Words by

Bronwyn Marshall

The wine is waiting to be swirled and quaffed, and the overt opinions ready at the gate. The design world is getting set for DesignMarch 2017. With the festival is bearing down fast, we want to prepare you for the coming canapé hangover with some previews of what’s going down.

The festival’s programme includes DesignTalks, which have been curated to inspire your innermost curiosities and make you question what’s beautiful, crazy, ugly, and important. And there’s a lot to see in quite a short time. Once it arrives, it’s all gonna happen very fast. Here are some things you shouldn’t miss.

Designed/Declined
Curators: Hörður Lárusson & Jón Ari Helgason
Opening event: 23rd March, 20:00-22:00
Location: Reykjavik Art Museum Hafnarhús

Highlighting and exploring the client-designer relationship, this exhibition points the spotlight at the evident (and not so evident) tensions that can occur. This show celebrates rejected ideas and creative content that didn’t make it past inception. It’s about the physical waste and the discarded ideas that come from client meetings.

Swimslow
Exhibitor: Erna Bergmann
Opening event: 23^rd March, 20:00 – 22:00
Location: Héðinshús, Seljavegur 2

Led by stylist and fashion designer Erna Bergmann, this show centres around sustainable statement swimwear (not words usually seen together). The line is made from recycled materials collected and manufactured in Italy. The locality of this collection and the process behind it aims to highlight the importance of lessening fashion’s carbon footprint, our responsibility regarding sustainable fashion, and the resulting societal ripples.

Case Studies | Product Design into the 21^st Century
Curator: Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir
Opening event: 4^th March, 16:00; open 10:00-17:00 thereafter
Location: Kjarvalsstaðir

With a primary focus on Iceland, this show considers the role of product design in production, expression and user experience. There’s an emphasis on the process of making ideas real, and on materiality and environmental impact. With such a legacy and artisanal history, the collection is an opportunity to experience, understand and appreciate the value of using locally sourced materials, and the effects of this on mass production. There’s also an emphasis on the benefits of ingenuity and innovation.

People From The Porcelain Factory
Curators: Ewa Klekot & Arkadiusz Szwed
Opening event: 23rd March 18:00-21:00
Location: Hannesarholt

This exhibition looks at everyday elements: the ordinary, and the essential. It focusses on tableware and its role in our lives; the fragility of the material is a curious choice, and a point of discussion. Elements of necessity, vulnerability and essentiality are investigated in a visual and tangible way.

Roundabout: Baltics Plus Iceland
Exhibitor: Erna Bergmann
Opening event: 13^th March, then everyday thereafter 11:00 – 17:00
Location: Nordic House

This exhibition is a visual exploration of the junctions of nature and design, intended and accidental. The story showcases contemporary design from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, and (of course) Iceland. The common thread is the connection of these countries through the Baltic Sea, and the show further explores the varying interpretations of design through lifestyle and ideology.