A SEVEN-DAY WORKSHOP ON PRODUCT DESIGN WITH THANASSIS BABALIS
APPLICATIONS’ DEADLINE: JUNE 1ST, 2023
The MOMus-Experimental Center for the Arts is promoting an open call to young designers who would like to participate in the product design workshop entitled “Mass Souvenirs”, led by the internationally acclaimed product designer Athanasios Babalis and his team (George Giannikopoulos www.aemos.gr and George Bosnas georgebosnas.com ).
The workshop will take place for seven days, during the period between 12-19 June 2023 at the port of Thessaloniki and in particular at the venue of MOMUS-ECA (Warehouse B1-Port) between 10:00-16:00 (More detailed schedule will be announced when the selection process is completed. It is strongly advisable to be available during all days and hours of the workshop). Participation is free of charge.
GENERAL INFORMATION
This workshop is produced in the frame of the A SEA CHANGE.
Starting June 2022, A Sea Change is a project co-funded by the European Union and is focused on promoting creative innovation around the Blue Economy practices through interdisciplinary and intermedia arts, as well as artistic and curatorial research. Culminating in Barcelona with an exhibition in 2024, the project will develop between Croatia, Cyprus, Greece and Spain, and is led by Kontejner (HR) in collaboration with MOMus (GR), NeMe (CY), and Quo Artis (ES) as partner organizations. During 2022-2024, partner and collaborating organizations will get involved with different communities to catalyse a positive impact on the environment, the marine ecosystem and the well-being of coastal populations, with special emphasis on Blue Economy urgencies both at the local and European level.
The project will unfold across various sectors, including environmental sciences, health, tourism, and design, and will involve a series of exhibitions in many countries.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAM AND ITS ACTIVITIES
- To bring new and sustainable cultural practices to coastal communities.
- To educate and build capacities of involved cultural agents and local citizens.
- To foster critical practices and innovations in coastal economies.
THE WORKSHOP “MASS SOUVENIRS”
The “Mass Souvenirs” workshop is dedicated to innovation and experimentation in the area of product design, arts and crafts and cross-sectoral collaboration with private and public business sector. The workshop is led by an acclaimed designer Thanassis Babalis and includes contributions from beneficiaries representatives in the form of an online debate with workshop participants and mentors during the workshop implementation in order to achieve instant feedback and consortium contribution. The program links issues of mass tourism and ecology with identity practices and memory production/manipulation. Tourist souvenirs as conveyors of memory in relation to undermined identities are taken as a basis of a workshop and prototype production with main goal of innovating design and artistic practices that have the possibility to result in high-quality and market competitive products produced in collaboration of artists with the business sector.
Athanasios Babalis is an industrial/product designer based in Thessaloniki Greece. His work ranges from electrical appliances and professional cooking equipment to furniture, home accessories and packaging.
He believes that all objects/products can be improved through good teamwork, so he spends a lot of his time researching and discussing ideas with clients and end users before putting pencil to paper. He studied product and furniture design at the London Metropolitan University and at the Royal College of Art in London, England. His professional career started in London as a freelance designer and continued in New York where he worked for seven years for companies such as Dimensional Media Associates Inc. and Dakota Jackson Inc.. In 2003 he returned to Thessaloniki where he established his design studio, through which he designs for a variety of clients.
In 2005 he started his academic career as professor of Furniture/Product Design at the state colleges of TEI of Western Macedonia and later at the TEI of Thessaly and the International Hellenic University, in Thessaloniki. Today he teaches design at the AKTO college.
In 2014, together with the designer Constantinos Hoursoglou, he co-founded www.shibui.ch .
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
Artists interested are invited to apply as following:
- By filling in the PARTICIPATION FORM (available on momus.gr/en/news/mass-souvenirss .
- By sending visual material of their recent work: up to ten (10) photographs of recent work in electronic format (jpegs).
- The above should be sent digitally. Deadline by June 1st, 2023 at 23:30 to MOMus- Experimental Center for the Arts (Warehouse B1, Thessaloniki Port) at the mail address: momusexperimental@gmail.com with the indication “MASS SOUVENIRS”.
NOTES/INFO
- The selection committee will examine the files and assess their compatibility with the concept and content of the workshop, without being obliged to justify its choices publicly.
- The selected designers will be informed via email.
- Information: 2310.593270, Monday-Friday 11:00-15:00.
