An exhibition featuring sustainable design solutions by more than 20 Estonian designers opened at the Palacio de Colomina in Valencia, Spain, on 9 May.
The design exhibition, “Second Chance”, organised by the Estonian Association of Designers and the Estonian Academy of Arts, demonstrates how the creators’ innovation and smart technologies in recycling can turn used items into new products, thus safeguarding limited resources and protecting the environment.
“All Estonian design solutions featured in Valencia are handmade and crafted with great care and love. They have their own unique stories to tell, stories that go beyond the environmental aspect to also cover the design thinking and the innovative creation process behind,” Ilona Gurjanova, the exhibition curator, and the president of the Estonian Association of Designers, said in a statement.
The Sustainable Design and Material Lab of the Estonian Academy of Arts exhibits examples of textile waste circularity, based on local upcycling, industrial upcycling and recycling design methods. One of the university’s experimental design project series aims to inspire fashion, textile and accessory design students to make art from the most unexpected materials, turning, for instance, leftover metallic ice-cream packaging, discarded marine rescue equipment, thermal bags, ropes and life jackets into sculptural fashion design and design items.
Another project investigates and shows the concept of repair and the experimental tableware that has been designed and prepared in a sustainable manner.
The Association of Estonian Designers unites more than 170 Estonian designers, and its activities are focused on raising the society’s awareness of the efficiency of design and of developing user-friendly environment, as well as on organising different design competitions, seminars, workshops and exhibitions.
The association has its own design stores and showrooms under the umbrella brand of the Estonian Design House, representing more than 120 Estonian product designers, ranging from interior design items to fashion.
The exhibition is organised within the framework of Valencia World Design Capital programme and will remain open until 19 May.
