Contemporary design from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Salih Teskeredžić, Jasna Mujkić, Ado Avdagić, Nataša Perković, Mustafa Čohadžić, Lucija Tomičić

Online exhibition, February - May 2021

The tradition of industrial design in Bosnia and Herzegovina is more than a century long. The first record is related to the year 1904 and the mention of "a Persian painter" who was in charge of preparing paints and drawing patterns for weaving in the Sarajevo carpet. Since then, in the field of design, the following have left their visible mark: Ćiro Truhelka, Adem Nikšić, Hamdo Sijerčić, Zdenko Praskač, Živojin Vekić, Zlatko Ugljen, Ivan and Tihomir Straus, Božidar Lapajne, Šemsudin Mulić, Rodoljub Mikulić, Nafa Galičić, Selma Arnautović and Salih Teskeredzić.
The authors we present at this exhibition are contemporary designers born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who work in the country or abroad. They are generationally different, and yet interconnected. The first of the links is that all (except Ado Avdagić) completed their design studies at the Product Design Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo.
Professors, founders of this study, Zlatko Ugljen, Zdenko Praskač and Živojin Vekić, with their professional and pedagogical engagement determined the path - they connected the centuries-old tradition of design in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the practices and aesthetics of modern times - from Bosnian (oriental) style to modern forms, especially in furniture design.
Another important characteristic is the choice of wood as a material with which it is possible to revive traditional processing techniques and connect them with the most modern technologies, in creations that are aesthetically innovative and environmentally friendly.
Their work is recognized and highly rated on the world design scene. Numerous awards (Red Dot, Beeg See, IF award, Iconic IIA, German Design Award, ...) are a confirmation of their innovation, creativity and sensibility, which brought centuries of experience in wood design in Bosnia and Herzegovina closer to world design trends. These are mostly younger authors who gained their full professional satisfaction between 2010 and today. True, prof. Salih Teskeredžić, a leader on our design scene, received his first design awards in 1989 and 1990 (Golden and Silver Key of the Belgrade Furniture Fair).
Special merits to the promotion of Bosnian design in this decade belong to the companies Artisan, Gazzda, MS & Wood and Zanat, which understood the importance of design, investment in the development of new technologies, but also understood the importance of branding and investment in marketing. These companies gathered around them not only designers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also designers from the region and the world design scene. In this way, Bosnia and Herzegovina today has become an important center of contemporary furniture design in the world.

Salih Teskeredžić (Gornji Vakuf, 1962) is a professor of industrial design at the Department of Product Design of the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo and a leader in the company Gazzda from Sarajevo. His projects in industrial design, interior design and architecture have been applied in several European countries (Austria, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Russia) and worldwide (America, Asia). In his long and rich design career, he has created over 80 different products in the field of furniture design, but also numerous interiors in Bosnia, the region and Europe. His design is thoughtful and innovative, forms of liberated visual weight, prominent structural lines, elegant and subtle in the choice and processing of materials, especially wood in which the author emphasizes the fine processing of details of its aesthetic and tactile value.
He has received numerous national and international awards for his work: Red Dot 2016 for table Tink and armchair Dedo; Red Dot 2015 for bed and chair Fawn; Iconic Awards – Interior Innovation 2016 for Fawn coutchtish, Tink Table and Fawn Storage Units; Iconic Awards – Interior Innovation 2015 for Fawn chair, armchair and bed; Brands&Signs, Design Awards 2015; 2012 – three nominations for the German Design Award 2012; Two prizes at the Interior Innovation Award – Winner 2012, at the IMM international furniture and interior design fair, Cologne,Germany; Four prizes at the Interior Innovation Award – Winner 2011, at the IMM international furniture and interior design fair, Cologne, Germany; Industrial design award Eco Design 1994 by the Ministry of Science, Development and Art, Vienna, Austria, for the design of a children’s playground for the Fritz Friedrich company, Austria; Golden Key award for Mak – bio furniture set design, Furniture Fair, Belgrade; Golden Key award for Bosna – bio chair design, Furniture Fair, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1988.
He has exhibited at fairs in Milan, Cologne, Hanover, Paris, Copenhagen, Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Vienna, Ulm, Stockholm, Moscow, Bratislava, Washington and New York; and Design Museum in Essen and Shangai.

