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In Circulation

The In Circulation exhibition series was launched by the Contemporary Design Department of the Museum of Applied Arts.
During the period of the reconstruction of the museum’s main building on Üllői út, it is especially important that we keep the pieces of the collection in circulation. In the framework of our series entitled In Circulation, we have invited contemporary designers, once they have become acquainted with the museum’s internationally unparalleled rich collection, to select an object or ensemble of objects that inspires their own work, and to create something of their own design that reflects upon it. The design object(s) born from the inspiration of the museum’s collection will also become a part of the collection, which will also provide the opportunity for further relations and exhibitions.
The film presenting the design as thought process is at least as important as the exhibition objects, as it offers the viewer the possibility to follow from start to finish how the artwork now constituting a part of the museum collection came into being.

The series was launched in 2018 with the exhibition of Artista Studio, in the framework of which the museum’s collection was enriched with three unique Artista outfits and their matching accessories.
The second exhibitor of the series was Polish designer Maria Jeglińska, who took as her source of inspiration an armchair designed by Sándor Mikó in 1969, and reflecting upon it, she created four spatial dividing walls, which have likewise since enriched our collection.
Our third invited designer was milliner Valéria Fazekas, who was inspired by two ornamental vessels to produce thirty unique hats. Fifteen of these were acquired into our collection.


Dechem Studio

Our fourth invited artist in the series is Dechem Studio from Prague, one of the most recognised representatives of Czech contemporary glass art. The studio’s designers, Michaela Tomišková and Jakub Janďourek, partners in both work and life, founded their design studio in Prague in 2012, after they acquired a wide range of experience in the fields of design and fabrication.

One of the most successful products of the studio is their Bandaska series of vases from 2015. The legendary French furniture line Ligne Roset acquired a few of these vases into their own collection. Beyond their own products, Dechem also designs for other brands, such as BOMMA, AQForm and KAVALIERGLASS. The studio is currently engaged in glass lighting design. Their work has been shown at the Rosanna Orlandi Gallery in Milan, the Light and Building building in Frankfurt, and at the London Design Festival, among others. They have also been awarded the Czech Grand Design Prize.

Dechem Studio selected a book with a unique binding from the book art collection of the museum, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. Károly Grill’s book publishing house in Budapest produced a unique binding with marbled paper endpapers for the volume originally published in Paris in 1930.
The Dechem Studio designers reflect upon the appearance of the book, as well as its content, with their work. They employed lithyalin glass, a type of glass whose markings are quite similar to the patterns of marbled paper, to produce their new object, which is none other than a mirror of unique design.

Lithyalin glass was developed 200 years ago by Friedrich Egermann in a northern Czech small town, Nový Bor. Precisely there, where the current work in the In Circulation series was also produced. Marbled paper and lithyalin glass are very similar in outward appearance. The pattern that was formerly referred to as “foamy” (or the French: moire) is today described as ribbonlike undulation. Lithyalin, reminiscent of semi-precious stones, is a so-called opaque glass of a marbled pattern. The word itself derives from the combination of the Greek words lithos (stone) and hyalos (glass).
With their selection, they did not overlook the content of the book, either, as in Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, glass and the mirror appear again and again.

Curator: Judit Horváth, PhD, Head of the Contemporary Design Department, Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
Co-curators: Melinda Farkasdy and Rita Komporday, Contemporary Design Department, Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest


Title of page when printing:
http://www.imm.hu/en/exhibits/view/576,In+Circulation%3A+Dechem+Studio?style=accessible