5 years of art and design at the Kvalitář Gallery

The exhibition at the Kvalitář Gallery in Prague questions whether it is still necessary at present to distinguish between art and design. Its intention is to confuse the viewer in part so that he can form his own idea what is actually art and what is design. It describes reality through concrete examples of artistic expression and offers a topic for further discussion. “The exhibition deals with the issue of interconnection between art and design. It will be divided into two parts, the first of which will present the works of artists who bring these two disciplines together in various ways, not just with respect to the theoretical or visual aspects, but also the operational aspect,” says curator Monika Čejková about the exhibition concept.

The second part is devoted to a specific example from history, in which the actual merging of these artistic disciplines occurred, namely the dialogue between Alessandro Mendini and Milan Knížák. In the 1980s, Alessandro Mendini, a renowned Italian designer and the member of the Alchimia group, visited Prague and tried to contact then unofficial artist Milan Knížák, but actually they never met in Prague. Mendini admired Knížák’s furniture, which was later exhibited in the Alchimia Gallery in Milan. Their mutual confrontation contemplates the many principles and circumstances that make specific artistic production be designated as art or design.