Jasna Mujkić (Cazin, 1972) is a professor of industrial design at the Department of Product Design of the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo. She deals with furniture design, where he focuses his interest on two fields, transformation and flexibility, as a relation between the functional and the aesthetic. Of special importance in the design work is the cooperation with the company Rukotvorine-Zanat, where it examines the structural value of the ornament and changing the character of the form using texture. In his work, he pays special attention to proportions. Ombra's table perhaps most vividly expresses her design philosophy.
...The top of the Ombra Coffee Table is constructed by joining together tiny “Penrose Prototiles” (Sir. Roger Penrose, a famous British mathematician).
The prototiles are aperiodic, which means that a shifted copy of the original set of prototiles will never look the same. The pattern does not repeat! 
The table is not decorated with ornaments; it is ornamental in its essence. Watching the surface of this table is like watching a river flow, the image is always the same but we never get bored. It resembles the scattered shade of a tree.
She is the author of the Textbook for Fine Arts, published by Sarajevo Publishing, officially approved by the Federal Ministry of Education and Science for use in schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
She has exhibited her work at numerous international selective design exhibitions.
Significant exhibitions: 2013 The Next Wave: Industrial Design Innovation in the 21st Century, Washington DC,  exhibition of design projects; 2012 ICFF New York 2012, Manulution, Exhibition of Design Projects for Rukotvorine / Manulution, New York, U.S.A.; 2012 Pure Village, IMM Cologne, Exhibition of Design Projects for Rukotvorine / Manulution, Cologne, Germany; 2012 Boulevard of Innovations, exhibition of the winners of the Interior Innovation Award 2012, IMM Cologne, Cologne, Germany; 2011 COULEUR LOCALE - The Colors Of Europe In Objects, Identity of European countries presented through design projects, Budapest DesignWeek, Budapest, Hungary; 2011 ICFF New York 2011, Manulution, Exhibition of Design Projects for Rukotvorine / Manulution, New York, U.S.A.; 2011 BiH Pavilion, IMM Cologne 2011, Exhibition of design projects for Rukotvorine / Manulution, Konjic and Arteco, Tešanj; 2007 Jasna Mujkić, Field Armchaire, Salone Satellite 2007, Independent presentation of designers at the International Furniture Fair in Milan, avant-garde salon for young designers
She is the winner of the international award "Interior Innovation Award - IMM 2012", Cologne, Germany.

Ado Avdagić (Tuzla, 1970) educated in Malta, worked and lived in Rome, America and the Middle East. He is the founder of the internationally awarded multidisciplinary studio ‘Avado’, founded in 2008 in Tuzla. Shortly afterwards, he started cooperating with today's world-renowned brand Artisan from Tešanj. He continuously deals with product design of furniture, lighting, interior to creative project management. Its design is planned. He thinks about the relationship between people, nature and form in space, creating functional, ergonomic and aesthetically convincing solutions that resist the passing of time. He believes that the principles of natural design should be intertwined with innovative technology which can ultimately be used to create a better world. His products have been featured in leading design magazines. He regularly exhibits at all the leading fairs of furniture, lighting and interiors in the world.
Awards, recognitions and exhibitions: Iconic awards interior innovation 2020, DE Chair, Pando, Bonum Interiors gmbh; BIG SEE Product Design Award 2019, Castanea Sideboard, hejmo ...; BIG SEE Wood Award 2019, Castanea Sideboard, hejmo ...; BIG SEE Product Design Award 2019, Alter Chair, MS & Wood Ltd; BIG SEE Wood Award 2019, Alter Chair, MS & Wood Ltd; German design award 2017, Primum Sideboard, MS&Wood Ltd; Venice Design 2017, Palazzo Rossini, Primum Oval side table and Chair, MS&Wood Ltd, 13 May - 26 Nov 2017 (Setting); Iconic awards interior innovation 2017, Bud office table, Woak Ltd; XXI Triennale di Milano, Museum of Permanente – exhibition of awarded collections, 2 Apr - 12 Sep 2016 (Setting); German design award special Mention 2017, Muse Mirror, Artisan Ltd; Iconic awards interior innovation 2016, Muse Mirror, Artisan Ltd; Iconic awards interior innovation 2016, Primum Chair, MS&Wood Ltd; German design award nominee 2017, Primum Chair, MS&Wood Ltd; Iconic awards interior innovation 2016, Primum Table, MS&Wood Ltd; German design award nominee 2017, Primum Table, MS&Wood Ltd; Muuuz International Awards 2014, Lasta Sideboard, Artisan Ltd

