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What, Why, How ...
The Countdown - International Design Platform
UP-CYCLING edition
February 1 – March 17, 2012
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Deadline: February 17, 2012
COUNTDOWN is an international design platform aimed at exploring and supporting brand new research, experimentation and emerging experiences in the field of contemporary design.
It develops through a show-in-progress, a designer residency, site-specific and material-specific projects, and through an auction: so the COUNTDOWN marks all the creative process, from the realization of the artwork by the designer until the confrontation with the market and the alienation to the user.
The first edition is devoted to the topic of UP-CYCLING. It concerns not just the re-use of trash, but also a new and different use of obsolete and waste materials elevating them to a higher environmental value.
The UP-CYCLING edition will take place in 2012 in Bolzano, South Tyrol.
Ready, steady, go. The first phase of COUNTDOWN is a call for proposals. It is addressed to emerging or established designers, artists, architects from Italy and abroad, without limits based on nationality or age; students and young designers are encouraged to apply, too.
As COUNTDOWN is a wide platform, there are different ways to participate.
They are:
– sending a piece of work for the show-in-progress;
– coming to Bolzano to realize/end a piece of work during a designer in residence;
– coming to Bolzano to realize a site- or material-specific piece of work during a designer in residence.
There is no application form.
The project proposals have to consider the current edition topic.
Each designer may participate with one or more pieces of works. The proposed works may also not be recent and do not need to have been conceived and created specifically for COUNTDOWN.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS deadline is February 17, 2012.
All the selected works will be presented in the frame of COUNTDOWN platform in a show-in-progress and during weekly presentations to the public at the COUNTDOWN venue in Bolzano from February 1 to March 17, 2012.
The show will end with an auction that will sell to the public a selection of the exhibited pieces. Each participating designer is free to decide to submit his/her work for the final auction. It will be held in the frame of kunStart 12 – Biennial Art Fair for Emerging Contemporary Art and will be organized by Bozner Kunst Auktionen.
Up-Cycling Design Edition
This year's topic is UP-CYCLING and all the selected works will need to consider this topic.
UP-CYCLING attitude is part of the ongoing debate on environmental sustainability involving the fields of architecture and design. In particular, we consider UP-CYCLING different from recycling because it's not limited to the re-use of waste materials, as it also strives to enhancing basic and obsolete products of our society doing a high environmental act.
Venue
The venue of the first edition of COUNTDOWN is a building located near the city center of Bolzano and composed by a 300 m2 exhibition space, a 300 m2 living and working spaces that will host the designer in residence, an outdoor area, and a Gastronomy section.
The venue is a temporary empty space: it is a former industrial building that will be pulled down up to the end of 2012 and replaced by a mall with hotel (here you can see a preview of the project: click here. COUNTDOWN draws closer to the demolition of the former building and to the construction of the new one.
With the aim to create a fil rouge between before and after, a selection of the COUNTDOWN works could remain in permanence and be installed inside the upcoming building.
Designers in residence
COUNTDOWN also offers to designers the opportunity to realize/end the proposed work in Bolzano. The aim of the designer in residence is to stimulate dialogue/exchange/interaction between participants and engage with Bolzano's many environments.
Applicants are asked to answer to the call specifying whether they would like to produce or to end their work in site. The length of the permanence could last from few days to a week: exact dates will be discussed with the selected designers.
The host provides free living space and free working space in the COUNTDOWN venue.
In the building there are 10 rooms with a shared living room and kitchen. In the upper and lower floors there are 300 m2 with working and exhibition spaces that are both private and shared, where the interaction and the development of common projects are encouraged. The main exhibition space of approximately 300 m2 is located on the ground floor. While an outdoor area with security fence could host installations and large-scale works.
The host does not cover travel costs.
For selected projects, materials and/or technical support will be provided according to availability and individual needs.
Site - and material-specific projects
COUNTDOWN also encourages site- and material-specific works.
Site-specific works could be conceived for the different spaces of the COUNTDOWN venue, or for a selection of venues in Bolzano and in the surrounding areas.
They could be: inner or outdoor lighting systems, billboards, outdoor parking roofs or covers for terraces, floors, staircases, external safety systems, among others.
COUNTDOWN offers different materials to be used for specific works .
Site- and material-specific projects have to be discussed directly with the organizers, fixing technical, economic and legal conditions case by case.
Countdown show-in-progress
The works proposed for the show and the works realized/ended during the designer in residence will be presented in the COUNTDOWN show-in-progress.
It will be "in progress" because artworks will start and continue to arrive or to be worked upon in Bolzano starting from the opening day onwards.
Each designer can participate with one or more works.
The works may be also not be recent and do not need to have been conceived specifically for COUNTDOWN.
The host will not cover shipping or insurance costs for works or materials. Shipping could be arranged using the technical sponsor Gondrand, which provides artists a special rate for the event.
Countdown events
Throughout the duration of the show, there will be weekly events.
They will happen in the weekends and will take different forms – from presentations by professionals to designers' speeches, round tables and open studios showing the work in progress – with the common aim to trigger a dialogue between the designers and the city, the designers and the audience.
Designers in residence will be asked to take part in these events.
The detailed schedule of the events will be fixed and communicated in progress.
Countdown design gallery
The works presented in each COUNTDOWN edition will be published on a digital catalogue.
Food&Beverage space
During the period of the COUNTDOWN show, the former shed of the building will be transformed into a temporary Food&Beverage space proposing snacks and finger food.
Representing a new concept of restaurant for the city of Bolzano, it is conceived to attract a wide public both to the restaurant and to the show.
Participants will be able to enjoy the Food&Beverage space at a special discounted rate.
Local environment
The designers are invited to work and to show their work in the inspiring environment of Bolzano. But they are also invited to engage a concrete relation with the environment.
In South Tyrol like no elsewhere, there is such a diversified economic reality. There is agriculture and industry, tourism and crafts working in contact and interacting with the common beliefs of the importance of perfection in execution, and of the attention to nature.
In particular, environmental sustainability is a main topic in the local debate. In fact Bolzano is a "climate city" after the birth and thanks to the success of CasaClima agency which has the concept of "Nachhaltigkeit," sustainable development, on the top of its concerns.
We particularly encourage the interaction between designers and local companies.
Bolzano hosts a Design University, the newest in Italy, which is forming a new generation of designers under the direction of Benno Simma, Kuno Prey and many other professionals Design University.
There is Museion, one of Italian most important museums of modern and contemporary art Museion.
Other important private and public institutions in Bolzano are: BIC Bozen http://www.tis.eurac.edu), Eurac, and Vetroricerca.
Auction
The end of COUNTDOWN is an auction proposing the works exhibited in the frame of the show-in-progress. Thus, the creative process is part of COUNTDOWN platform: until the confrontation of the designer with the market and the alienation of the work to the user. Lastly, COUNTDOWN is acted the auctioneer's gavel.
During the exhibition the works of art are not offered for sale, while each designer has the opportunity to offer his/her work for sale at the end of the show during an auction that will be held on March 17, 2012 at kunStart 12 – Biennial Art Fair for Emerging Contemporary Art and will be organized by Bozner Kunst Auktionen, the first auction house of South Tyrol
The decision to participate in the auction is up to each designer.
Each of them can participate with just one piece, fixing an initial price, and submitting a brief description, year of production as well as the serial number if the work is not one-of-a-kind.
The designer will receive the 70% and the auction house the 30% from the auction result.
