FOLKK at the Know How/Show How summer design school in Sofia

Know-How/Show-How is an international summer program for creative thinking and design processes, initiated by the KnowHow Foundation from Amsterdam and the Culture Desk Foundation from Sofia. Relja Bobić, Nova Iskra’s Education Platform Coordinator, presented the Nova Iskra platform, and more specifically the process of development of its first design brand – Folkk. The brand is establishing connections between emerging design talent from the Balkans and the traditional crafts, artisans and knowledge holders.

The theme of the 2016 program is RE-connect – Object in Context and placeed special attention on our present day relationship to objects that shape culture. Designers and artists focus their expertise on the city and the archives and collections it holds, in an effort to re-connect them to the public space. The program was aiming to supports the development of the creative industries by introducing and transferring various methods and approaches in the creative processes. It took place from 11^th to 22th of July, and consisted out of four five-days workshops, with selected international participants and an open public program.

The program was presented by a representative group of design and art professionals from all over Europe with extensive experience in education – René Put & Brigitte Gootink from the design studio PutGootink (NL); Saskia Van Drimmelen & Margreet Sweerts from the fashion project Painted series (NL), the artist Uta Eisenreich(NL/DE), the photographer Vesselina Nikolaeva (BG/NL), the designers Linda Van Deursen (NL) and Jurgen Bey(NL), the curators and rsearchers Clémentine Deliss(DE) and Iglika Mishkova (BG), Relja Bobić (SB) and more.