ECO Solidarity, a collaborative initiative bringing together leading European designers and studios represented by the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC NY), returns to New York’s Javits Center May 21-23, 2023, as part of ICFF + WantedDesign Manhattan. Responding to the environmental and humanitarian crises, this year’s edition focuses on design with empathy, addressing some of the world’s most pressing conditions of human health and wellbeing.
Showcasing designers and design studios from nine European countries, ECO Solidarity 2023 includes a design exhibit, two panel discussions, workshops, and more. Its goal is to reexamine the roles of designers and architects, finding more ways to offer vital skills and deliver practical support for individuals and communities affected by environmental disasters, war and violence. This year’s projects explore ways to improve urban domestic infrastructures, preserve and restore natural habitats, protect the health and wellbeing of people, and accommodate displacement of the most vulnerable members of the community.
Participating E.U. designers and studios include: Theresa Bastek, Studio Plastique (Wallonie-Bruxelles Region, Belgium); Eliška Novák Knotková, Balance is Motion (Czech Republic); Dorian Cani, COLLCOLL (Germany); Aušra Česnauskytė and Goda Verikaitė, Neo Futuristic Walks (Lithuania); Kamila Szatanowska and Paulina Rogalska, FALA Architektura (Poland); Pepe Peralta Guerrero, FOR (Romania); Otto Nagy, Terratico (Slovakia); Angel Mombiedro, Armombiedro Studio (Spain--their Meneo rocking chairs are featured above) ; special guest, Victoria Yakusha, FAINA Design from Ukraine. Yakusha represents war-torn Ukraine and was invited as an expression of solidarity with the Ukrainian nation. FAINA Design's participation is supported by EUNIC, Polish Cultural Institute New York, and Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw, Poland.
The 2023 program is organized around two themes:
The first focuses on prevention and research, new sustainable materials and methods of implementation that improve durability, circularity, recycling waste, carbon-neutral and low-emission productions, with the goal of improving human and environmental habitats.
The second focuses on ethical issues that surround design and architecture, reconstruction, recuperation, and healing in response to environmental and humanitarian crises resulting from military conflicts. The emphasis is placed on repositioning architects and designers to address critical issues through community engaged design processes via interactive initiatives, city walks and site-specific interventions.
Through sharing research and resources on the newest sustainable design solutions, as well as engaging in participatory actions and interventions, ECO Solidarity 2023 aims to contribute to the re-envisioning of future post-war public spaces, living spaces, and shared environments.
“We are proud to bring ECO Solidarity back to WantedDesign Manhattan,” said Odile Hainaut and Claire Pijoulat, Brand Directors for ICFF + WantedDesign Manhattan. “After the accolades it received last year, we are confident that the selected nine European studios will continue to inspire, educate and create meaningful conversations. The notion of Empathy and Solidarity brought by the project’s collaborative approach and the support of nine cultural organizations and EUNIC is critical to developing responses. At the heart of the show, ECO Solidarity delivers a statement of what design can do and how it can serve a greater cause.”
“In a time when we are facing wars around the globe, extreme humanitarian crises and climate emergency, the role of cultural diplomacy is essential to address the needs of the next millennium," added Izabela Gola, visual arts and design curator at the Polish Cultural Institute New York, initiator and co-curator of ECO Solidarity. "Echoing the spirit of the Polish Solidarity movement established in 1980, we call for unity among emerging designers, architects and thinkers from different countries to inspire change, to help re-envision the reconstruction of damaged public spaces, creating more resilient and safer human habitats, and protecting natural habitats.”
Since its founding in 2020, ECO Solidarity is co-curated by Hainaut and Gola. The exhibition is designed and curated by Deborah Wang, architect and artistic director of DesignTO, Toronto. The ECO Solidarity 2023 Advisory Committee includes Cynthia E. Smith, Curator of Socially Responsible Design at Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; Jonsara Ruth, co-founder and design director, Parsons Healthy Materials Lab; Paul Clemence, photographer, writer and curator exploring the cross-sections of design, art and architecture; and Tomek Rygalik, industrial designer, educator and founder of Studio Rygalik, which promotes a sensible, holistic approach towards design.
ECO Solidarity 2023 is presented in partnership with EUNIC NY, as well as Wallonie-Bruxelles Design Mode; Czech Center New York; Goethe-Institut New York; Consulate General of Lithuania in New York; Lithuanian Culture Institute and the Architecture Fund; Polish Cultural Institute New York; Romanian Cultural Institute New York; Consulate General of Slovak Republic in New York; Consulate General of Spain New York; the European Union Delegation to the United Nations.
ECO Solidarity had been fueled for two consecutive years by the EUNIC Cluster Grant Award granted by an EU global cultural organization, European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC). It was originally initiated by the Polish Cultural Institute New York in partnership with WantedDesign and a group of European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) organizations to address the imperative need for human-centered design in response to humanitarian and public health crises by focusing on ecology, the climate emergency, public health, wellbeing in public spaces. The name was inspired by the Solidarity (Polish: Solidarność) social and political movement which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, setting the nations on a course toward democracy. The year 2020 marked the 40th anniversary of its formation.
