Living Above the Water
Curated by
Audronė Drungilaitė
Curatorial Statement
“Living Above the Water” invites you to explore collectible design that has been made while thinking about a more sustainable future. It is nothing new that designers are blamed for creating beautiful objects and encouraging people to buy new things and thereby contributing to global warming. The global sea level has risen about 21–24 cm since 1880, with a third of the total in just the last two and a half decades. The water level is rising due to unconscious human activities, consumerism, and pollution. Due to this, future homes will definitely look different – some lands will be flooded and people will have to learn to live above the water.
Future design should have a connection with the past like the “Romance Gravity” Console by Vytautas Gečas inspired by complex aesthetics of the rococo period. Future designers will be obliged to look for alternative materials and techniques, in a similar manner to Agnė Kučerenkaitė who uses coloured upcycled textile dyes that originate from botanical and metal waste and by-products. People will have to go back to their roots, find a connection with nature, and be more aware of ethics and animal rights, as can be seen in Mantas Lesauskas’ “Récamier Daybed”, made of aluminium and sheepskin – a by-product of the meat industry which is durable and biodegradable.
What looks ordinary nowadays might become totally obsolete. “Shipping Shade” by Martynas Kazimierėnas questions whether it is always necessary to pack everything in a box? Perhaps the object can be sold and transported without extra care and even collect a unique visual story. Due to the fast pace of living, the human agenda may become so crowded that doing sports at home becomes a new habit which saves time and lowers CO2 emissions – so why not reuse old sports equipment in the same way as designer Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė?
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Curated by
This collection features 7 Designers