The Czech Selection collection for this year's 100% Design in Shanghai draws attention to the world renown of Czech manufacturers, artisans and designers in the field of the glass industry. The manufacturers offer both objects to be placed on the table and lighting devices designed for private as well as public areas in addition to other services that clients expect from objects made of glass. They use high-quality local raw materials, applying the traditional craftsmanship and innovative designs of experienced designers.
For the first time, manufacturers of traditional decorative glass, with its long-established tradition within the Czech glass community, will participate in the Czech Selection exhibition. The tradition dates back to the 19th century when the manufacture of stained as well as painted glass and porcelain was developed with the support of the Czech nobility and when Czech glass and porcelain met with success at the world exhibition in Paris in 1900. Czech companies supplied the world's markets, even in the interwar period, with export decorative glass objects when the Art Deco decorative style suited all decorative techniques. Even in this period Czech glass triumphed at the International Exposition of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1925.
In the second half of the twentieth century, a modernistic and functionalistic attitude to drinking sets and home accessories eliminating rich decorations prevailed. Nevertheless, decorative glass continued to be manufactured in Bohemia and exported abroad. Decorative glass enables traditional artistic know-how handed down over centuries from one generation to another to be presented - engraving, grinding, cutting, sand-blasting, etching, staining and gilding. These techniques make vases, drinking sets as well as lighting devices, glass walls or decorative panels in interiors look special. Glass objects resembling statues from the world of imagination manufactured by glass-blowing are used in lighting devices illuminating interiors.
The company with the longest uninterrupted history of manufacture of decorative glass is CAESAR CRYSTAL BOHEMIAE, founded in the middle of the 19h century. For more than 150 years, manufacture of genuine cut Bohemian crystal glass has been developed here. The unique, magic manufacturing process is based on hand work when clear crystal is covered with a layer of stained lead crystal and this layer is then cut through according to a pattern. The effect of colour, light and lustre of such high-quality glass material is exceptional. The company offers both a traditional decorative range of products as well as designs by experienced contemporary designers, such as František Janák and Jiří Exner. Recently, the Gold-Crystal company has focused on products made of lead crystal as well, becoming an expanding manufacturer of decorative glass. The vocabulary of drinking sets refers to the traditional forms of the Biedermeier and the Classicism style which provide the opportunity for rich decoration using a wide variety of techniques. In addition, the CzeVitrum company offers the complete manufacture of glass objects, stained-glass panes, walls and decorative panels with sophisticated technical details. CzeVitrum furnishes historical, luxury interiors and is also able to apply glass in modern interiors.
The BOMMA brand glass sets represent a contrast to decorative glass as the synonym of the brand high-tech crystal. Even this relatively young glass factory produces high-quality Bohemian crystal and uses automatic glass-cutting technologies based on its own unique technological process. The robotic cut is continuously varied and innovated due to advanced robotic machines and brings surprising results as far as delicacy and subtlety of the lustrous effects are concerned. In addition, BOMMA is a company with a dynamic marketing plan and the generous vision of its art directors has obtained the cooperation of a number of prestigious designers, whose works have for many years graced museum collections around the world: František Vízner, Vratislav Šotola, Jiří Pelcl, Jeff Miller and Thomas Jenkins. The company has also started to cooperate with students of schools of arts. The timelessness and the contemporary freshness of design associate the BOMMA brand drinking sets with the 21st century.
Porcelain produced by the G. Benedikt–Karlovy Vary company, whose roots also go back to the 19th century, represents modernistic and timeless design. Specialization in furnishing hotels and gastronomic premises profiles the functional properties of the drinking and dinner sets, such as mechanical and thermal resistance and compact and stackable design. An easy, functional shape without decorations is easy to maintain, is hygienic and feels pleasant in various materials, as well as the possibility to combine individual elements.
The manufacture and design of lighting devices has experienced a development that cannot be overlooked. These important interior elements are manufactured in the Czech Republic in accordance with the applicable ergonomic criteria and apply sophisticated technologies which accentuate progressive design. Lighting devices manufactured by the ATEH company, which has been well-established on the domestic as well as foreign market for twenty years and which has won several international prizes, are characterized by the combination of excellent high quality of the light effect and discreet design. Lighting devices of the ATEH company placed in the interior create an impression of not only a source of light but also a strictly defined object of pure geometry or a symbol of nature combined with fine art. Two more companies specialise in lighting devices made of glass using the know-how of the glass factories located in the North Bohemian region. The young, fresh BROKIS company has a distinctive corporate strategy based on the latest trends in design and timeless solutions, characterized by well-thought-out simplicity, economy, neutrality as well as a poetic transcendence of shape inspiring fantasy and dreaming. Lights manufactured by Brokis make homes as well as offices look special and the company has won several awards in recent years particular for the collections of the middle generation designers, Lucie Koldová and Dan Yeffet. The young and aggressive company LASVIT has acquired a dominant position on the market in the area of light installations and light sculptures in public areas and luxury interiors. Since 2007 the company has been developing objects combining glass and light effects. The company can pride itself on light objects installed in the Dubai underground and luxury hotels all over the world, in particular in Asian countries. In the past year, the company won an award for its exceptional cooperation with Oki Sato, a Japanese designer, for subtle lighting devices. Among other world-famous designers cooperating with the company are Ross Lovegrove, a British designer, Arik Levy, working in Paris and Bořek Šípek, a cosmopolitan designer. The furniture collections included in the Czech Selection are presented by the DAD Studio of Helena Dařbujánová, an architect, distinguishing itself through atypical furniture addressing the needs of women and their social and home life. This gender aspect of the DAD Studio furniture has already attracted media attention and represents a specific view of the role of decorative furniture in interiors inhabited by middle-class women.
The presentation of the Czech Selection was designed by the Olgoj Chorchoj Studio, a multifunctional studio operating on the Czech as well as the world market. Michal Froněk and Jan Němeček, the founders of the studio and the Heads of the Product Design Studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, have contributed considerably to the cooperation between the new generation of designers and the well-established Czech manufacturers. We believe that the simple and elegant installation of the objects of the Czech Selection will attract the attention of both the lay and the professional public in Shanghai.
Iva Knobloch, Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague
