Future Legacies

OPENING: Thursday, 15 May 2025

18.00 CET at Center ROG, Trubarjeva 72, Ljubljana, Slovenia
20.00 CET at Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO), Rusjanov trg 7, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Center ROG, 15 May—6 September 2025
Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO), 15 May—14 September 2025
Ljubljana, Slovenia

The Future Legacies exhibition brings together the results of three years of collaboration between designers, craftspeople, scientists and other experts, facilitated by ten organisations across six European countries as part of the MADE IN Platform for Contemporary Crafts & Design.

Through over 60 activities, the Platform explored new articulations of the knowledge embedded in the rich legacy of craftsmanship and science, while encouraging critical thinking through contemporary design and art practices and the latest materials science. The Future Legacies exhibition is a space where heritage meets innovation, place-based knowledge intersects with speculative futures, and craft stands at the heart of both cultural continuity and ecological transformation.

This exhibition is built on an exploration of the ways in which traditional skills, local materials and scientific methods can enrich each other. It examines the dynamic intersection where craft-based knowledge meets contemporary design practices and emerging technologies in the form of vibrant, evolving practices continually reshaped by context and collaboration.

Future Legacies is narrated via installations, objects, materials, tools, videos and research documents, all produced in the course of workshops, residencies and field research based on local knowledge, heritage and experimental methods from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Portugal, Serbia and Slovenia.

The exhibited works are divided into four thematic clusters: Craft heritage reinterpreted, Hybrid environmental practices, Innovation with heritage and natural resources, and Learning and knowledge transfer. Each cluster explores and opens up new avenues for contemporary craft practices that integrate different knowledge and harness the benefits of skills sharing. Together, they shed new light on craftsmanship as a living, developing practice capable of effectively addressing the many social and environmental issues of our time.

The following are just some of the exhibits that will be on display:

◽Objects intricately woven from local plants such as palm and junco
◽Mycelium-based materials for soil regeneration
◽Objects created through reinterpreted blacksmithing practices
◽Gold embroidery and clay extrusion techniques transformed by contemporary design approaches
◽Exploration of the Mediterranean Sea, from purple dye and discarded weapons to the use of AI and craft in creating fashion items
◽The results of collaborations involving fashion designer, toymakers and ceramicist
◽Insights into the use of liquid silk for the sustainable refinement of wool
◽Experimental processes of cultivating live algae cultures for algae-based textile inks
◽Positioning craft as a reparatory land practice and enhance connectivity of urban biodiversity

The Future Legacies exhibition will showcase a wide range of new possibilities for craft processes based on transdisciplinary knowledge and skills exchange – which in turn has the potential to effectively address many of the social and environmental issues facing us today.

Works featured

Collaborations (residencies): 

Adin Alispahić with Miran Matošević
Joana Astolfi with Sónia Mendez and Susana Mendez
Sam Baron with Toino Abel
Kim Cordes with Ines Rönnefahrt and Ute Luft
Nancy Diniz and Frank Melendez (bioMATTERS)
Adisa Džino Šuta with Tarik Musakadić
James Early with Atelier Stanišić
Igor Eškinja
Cécile Feilchenfeldt with Meissen Porcelain Manufactory and Marlen Tröger
Toni Grilo with Abílio Pereira
Christian Haas with Domingos Vaz
Flora Lechner and Žan Kobal
Gaja Mežnarić Osole, Andrej Koruza (Trajna / Krater collective), Debra Solomon
Rok Oblak with Vahid Ohran
Henrique Ralheta with Isidoro Ramos
SOLL, Miro Roman, Silvio Vujičić
Robertina Šebjanič

Workshops and Summer Schools:

(RS) Intertwined – authors / mentors: Marija Kojić, Andrija Dinulović, Janko Dimitrijević, Zoja Erdeljan; participants:  Uroš Antić, Sofija Buzadžić, Marko Gajić, Marta Glavčić, Anđela Hauk, Dorotea Jonov, Miljana Milojković, Marija Mladenović, Lenka Petrović, Zorana Rebrenović, Ema Spasojević, Jovana Stojković

(PT) MADE IN Basketry Summer School – design mentors: Astrid Suzano, Henrique Ralheta, João Xará; craftspeople: Isabel Martins, Isidoro Ramos, Nuno Henriques, Olímpia Cabrita, Sónia Mendez; participants: Alicia Knight, Calvin Middel, Hana Tavčar, Helena Silva, João Barrulas, Lara Selmanović, Laure Julien, Rufus Seagrim, Sara Cherry, Tiago Correia

(DE) Precious Wood Workshops 2024 – workshop and mentoring concept: Jacob Strobel; collaborators: Uwe Bodenschatz, Jens Gebhardt, Stefan Heinz, Roman Krohs, Lars Neubert, Lotte Pönnighaus, Michael Rosenthal, Annette Rüffer, Nicole Schumann-Sizaret, Jan-Erik Schützhold, Marlen Tröger; participants: Ylva-Li Ahlström, Nika Ajdovec, Benjamin Amann, Liudmila Antonova, Matyáš Barák, Hannah Bayer, Soffie Beu, Alina Biriukova, Ema Čimbur, Beatrice Dietel, Antonia Everding, Wenzel Fukala, Veronika Róza Háló, Olle Hiort, Ben Hummitzsch, Lilo Ming Kiefer, Hannah Klein, Alicia Knight, Katja Kühnrich, Estera Kunej, Evey Kwong, Fia Lemajic, Ana Marija Lončar, Kira Margaritis, Benedikt Meyer, Lilo Ming Kiefer, Manfred Müller, Carl Nopens, Davide Onestini, Paula Raab, Sanja Rotter, Jasmin Schauer, Ema Schreiter, Bernd Schöser, Lara Selmanović, Katarina Trpčić, Markus Weber, Kasimir Wilmsmeier.

(SI) Tracing Topographies – authors and mentors: Žan Kobal and Flora Lechner, participants: Liudmila Antonova, Rok Kuzman, Fia Lemajič, Eva Kraljić, Claudia Crowe, Rozman Simona

(SI) Introduction to Living Pigments – author and mentor: Nancy Diniz; participants: Blaž Bajželj, Marija Gorjanc, Renata Hari, Daniel Novakovic, Ana Ilešič Ivana Papić, Sanja Rejc, Lara Ropič Bizjak, Tina Šepetavc, Lara Žagar

(SI) A Crash Course in Crafting Biodiversity – authors and mentors: Trajna / Krater Collective, Debra Solomon, Urška Škerl, and Alen Mangafić with Tanja Blašković, Ema Čimbur, Helena Črne Hladnik, Jana Culek, Igor Dragišić, Aneja Fučka, Bernarda Gotlin, Milena Jovanović, Dilara Merakli, Maëva Morinière, Emira Najdenova, Marin Nižić, Matej Pavšek, Tina Pernuš, Ema Pratnekar, Maruša Ramšak, Alexandra Sentis, Mateja Šmid Hribar, Zala Velkavrh, Lara Žagar

Curatorial Team:

Oaza (Ivana Borovnjak, Maja Kolar)
MAO (Cvetka Požar, Maja Vardjan)
SKD (Thomas A. Geisler)