VODOPARAD-2005

In Kharkov this new year traditionally started with the festival of object design "Vodoparad". For the fifth time this event gathered designers, architects, experts and the representatives of the world’s leaders in manufacturing tiles and equipment for bathrooms.

The jubilee fifth "Vodoparad" had the theme "Two in One". The participants treated the theme in different ways but perhaps each of more than a hundred works tried to combine art with function. This year an important feature of the event is the rejuvenation of the entry list. More than half the candidates who passed the competitive selection are students. Many of them took part in "Vodoparad" not for the first time. Victor Danilenko, the head of Kharkov State Academy of Design and Arts, which accommodates the exhibition, says that "Vodoparad" creates the opportunity for novice designers to distinguish themselves and it contributes to their professional development. So as to stimulate the process, this year the organizer of the project – UAJV "Vlada-Promtex" – instituted special scholarships for the students who take part in "Vodoparad". One more novelty is the institution of only two nominations "Hit" (for the most original, ingenious and functional object) and the award for the choice of visitors. Summing-ups of "Vodoparad-2005" ended with unexpectedness: for the first time since 2001 the "Hit" has left Kharkov. According to the professional jury decision the best design solution of the competition theme belongs to Valeriy and Yekaterina Kuznetsovs from Dnepropetrovsk They are the authors of the object "A Folding Washbasin". "A Folding Washbasin" is a shower head and a basin which easily fold into a unit made of wood, the favorite material of the Kuznetsovs. This unit can also be used as a dressing-table. The award for the choice of visitors went to the object "Man and Woman" by Alexander Simonov.

Unlike the previous exhibitions of "Vodoparad" which had a prevailing number of washbasin projects, this season it is a shower that has become the object of special attention of the designers and architects. A frequent participant of the project, a Kharkov designer Igor Lyalyuk links it with visiting design bureaus and factories of Western Europe by lots of designers and architects after the summing-up of the previous year "Vodoparad".

As before the best objects of "Vodoparad" were esteemed by foreign guests in their own opinions. They were the representatives of the world-famous manufactures of tiles and equipment for bathrooms. Thus, the company "Grohe" selected the works by Olga and Yuriy Spasovs ("Thicket"), Alexander Garkavtsev ("Penthouse Box") and Tatyana Novikova ("Apple") and invited them to visit a well-known Technological Center "McLaren" in Great Britain in September. (More about the Technological Center "McLaren" in "Arhideya" №12, Dec-Jan 2005). The firm "Villeroy&Boch" selected Olga Vasilina ("Economical Package 2"), Tatyana Novikova ("Apple"), Valeriy and Yekaterina Kuznetsovs ("A Folding Washbasin"), Igor Lyalyuk and Yekaterina Yaryomenko ("Multifunctional Shower-Transformer") and Konstantin Kritskiy ("Comb"). The company "Huppe" took a fancy to the project of a ceramic washbasin "Light Conductor" by Sergey Gorban. And "Hansgrohe" selected the works by Oleg Tun ("Knock-Knock"), Alexander Balula ("Hybrid"), Valeriy and Yekaterina Kuznetsovs ("A Folding Washbasin") and Sergey Gorban. The firm "Saicis" selected the object by Natalya and Nikolay Sokolovs by the name "Casket", a design fantasy on the subject of a washbasin in form of a leather trunk. Yuriy Morozyuk, Gennadiy Tregubenko, Konstantin Kritskiy, Anastasiya Lazarenko, Olga and Yuriy Spasovs, Oksana Ostapenko, Andrey Linkov, Valeriy and Yekaterina Kuznetsovs and Olga Vasilina were awarded the certificates of the Union of Designers of Ukraine. Vladimir Bondarenko as a permanent curator of the festival "Vodoparad" and Boris Lotkin as an organizer and inspirer of the project were also awarded.

The search for new nonstandard solutions, directed toward the development of object design in Kharkov, which is considered the capital of the Ukrainian design due to the enthusiasm of "Vlada-Promtex", has led "Vodoparad" to its transformation from a comically ironic event into a regular traveling exhibition. Last year "Vodoparad" was exhibited in Italian Milan and German Essen – in the famous Museum of Design "RedDot". This year in March the best works of "Vodoparad" will present Kharkov School of Design and Ukraine at a prestigious International Exhibition ISH in Frankfurt. So then, to be continued…