Short student films under the title 2074 were created in response to the international design competition Dream 2074! A Utopia for French Luxury, organized by Cumulus International Association and Comité Colbert, composed of representatives from 82 companies from the French luxury goods sector and 16 cultural institutions, and ENSAAMA (École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d’art), the leading French art and design school.
With an international competition, the Comité Colbert wanted to introduce the optimism of utopia into society. In their opinion, the key words of luxury no longer describe only the spaces of welfare, but emotions and sensitivity, open spaces and sustainability (with all the power of the moment), demands and respect, knowledge and actions for the happiness of all. Today, as we approach the 22nd century, happiness has become, according to the Comité Colbert, a central idea in the world.
The reflection of happiness, however, proved to be a much more difficult task as it might have seemed at first glance. For the students, the competition raised a question about the future in which they would actually want to live. Namely, to dream and above all to think about the bright, happy future means finding the answer to the question of what actually brings us the desired light. What are happiness and satisfaction for an individual, for all of us? What kind of freedom and equality is that we are looking for when we write these magnificent words?
To these reflections we added, as grains of salt, the excerpts of a luxurious future from science-fiction narratives prepared by the organizers of the international competition. From this uncommon mix of ingredients, five short answers, five views, five responses were created. Each from a different perspective, but with a common denominator: If we still want to dream about the future, it will be necessary to return to the community. To the community that opens up spaces for living.
More about the individual projects can be found in the publication titled 2074, which was on this occasion published by the Pekinpah publishing-house.
Participating students of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana (Department for industrial design and applied arts): Simon Bregar, Maruša Dolinar, Tamara Fras, Eva Garibaldi, Lin Gerkman, Miha Hain, Jakob Koncut, Maruša Mazej, Neža Medved, Tjaša Mužina, Nina Podobnikar, Simon Rozman, Blaž Skodlar, Gregor Stražar, Jera Tratar, Andraž Rudi Vrhovšek, Zala Zagoršek, Simona Žiher
Mentor: doc. dr. Barbara Predan
Head and coordinator of the exhibition project and exhibition design:
Maruša Mazej
Study year: 2018/2019
Short texts on works
Nina Podobnikar, Blaž Skodlar, Zala Zagoršek
Identity as rêver vrai
“Do you get it? The woman who gave her colours to the world now sees it in black and white”.
Xavier Mauméjean, Porphyrian Tree
Who am I? Is my identity really my own and am I the only one who can affect it? Or is identity perhaps collective as well? What defines it? Let us allow ourselves to see true colours. Let us look at the world and realise what it is really like. Let us put on the glasses of reality and face it. Let us stop fooling ourselves with black and white in the world which we have created. Who am I and what can I change?
Simon Bregar, Maruša Dolinar, Tamara Fras
The Touch of Emotion
“How does emofabric contribute to the reconstruction of our world?
How does it help people be … better?”
Samantha Bailly, Facets
How do transparency and accessibility of other people’s emotions affect an individual? How do they influence one’s desire to be active, to take certain measures and help other people? Is there a medium, as a materialized empathy and conscience recall, which can act as a trigger moment for action that is delivered through an authentic contact with a fellow human being? Can we create a moment in which touch changes empathy into an honest altruistic act?
Neža Medved, Jera Tratar, Simona Žiher
Scent
“I will dance on all of the lands in the world and will fill my mind with
all the perfumes of creation!”
“The scent was like a fragment of the past.”
Anne Fakhouri, A Corner of Her Mind
What is the scent of the present? Pollution and destructiveness. Smog, piles of garbage, poisoned rivers … If we believe that we are able to change ourselves by 2074 and consequently survive, what will be the scent of the future?
Eva Garibaldi, Miha Hain, Simon Rozman, Gregor Stražar, Andraž Rudi Vrhovšek
New Luxury is No Luxury
“The individual in resonance with the universal is what people refer to as the proximondial.”
Xavier Mauméjean, Porphyrian Tree
What are the community, solidarity, and altruism? What happens if we add two more areas of thought to these concepts: Art and design? In both of them we recognize the power of social critique, given that they both grow out of the community. We believe that the state of the world can be altered if each of us commits himself or herself to a community and acts actively within it.
Lin Gerkman, Jakob Koncut, Maruša Mazej, Tjaša Mužina
ALife worth …
“Each dot represents a life. Together they form a colony, in which the smallest elements co-exist in perfect harmony with the others. A whole in which the parts are united,
humanity united by your care in the proximondial.”
Xavier Mauméjean, Porphyrian Tree
Society has surpassed the physical body and has created a new, digital existence. It reduced itself to a nano-level and no longer thinks only of today, for it exists in timelessness. Society has abandoned nature. Life has been transferred into simulation. It has reduced itself. It is now merely a compound of information.