Jiří Pelcl – Sevenvases

You can see the exhibition Sevenvases from Jiří Pelcl in Galerie Kuzebauch from 1st October to 11th December 2020.

As an established Czech architect, designer and long-term professor at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, Pelcl has been interested for a long time in topics on the intersection of sustainability and the seductive forces of consumerism.

Nowadays, environmental issues are part of the golden fund of all intellectual discussion, even amongst artist and designers. These issues became part of mainstream topics, thus lessening their impact, often resulting in mere demonstrations or descriptions of the status quo. Fortunately, there are still those, who can take this topic and transform it without any grand gestures into strong and impressive pieces. Jiří Pelcl (*1950) is among them.

The Sevenvases collection can be understood as a story of rebirth: seven materials, each designated for different applications, repurposed within the universal framework of a vase – like the ancient amphora from the early years of our civilisation. For someone, these can represent seven layers of heavens, seven spheres of the world, seven symbols aspiring towards a perfect harmony; for others, these are “merely” curious interior artefacts. However, Jiří Pelcl was able to revive seven banal, seemingly unattractive and uninteresting materials and give them back a sense of meaning and value. He is able to quietly convey to those interested that design can be more than just a pop-cultural idol.