Jerusalem Design Week explores the synergy of design and ephemerality

The Hansen House Centre for Design, Media and Technology is currently hosting the eleventh edition of the Jerusalem Design Week. This anticipated design event to be open to the public Jun 23, 2022 to Jun 30, 2022 in Israel features stellar exhibits, installations, and special projects created by more than 150 Israeli and foreign designers. In a world which thrives on the learnings from the past and thoughts for the future, Jerusalem Design Week- ascribing its theme ‘For Now’ celebrates the materiality of the present. Marking its success over the years, the design week is curated with a wide assortment of knowledge and expertise from Tal Erez, the curator of the design event alongside Anat Safran, the artistic director and Ran Wolf, Ran Wolf Urban Planning & Project Management LTD (Manager, Jerusalem Design Week). “We wanted to look at the broader envelope and not only the ecological picture. The beauty of now alongside the inevitability of now is sectioned in design through projects that deal with how the future is appropriated,” shares Tal,“ owing to things that you hear on the news, the distress in the country, artists and designers here are more creative, mainly because we are always on the edge… on alert,” adds Ran.

By studying the physicality of time, one understands its temporary nature. Time reigns with an ever-changing characteristic appertaining the events of the present. These events can be good in terms of innovation, technological advances, economic growth and an urge to engrain sustainability in every aspect of life, but can also be stepping stones towards a despairing future, by being ecological threats, radical social transformations, super intelligence and overall uncertainty of the unknown. Owing to these events of the ‘present’ it becomes impossible to sustain the past or predict the future. However, the possibilities and unmatched importance lie in the practices of the present- a layer in time where each one of us operates. The present solely yields short-term plans with a sense of paralysis in facing a profound future, hopes for a perpetual reconstruction of the past, and addiction to time as an immediate and quantifiable constant.” Design is ephemeral, it has always been ephemeral and that's why it faces such criticism. However, we felt that if we incorporate the concept of time in the design brief, time for the production, use and decay, we will yield interesting results,” says Tal upon the ideation of design with time.

For this year's Jerusalem Design Week, the curators and designers complement the ever-changing nature of time with the ephemerality of design. For design as a discipline that fundamentally echoes, acts in and serves the prevailing zeitgeist, long-term applications and new approaches are of primary significance. Approaches in the present that sensitise to the social, environmental and neo-futuristic events coupled with the undeniable responsibilities of humanity.

“The Hansen House is an important conservation location in Jerusalem. Even with its strict regulations, we managed to spread so many exhibits across different venues in Hansen House,” says Ran Wolf. Taking up residence across the Hansen House, the design exhibition is showcasing a dozen exhibitions, installations, performances and projects, divided by the uniqueness of their designs and united by a focus on ‘now’.

A performative project by the italian artist Aldo Giannotti questions time and repetition, while the ‘clean motion’ exhibition by Takeshi Yamamura, Natalia Sanz, Arieh Rosen and Noam Levinger explores cleaning as an integral element of Japanese culture. Platforms are filled with new and upcoming works including the real-time illustrations by the Istanbul-based design collective Piknik alongside the Matchmaker’ project by the designer Daniel Nahmias. Prolific names from different parts of the world explore the realms of design in a poetic dialogue with time and while they continue to explore ‘now’ some designs and installations expand their horizons with new developments such as an automated tarot machine, a three-dimensional robot that prints earth structures and even a soap bubble transformed into an ethereal crystal ball.

Amidst the creative hustle of the dynamic design event, STIR engages in an interesting conversation with the duo to dive deeper into the conscious curation of the Jerusalem Design Week, its contextual interpretation of ‘time’ and developing designs with the focus of harnessing time for positive effects in the years of the utmost uncertainties.

STIR at Jerusalem Design Week: In conversation with Tal Erez and Ran Wolf