DMY International Design Festival: the Sky is Not the Limit
Following the DMY Fly High! motto on the "Youngsters" 5th anniversary last year, DMY Berlin aims even higher in 2008. From May 21 - 25, under the title The Sky Is Not The Limit, protagonists of the national and international design scenes take the stage for the sixth time running to discuss the latest trends, explore current innovations and exchange creative ideas. Thus, borders become interfaces as night fades to day: this is design as a several-day, non-stop program marathon!
First off: DMY Berlin has expanded. After successfully establishing themselves as a platform for young, experimental design over the past few years, DMY Berlin now reveals increasingly flowing outlines, as the exhibition becomes a festival. With the newly created module DMY Allstars, DMY Berlin respond to the spate of requests made by national and international designers, and include the work of notorious and well-established creative forces within the DMY International Design Festival. In addition to the DMY Youngsters impressive main exhibition venue located on the Arena grounds, the DMY Allstars create the opportunity of exploiting external locations. In the form of satellite events dispersed throughout the entire city of Berlin, national and international exhibitors, design groups, as well local creative talents join forces while taking part in thematic exhibitions, group shows and open studios all along the exhibition circuit. In this way, DMY Berlin expands the festival program to the entire surface of the capital.
At DMY Allstars, the partner hosts of DMY Berlin from Korea, Taiwan and France will be represented during this year's DMY International Design Festival with independent special exhibitions. London's Royal College of Arts embarks on a school trip. The exhibition of the Swiss Design Award takes place at stilwerk. Israel's prestigious exhibition will grace the exhibition space of the Internationales Design Zentrum (IDZ), while Slovakia also sets sail for Berlin with a group of designers. As international highlight, the exhibition 'Turkish Delight' is eagerly awaited at the Pergamonmuseum / Museum for Islamic Art Berlin.
As usual, the DMY Youngsters form the core of the DMY International Design Festival in the central exhibition hall of the Arena Berlin industrial grounds. The DMY Youngsters function simultaneously as a showroom, a design lab and a playground. To the delight of a widely diversified public featuring both professionals and design enthusiasts, last year's exhibition space has been further expanded, and now hosts the work of more than 150 exhibitors on 7.000 m". A unique creative happening set in the typically laid-back DMY Youngsters atmosphere between Couch DJ showcases and VJ performances, the event enables exhibitors to introduce their newest developments, design trends and experiments, from product to interior design via accessories and art objects.
Finally, the legendary DMY Klublabor endows the festival with its liveliest expression through the interaction of all of its elements. Within the framework of various nocturnal events, the meaning of the term 'design' is transferred from products and tangible objects to other spheres such as sound, visuals or interior decoration. Exhibitors and public close ranks, discussions are deepened, contacts intensified. Over the past years, famous clubs, labels and party series such as WMF, Cookies, Tresor, Maria, all from Berlin, Click from Hamburg, Nitsa from Barcelona or AGogo from Maastricht each lined up for one night at DMY Berlin headquarters in the Kunstfabrik. This year DMY Klublabor will come to various nightlife hotspots all throughout the city. If at the legendary opening party in the Arena or at the city's finest clubs, an exceptional selection of DJs and VJs bring their public a formidable program of ecstatic nocturnal stylishness.
Again, this year the DMY International Design Festival is enhanced with an extensive framework program featuring numerous workshops and seminars focusing on the theme of design. Creative talents, professionals and visitors all have the opportunity to discover the latest developments and to exchange ideas in direct contact with the international design scene.
Within this context, DMY Berlin as the organizer of the DMY International Design Festival sees it as its task and responsibility to not only detect up and coming trends and to present the latest developments in contemporary design, but mainly to connect Berlin designers and creative talent with the international design scene. Therefore, for the first time, an eminent jury will select this year's participants of the DMY International Design Festival. Featuring, amongst others, renowned design protagonists such as Daniel Charny (Design Museum, London), Prof. Jiří Pelcl (Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, Prague) or Prof. Joachim Sauter (art+com, University of arts, Berlin).
DMY Berlin and the DMY International Design Festival will not only ensure that design in May remains a fixture of Berlin's cultural landscape, they also introduce the city as a seismograph of the international design scene.
DMY Berlin represents the "Design-City" Berlin (UNESCO) on an international level. In 2008, besides the self-initiated DMY International Design Festival in Berlin, further appearances are already planned at the Salone internationale del Mobile Milano, the Seoul Design Festival, the Taipei Design Expo in Taiwan, as well as the St. Etienne Design Biennale in France.
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