Crafts, Design and Technology

First MADE IN stakeholder meeting in Serbia had a goal of connecting crafts people, creatives, researchers, and scientists; of presenting the planned activities of Nova Iskra; and to discuss the local-specific resources – understood as natural, post-industrial, and new-technological. The planned program for the day provided an insight into examples of good practices and initiatives that (re)open the questions of what local resource and knowledge means in the context of the contemporary demands of sustainability, circular production, and above all a demand for attentiveness and care for the supporting, developing of, and caring for the local production within cultural industries, creative tech, and crafts.

Invited speakers: Biljana Crvenković, Zoran Lević, Hristina Mikić, Dejan Molnar, Marija Đorđević, Danko Radulović and Uglješa Vrcelj.

Biljana Crvenković is a Senior Curator at the Museum of Yugoslavia. In her outstanding curatorial practice, she specialized in the issues of historical/artistic forming and development of glass objects. She is the author of the exhibition On The Glass Road: Glass Art and Representation in Serbia (1850-1950), organized within the activities of the International Year of Glass in the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade. Biljana was one of the initiators of establishing a national sub-commitee of ICOM – ICOM GLASS Serbia.

Zoran Lević is a Senior curator-conservator and the director of the Museum of Science and Technology in Belgrade. He dedicated a substantial segment of his carrier to researching the history and development of industrial production of glass in Serbia. Within the International Year of Glass in 2022, Zoran was the author of the exhibition On the Glass Road: Technologies of Glass, presenting the history of local glass production, through used tools, materials and the techniques.

Hristina Mikić is an associate professor at Metropolitan University in Belgrade, Faculty for Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, and the Head of Research and Development at the Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Her research focuses on creative industries statistics, creative and art entrepreneurship, and the economics of cultural policy. Since 2020, she is the director of Creative Glass Serbia focused on the digital transformation of glass heritage, its revitalization through creative entrepreneurship.

Dejan Molnar is associated professor at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. He is the vice president of the Society of Economists of Belgrade (SoEB), the Committee for Economic Sciences of SANU, the Scientific Society of Economists of Serbia, Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, the Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS), the Banat Writers’ Association (BUK), the Economic and Business Forum of the European Movement in Serbia (EPUS). Within the research projects, he mostly dealt with the issues of local and regional development, and energy economics. Dejan is the director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (FREN) and a member of the Creative Glass Serbia team.

Danko Radulović refers to himself as a maker. He holds a MA in Design and Contemporary technology form École nationale supérieure de création industrielle in Paris. His design research and professional focus is placed on the possibilities of digital fabrication and product design, in both practical and educational sense. He is one of cofounders of Polyhedra FabLab in Belgrade. Danko is dedicated to solving producing issues with new materials and technologies, making them accessible to all.

Uglješa Vrcelj is an industrial engineer and a creative with a vast experience in product (furniture) design. Since 2000, he has been combining the acquired knowledge in the field of design with marketing. He is the author of three independent multimedia arts exhibitions Revolution, Sky, Mona Lisa, and of the performance “I Am the Flower”. Uglješa is one of the founders of Studio Dvoika. In his own words „He is in love with creating something new and authentic “.

Marija Đorđević is an artist, designer and a maker educated in Belgrade, Prague, and Dresden. She is the co-owner of the Naša Posla workshop. She participated in the project “MADE IN: Craft Design Narratives”, as an artisan leading of student workshops. She works with leather, and in the workshop space Naša Posla create fine-leather signature luggage.