Egypt, Elsewedy review progress on Ain Sokhna phosphate complex    US employment cost index 3.6% up in year to June 2025    Egypt welcomes Canada, Malta's decision to recognise Palestinian state    Pakistan says successfully concluded 'landmark trade deal' with US    Sterling set for sharpest monthly drop since 2022    Egypt, Brazil sign deal to boost pharmaceutical cooperation    Modon Holding posts AED 2.1bn net profit in H1 2025    Egypt's Electricity Ministry says new power cable for Giza area operational    Egypt's Al-Sisi, Italian defence minister discuss Gaza, security cooperation    Egypt's FM discusses Gaza, Nile dam with US senators    Aid airdrops intensify as famine deepens in Gaza amid mounting international criticism    Egypt exports first high-tech potato seeds to Uzbekistan after opening market    Health minister showcases AI's impact on healthcare at Huawei Cloud Summit    On anti-trafficking day, Egypt's PM calls fight a 'moral and humanitarian duty'    Egypt strengthens healthcare partnerships to enhance maternity, multiple sclerosis, and stroke care    Egypt keeps Gaza aid flowing, total tops 533,000 tons: minister    Indian Embassy to launch cultural festival in Assiut, film fest in Cairo    Egyptian aid convoy heads toward Gaza as humanitarian crisis deepens    Culture minister launches national plan to revive film industry, modernise cinematic assets    I won't trade my identity to please market: Douzi    Sisi sends letter to Nigerian president affirming strategic ties    Two militants killed in foiled plot to revive 'Hasm' operations: Interior ministry    Egypt, Somalia discuss closer environmental cooperation    Egypt's EHA, Huawei discuss enhanced digital health    Foreign, housing ministers discuss Egypt's role in African development push    Egypt reveals heritage e-training portal    Three ancient rock-cut tombs discovered in Aswan    Sisi launches new support initiative for families of war, terrorism victims    Egypt expands e-ticketing to 110 heritage sites, adds self-service kiosks at Saqqara    Egypt's Irrigation Minister urges scientific cooperation to tackle water scarcity    Palm Hills Squash Open debuts with 48 international stars, $250,000 prize pool    On Sport to broadcast Pan Arab Golf Championship for Juniors and Ladies in Egypt    Golf Festival in Cairo to mark Arab Golf Federation's 50th anniversary    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    A minute of silence for Egyptian sports    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



The thrill of design on display with Injuve Young Spanish Designers'' Exhibition
Published in Almasry Alyoum on 02 - 10 - 2011

Maybe the true sign of an excellent restaurant, where the utmost attention is paid to every detail, is the presence of designer toothpicks, often the very last and most forgettable element of any dining experience. It may seem a frivolous item to waste a designer's creativity and skill on, but that - in the end - is the work of most designers: to create things that function so seamlessly we never have to think about how they do their jobs. But even the most tried and true objects can be innovated, and in Spain it may be more essential to have well-crafted toothpicks than anywhere else. In a tapas meal, they transform into silverware.
Spanish Designer Pepa Pedrol Navarro has come up with the perfect delivery system for toothpicks: a matchbook that can be carried conveniently in a breast pocket, clean and ready for olive spearing at any moment.
Navarro's toothpicks exemplify a theme that runs throughout the Injuve Young Designers' Exhibition, now on view at the Gezira Art Center's Ahmed Sabry Gallery, sponsored by the Spanish Embassy in Cairo. Many of the carefully crafted items on display are functional objects that borrow their form from something else, or otherwise disguise themselves. A wall covered in ceramic tiles in a far corner of the gallery, designed by the studio Fluye, reveals on closer inspection a small closet and drawer, which disappear when closed.
Rafael Vinader and Virgina Bru Artero's “Sombrero_o_bolsa” (“hat_o_bag”) is, as the name suggests, a velvety women's hat that unzips and expands into a puffy, roomy handbag. Ana Augustin Valderama's combination shoe is disguised as a simple black high-heel with a pastel accent. But the color-accent insert can be removed and worn as a separate flat shoe, so a working woman can relieve her sore ankles and continue to look respectable.
Pepa Pedrol Navarro's “Espadrille + Babucha” shoes take a turn towards social commentary, and are also one of the more attractive items in the exhibition. The shoes, made from a canvas and leather top, with rope soles and a ribbon strap, combine the traditional slippers of the Pyrenees, espadrilles, with babuchas, footwear from Spain's neighbor to the South, Morocco. Navarro's creation includes extra flourishes such as a long, curling toe - elf-style - and a black ribbon that wraps up around the ankle like a ballet slipper. The result is a shoe that feels as though it has some distinct but impossible to place heritage.
It takes on various characters: a snowshoe to wear in the summer, an elven country sandal, a ballet slipper designed for prancing through the forest. Navarro writes of her eccentric but lovely footwear in the accompanying booklet that it is a “cultural object which seeks to be a symbol of acceptance… and raise questions on the coexistence of different populations.”
Injuve is presented as an expression of the vital creative work coming out of Spain, described in the press material as “a touch-stone of the state of emerging art,” underlining the central position of design in Spain's creative fields.
Culture Counselor for the Spanish Embassy in Cairo, Ana Maria Alonso, echoed this sentiment, “you cannot imagine how big design is in Spain,” she told Al-Masry Al-Youm. “It is the perfect marriage between the arts and enterprise.”
Much of the work on display at the Gezira Art Center also represents a perfect marriage between functionality and aesthetic experimentation. The objects are attractive because they are so satisfyingly simple and yet unexpected, twisting around a familiar idea into something useful, beautiful, and undeniably unique.
The objects in the exhibition constitute the most impressive items on display. And surprisingly, although Spain has a high profile in the fashion world, clothing was only a small element of the exhibition, represented by one designer, Viveka Goyanes, whose “Collection of Dandy Piracy” features various iterations of pirate stripes, depicted in photographs of women with gothic accessories and heavy eye make-up, a somewhat disappointing showing. The only other clothing in the exhibition was designed especially for dolls, by Virginia Bru Artero.
The Injuve Design Awards have been given out yearly by the Youth Institute in Spain for a decade now. Designers early in their career or recent graduates of university compete with projects submitted for the awards. A selection of work by the winning designers is then compiled into an exhibit to travel throughout Spain, and then internationally to a specific region. The exhibition is making the rounds in the Middle East this year for the first time, according to Alonso, coming to Cairo from Ankara and moving on from here to Beirut and Amman.
Many people might not know what to do with a lamp as well engineered as Javier Alejandro's amoeba-like “Chromasoma,” or a chair as minimalist as Enoc Armengol Bermudez's “Urban Stool,” if they had it in their home. But the sheer cleverness of much of the work on display here makes Injuve a uniquely fun exhibition, and viewers might find themselves walking away with an altered conception of what a chair, or water pitcher, or lamp can be.
The Injuve Young Designers' Exhibition is open for viewing daily, except Fridays, from 10 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 9 pm at the Gezira Art Center, 1 El-Marsafy St., Zamalek, Cairo. Tel. 27373298


Clic here to read the story from its source.