piknik works’ live performative exhibition illustrates conversations about time in electric blue

piknik works at jerusalem design week 2022

During Jerusalem Design Week 2022, Piknik Works took over the Hansen House Center for Design to carry out a performative exhibition that plays with the boundaries of physical and mental experiences in relation to our homes. Their new project Piknik Salon aims to discuss the storytelling potential of design and bring together the performative act of drawing and visual storytelling to animate a transformation in spatiality.

Performing in real-time, the group carried out a series of discussions alongside visitors via round table talks and illustrated these conversations on the blank canvas of the furniture in their signature electric blue style. 

the exhibition was performed at Jerusalem Design Week 2022

all images courtesy of Piknik Works 

illustrating narratives in electric blue

For their performance, the Turkish designers experimented with a ‘Salon’ dining room setup to discuss the storytelling potential of design. Piknik Works initially designed and prepared the room as a blank canvas with white painted furniture. They then invited visitors to join them at the table, and engage in both spontaneous and planned conversations centred around topics of time and 21st-century culture, which were simultaneously inscribed on the surfaces in electric blue words and illustrations. Over the course of the seven day festival, the table and its surroundings were gradually filled up with stories, statements, questions and drawings in free-structured representations of the intuitive conversations. ‘We worked every day to create our fourth Performative Drawing project, an experimental process that discusses the storytelling potential of spatiality by directly drawing the narrative onto it,’ reflects Melodi Gülbaba.

the illustrations occurred spontaneously and intuitively

The eleventh edition of Jerusalem Design Week welcomed over 40,000 visitors for the showcase of many eclectic exhibitions, installations and projects. The work centered around the theme ‘For Now’, exploring both the ephemerality of design and the design of ephemerality, examining ways in which time can be harnessed to bring about a positive effect in periods of uncertainty. Among the participants, Istanbul-based design collective Piknik Works sought to experiment with the boundaries of art, architecture, and graphic fields.

visitors were invited to the dining table to converse with the designers

the illustrations are made in the signature electric blue of Piknik Works

Piknik Salon plays with the boundaries of physical and mental experiences in relation to our homes

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the Piknik Works design team

illustrations of conversations

the space is transformed with by the stories and conversations

Piknik Salon created a performative drawing living space

project info:

name: Piknik Salon
designer: Piknik Works 

team: Oğul Öztunç, Atıl Aggündüz, Melodi Gülbaba, Burçe Gökhun, Umut Müezzinoğlu

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions’ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: ravail khan | designboom