A rising Design Week on a balcanic stage

Aleksandar Velinovski started his international career in 2006. In the time of great xenophobia and fear from east Europeans he founded the Eastern Neighbours festival, which in that time is considered as one of the biggest presentation of Eastern European countries in the Western Europe.

After several years spent on bringing closer Dutch and South East European culture though design, film and fine arts, Velinovski in 2011 has founded Skopje Design Week and the platform Ministry of Pleasure.

What is the strongest tool that the Macedonian design scene can count on?
There are 3 things that Macedonian design scene and designers from other countries also count on.

The first one is still relatively low occupancy of the Macedonian production companies which I see as advantage for outsourcing. There are round 150 furniture production companies, the same number of light metal processing facilities, and I believe that maximum 10% of them have absolute capacity’s utilization. This advantage has to be used by the domestic and foreign designers.

Second opportunity is utilization of locally available material and different craft techniques. Wood, wool and leather abound on the market but for certain reason the preference of local designers goes towards imported and artificial materials. This course needs to be changed.

Third thing that Macedonian and also foreign designers can count on is pretty low labor costs for highly experienced technicians and craftsmen. This is an issue is of paramount importance when it comes to prototyping.

What I need to stress further is that the conditions which apply for the Macedonian designers also apply for any foreign designer that would like to do project in Macedonia.

Where do the majority of the visitors and buyers of Skopje design week come from?
Majority of the visitors come Skopje. Also a number of foreign visitors that happen to be in Skopje on a holiday or a business trip comes on SDW. The diplomats and expats living and working in Skopje count for over 10% of the total festival’s audience. The number of visitors increases every year, which indicates that the local interest in design grows as well. In 2011 SDW had 7.500 visitors, but this year we expect 20.000 for 6 days programme.

What are the medium and long term goals you would like to achieve for this event?
I would definitely like to see more active design studios in the next 5 years and increase in cooperation by 100% between designers and production companies. This is the main goal of the festival, to simulate cooperation between domestic and foreign designers and local producers, and if the festival and activities organized throughout the whole year do not contribute to this in the next period, then we have failed as organization. Currently, the design scene in the country has all attributes on disposal: favorable business climates, plenty of locally available materials and high skilled technicians in the production companies and very well promoted design scene in the country and region. It is up to the design sector to shape its own model of cooperation and become more productive.

Which other project would you like the Ministry of pleasure to realize to contribute building the Macedonian design environment?
The organization that I represent, Public Room Skopje, is currently working on establishment of the Balkan Design Network together with Croatian Design Association, from Zagreb and Mikser from Belgrade. Within the formation of this network and establishment of the Balkan design brand I see the future of the Macedonian and regional design. Only a collective approach and efforts can position the Balkan design on the global scene and in the same time stimulate economic development. I strongly believe that in the next 5 years there will be more top design products originating from the Balkan countries.

Parallel to the Balkan Design Network, Public Room creates solid grounds for turning SDW into 365 days project. In order to make design scene more productive and see more tangible results, I believe that more educational, practical and business activities need to be done throughout the whole year. Without continuity in practical activities and we are only postponing the success.

How would you rate the design university system in Macedonia?
Even though I am not coming from the educational institution and I haven’t accomplished my degree in Macedonia, my professional engagements bring me in touch with most of the design faculties in the country. Additionally, through the workshops or rather said, the informal education programme offered by Public Room, I had a chance to detect the capacity of the students and graduates from those institutions.

My personal opinion is that design curriculum needs instant update. The programme introduced in the design faculties does not correspond to the actual market needs and potential of the young generations. Biggest problem is the practical side of the education, which is somehow neglected. I cannot image a design faculty without prototype workshop area. This is the reason that thinking of graduated designer resembles to fine arts artist instead of an innovator. During the practical trainings that Public Room implements I have face a serious problem with this kind of thinking. The remedy for this problem I see it only by turning SDW into 365 days project and have sincere impact on the design scene in the country.