MEMORABILIA designing souvernirs wants to be a call for the evocative power of the objects which have the ability to stimulate our memory.

The memory creates a time reciprocity, between past, present and future, and a space reciprocity, between here and elsewhere.

The aim of this call and of the exhibition MEMORABILIA - designing souvenirs is to gather a selection of objects which contain representative et recognizable traces of the history of each designer, of his/her place of birth or living, of his/her ethnic group, of his/her cultural background, in order to offer to the public a mosaic of little hints of souvenirs, of ways to the memories.

While we are living in a time of multiculturalism and of migrations, of identity and of diversity, of belonging and of nomadism, of “local products” and of globalization, we are trying to create new “madeleines of Proust”, at the same time marks of the past and awakenings of conscience, able to bring an innovative look on an evolving society.

The Selection Committee & the Prizes

The selection committee is composed of international personalities :

Anna Bernagozzi (design consultant and teacher at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris), Guus Beumer (director of Marres and  artistic director of NAiM/Bureau Europa, Maastricht), Jan Boelen (artistic director of Z33, Hasselt), Virginio Briatore (journalist Interni and other media), Julie Brunel (representative for UDB, Belgian Designers Union, in Wallonia and Brussels), Moniek Bucquoye (journalist and consultant for the Design Museum Gent), Florence Conradt (Clap), Françoise Foulon (executive director of Grand-Hornu, Mons), Alain Gilles (designer), Olivier Gilson (Centre bruxellois de la Mode et du Design), Pierre Henrion (curator of the Musée en Plein-Air du Sart-Tilman, Liège), Giorgia Morero (Wallonie-Bruxelles Design Mode), Gérard Pitance (executive director of STÛV and co-chairman of Wallonie Design), Natascha Rommens (project manager -  Flanders District of Creativity, Leuven), Alexander von Vegesack (director of Vitra Design Museum) et Anna Yudina (chief editor at Monitor magazine).

The jury will select 40 to 50 objects.

Three prizes with a value 5.000,00€ will be given by the international selection committee: a prize will be given to the best object of a designer born or living in Wallonia, one to the best object of a designer born or living in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine area, one to the best object of a participating designer, regardless of where he/she comes from or lives.

 
Selection Criteria

The selection criteria of the proposed projects are based on the quality of the project in terms of:

• degree of coherence with the theme of the call for projects, the aesthetics, the functionality of the object, the sustainable ethical aspects,
• degree of authenticity, of originality of the conception,
• degree of innovation - function, material, assembling and/or proposed solutions.