The Academic Labs in the Observation Tower
Throughout the duration of the Biennale, the gallery on the entrance floor of the Observation Tower will host a consecutive series of projects with the participation of three academic institutions: The Master’s Program in Industrial Design (M.Des.), the fashion design department at Shenkar, and the workshop for ceramic design at Industrial Design Department, HIT – Holon Institute of Technology. Each of these institutions has created a wide-ranging project for the lab in response to the Biennale’s overarching theme: What Is the Measure of Man? The labs are characterized by a dynamic, research-oriented approach that tests existing boundaries. Each lab functions differently, with various actions taking place in the exhibition space alongside a permanent display and a public program open to all visitors.
The three academic labs present the complex and multilayered perspective of creative individuals on the contemporary world. They raise questions concerning the existential state and future of humanity, the human body, and material and visual culture, in the context of developing technologies and the shifting ground on which we stand.
Tomer Sapir, Curator of the Academic Labs Program
Ceramic Design: Industrial Zone
The Ceramics Workshop is an active part of the department of industrial design at the Faculty of Design, HIT – Holon Institute of Technology. The workshop trains design students to use ceramic materials based on an experimental approach, while exploring the limits of the field, as well as the syntax, conceptual world and material and formal language of ceramics. It brings together the material and digital worlds, while facilitating new ways of thinking about material experimentation. This experience enables students to reach an in-depth understanding of industrial production tools in contrast with digital tools, and to bring together the industrial world and the world of high-tech, as part of the process of change impacting the world of low-tech, traditional design – and specifically the world of ceramic design.
The intersection of a research-oriented, experimental approach and of an emphasis on the interest inherent to production processes has shaped the point of a departure for a performative project, created within the framework of the Ceramics Workshop: at the heart of Industrial Zone are three work stations designed for the creation of ceramic slip casts and for 3-D printing of ceramic products. The students will work three times a week at the gallery “factory,” creating ceramic objects whose language is unique to their production technology. In the course of the exhibition, the objects will be added to the display. Additionally, the gallery features works by graduates of the industrial design department who are professionally engaged in ceramic design.
Curator: Shlomit Bauman
Dean of the Faculty of Design: Prof. David Rawet
Head of the Industrial Design Department: Ofer Zick
Lecturers: Shlomit Bauman, Noam Dover, Roy Yahalomi, Tal Batit
Design of the “Industrial Zone” display: Yam Amir, Adi Elmakies, Omer Schupak, Nir Shary, Noah Stern
Design of ceramic works and mold production: Guy Eigel, Adi Elmakies, Or Engelman,
Lior Georgy, Shahaf Horwitz, Amit Levit, Shaked Shasha, Yaara Tene
“Industrial Zone” video: Daniel Zadok (camera), Guy Eigel (editing), Daniel Ohana (sound)
Video of graduation projects: Aviv Mor Yosef
Assistant Dean for Logistics: Erik Kricheli
Head of Administration, Faculty of Design: Hemda Cohen
Coordinator of the Industrial Design Department: Neta Cohen
Technical management: Ron Halperin, Sharon Zeevi, Benzi Rais