What is art, what is design? Where is the boundary between art and design? The network meeting on November 1 was dedicated to these questions, which apparently have no easy answers. “How Art a Design can be” is the theme of the evening that guest curator Teodora Kotseva led through. Various formats — lectures, discussions and a design talk — offered potential for explanations. In a get-together, international actors and members of the Meisterrat discussed the big and small challenges of contemporary design. Labinac, Vaust and Judy Rambags were part of the talk moderated among others by Katja Kleiss.
The lines between art and design are blurred. One way to look at this relationship is to ask if art and design belong to the same system: manufacturing, production, organisational, market. With the blooming of galleries dedicated to selling art with functional characteristics we witness a separation, albeit, not so clear from the typical design field. Young designers, as they are also represented in the Meisterrat, necessarily have to find their position between commercial, aesthetic and functional requirements. The idea behind this talk is to bring together various players in the face of established artists and design studios, gallerists, academy professors, and discuss the main characteristics of the two fields, the current market dynamics and trends, as well as the positioning of emerging practitioners within the existing art and design markets.
The range of topics included the taste-makers and the gatekeepers in the design-art markets, the commercialisation of galleries, the role of collectors and Berlin’s place in the market of limited edition design. Topics, therefore, from which the present members of the Meisterrat and participants could also profit. As creative cultural actors, they are also in daily contact with gallery owners, exhibitors and collectors. In the end, the results of the discussions and the personal exchange among themselves have helped the members of the Meisterrat to question their belonging and positioning on the design or art market.
All Photo Credits by Kaska Jankiewicz https://kaskajankiewicz.com