Nataša Perković (Sarajevo, 1984) is a product designer who graduated and obtained her master's degree at the Product Design Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, where she was hired as an assistant professor in the subject Unique Design.
In its work, it strives to develop products of high aesthetic value, and to realize them in an innovative way in cooperation with various manufacturers. She cultivates a restrained artistic expression that is not subject to trend, in the hope that people will enjoy her products for many years to come.
Nataša Perković made her first professional steps at The Partners agency in London, and at the Cittadellarte Foundation - Fondazione Pistoletto in Italy. She has collaborated with the Royal College of Art Helen Hamlyn Center for Design in London and the Kyoto Design Lab, Kyoto Institute of Technology in Kyoto.
Studio Nataša Perković cooperates with producers from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region. She has exhibited at numerous international exhibitions and fairs. Her products have been crowned with numerous international and domestic awards, and stand out: five ICONIC Interior Innovation Award, German Design Award Special Mention, Grand Prix for product design BIG SEE, Award for product design BIG SEE, Award for wood design BIG SEE, Gold the key to the Furniture Fair in Belgrade, the Grand Prix for furniture design of the Balkan Architectural Biennale, and the Grand Prix Collegium Artisticum.
The Elle dining furniture collection developed by Nataša Perković for MS & Wood is the most awarded design product in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mustafa Čohadžić (Fojnica, 1981) is a Bosnian industrial designer. He learned carpentry from his father in a family workshop and design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo - product design department. At the invitation of prof. Salih Teskeredžić joins the design team of the Gazzda brand where he works as an in-house designer. The basic choice in furniture design for Mustafa is the combination of traditional wood design with modern expression. Rationality in the use of materials dominated by wood, with a clever design, which in addition to solving a certain problem also offers aesthetic quality, is a concept that makes the Gazzda brand recognizable. He has won many international design awards, including the IF award 2017 for the Hook hanger and the RED DOT award 2018 for the FINA sideboard.

Lucija Tomičić (Fojnica, 1967) graduated in 1991 in the class of prof. Zlatko Ugljen at the Product Design Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo. She lives and works in Belgrade. She is a member of ULUPUDS and has the status of a freelance artist.
As a student, she exhibited her works in Sarajevo at Galerija Zvono (the Zvono Gallery, 1988 and 1991), Galerija Doma Mladih (the Dom Mladih Gallery, 1989), and Crvena galerija (the Red Gallery, 1990).
It deals with unique design, furniture design and lighting fixtures. Her collection of lamps called Luster (2014), which consists of 15 unique lamps, was purchased by the Zepter Foundation.
She has participated in several collective exhibitions in Serbia, but also in the international competition Design Award Artzept 2018 ANYTHING CAN GLOW, Milan, Italy www.artzept.com with a collection of lamps Pogled. The Pogled table lamp was awarded a special commendation by the jury.
Floor lamp Soliter No9 (design 2019) received the award for the best work at the Annual exhibition ULUPUDS - Design section for 2020.