VODOPARAD-2003

The design circles of Kharkov lived in the tempo of "Vodoparad" for three weeks in January. Nearly the whole art beau-monde of Kharkov, the representatives of leading sanitary ware and bathroom equipment producers, dealers of Ukraine and represantatives of professional mass media gathered together for this design event. The chief designer of Phoenix Product Design, Mr. Haug, and the press attache of Hansgrohe AG, Mr. Storeck, the represanatives of Grohe, Jado, Dornbracht, Villeroy & Boch, Duravit and Rex took part in the final session of Vodoparad.

The great interest shown to this exhibition is not only the evidence of its originality and the barest necessity. For the professionals the current "Vodoparad" is a certain point that allows to understand the prospect of the project started three years ago.

The opening of the exhibition surpassed all expectations, that was a real parade! Unlike the previous exhibitions where the studio spirit had predominated this season the exposition of Vodoparad was more likely to resemble the catwalk where the objects appeared like during a defile striking by their style, quantity and refined elegance...

The Parade of Names

The third "Vodoparad" presented 45 objects, the authors of which are designers and architects of Kharkov, Kiev, Donetsk, Poltava, Odessa, Lvov, Dnepropetrovsk and Simferopol. Among them there are a lot of well-known names: Vladimir Bondarenko, Oleg Drozdov, Elena Kudinova, Yuriy Morozyuk, Vladimir Pogorelchyuk, Yuriy Ryntovt, Alexander Starozhilov, Yuriy Spasov, Sergey Tynynyka, Dmitriy Fomenko.

For many participants "Vodoparad" became the first appearance in the world of big design. The discovery of new names and the support of young people is one of the main tasks of the exhibition-competition. This season there were 5 students among the participants that passed a high casting (More than 80 applications for had been submitted). The debut of young designers turned out to be more than successful as the presented objects were esteemed by the professional jury and the representatives of foreign firms-partners. So, the new names are Anna Galushka, Sergey Merzlyakov, Yekaterina Sokolova, Irina Dyakiv, Evgeniy Krayniy.

The Parade of Water

Water has received an extraordinary wide variety of interpretations in the exposition of "Vodoparad". It is presented as dews gathered in the flower-cup, a wave, a waterfall, a violent whirlpool, a powerful matter and one of the prime sources of the world. In the desingers’ works water can be full of silence pulsating in a closed space, it can evoke different sound effects… Water obeys the form, contrived by a designer, and at the same time the former gives birth to the latter "Water can present a source of cheerfulness, but it can also become an object of meditation"

The Parade of Ideas

The variety of technologically proved and at the same time ingenious objects contributes to the image of "Klondike of Ideas" for the Exhibition this season. There is an entire firework of designers' projects of a standalone washbasin and a shower panel, a system of water supply and water draining, a mixing armature and a contour for a washbasin. A number of futuristic work pieces, which bring novelties into the very process of washing, is presented in the best traditions of constructivism.

The Parade of Texture

In the exposition of "Vodoparad" water is presented in a casing of forged metal, it is reflected in the polished surfaces, it is illuminated and splintered in a variety of reflections, which are multiplied in mirrors. Suddenly the SICIS mosaic glitters with the gold of Ravenna deep in the transparent bowl…A roar of a waterfall, swing rhythms of thaw, dry clicks of hail - all these metamorphoses are embodied in the plastic splendors of cast glass, forged and polished metal.

"Vodoparad", like a famous couturier, has brought a variety of materials and textures on the catwalk, revealing their plastic and aesthetic properties. These are bleached oak, bamboo, a golden pine-tree, which absorbed the heat of the sun, rattan, leather, austere granite, smooth pebbles, rough coquina.

The Parade of Forms

What kind of washbowl can be in the 3rd millennium? "Vodoparad" presents an entire kaleidoscope of the most surprising ideas: a wave, a ship stern or a car bumper, a foremast, a bench, a bowl, an egg, a flask, or simply two wood boards. A washbowl can be placed in a wall cabinet or simply in a plastic bag, it can be a frozen music of water, a copy of water turbulent motion, it can be funnel-shaped, open and closed. It can be a washbasin-installation, a washbasin-philosophy, a washbasin-cosmogony, a virtual washbasin, a washbasin-reflection.

After the great splash of "Vodoparad" you are impressed by the universality and the completeness of the theme development: a washbowl in time and space. It seems really impossible to tell better things about water in the design language, but young designers, conquering the world design Olympus, are not going to stop at the achieved things. And it means that Vodoparad will exist, grow and develop, widening the borders of creation and broadening new horizons of the subject design.

Quotations:

It's usual that at the very beginning nobody is stingy in wishing, but the first serious trial for the event of this sort is the third round. It is the third exhibition that determines the viability of the project. - Boris Lotkin, chairman of the organizing committee, board member of UAJV "Vlada-Promtex"

I should admit that the rating of of the exhibition is very high. I was extremely surprised by creativity and handicraft. Beautiful exhibits were created as the result of work with wood, metal, glass, paper. - Mr Haug, chief designer of PHOENIX PRODUCT DESIGN.

Everybody sees that it's serious. There's no such a _______ as you could see at the previous "Moydodyr". The younger generation has caught up with the rest and the works have become more professional. There were some slapdash works earlier - now one can see the advance not only in realization but also in concept. And the number of works allowed to make selections. The important thing in such shows is their powerful incentive to develop the object design. Our project also creates an opportunity for young designers to be exhibited but not only well-known ones. - Vladimir Bondarenko, member of the Union of Designers of Ukraine, member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, member of the project.

In comparison with the previous year I can see qualitative and quantitative progress. The selecting procedure was apparently more careful and my first impression - a high quality of design presented at "Vodoparad". It’s probably not so variegated as the previous exhibition, but rather localized in a good sense. - Victor Danilenko, head of Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts.

Pure rapture! Everything is so interesting and taken from our life as the contours of certain concepts. - Vitaliy Zatler, cultural scientist (Salekhard)