The main prize of 5,000 euros, donated by the Department of Economic and Structural Development of the City of Mannheim, has now been awarded to media design alumni Johannes Kuhn and Lukas Yves Jakel for their bachelor thesis “RescEU”.
Design is not only the shaping of our environment according to aesthetic or economic criteria, it rather works as a heterogeneous network of things and interpersonal relationships that structures living together and ways of acting.
The UNCOVER design festival was dedicated to these facets of “design” for three weeks from 17 June to 10 July 2016. A specialist congress for designers with lectures, workshops and symposia, among others with design legend Stefan Sagmeister from New York, served to discuss future developments in the industry as well as the exchange of knowledge and experience. In addition, a number of presentation forms were held for the public. At the centre of these: the UNCOVER FORMSCHAU exhibition with 12 nominated design works from all over Germany that critically analyse our present.
The main prize, the UNCOVER Design Award 2016, went to the bachelor thesis RescEU by Johannes Kuhn and Lukas Yves Jakel. In it, they critically and artistically satirised the discussion about values in the current European and refugee crisis.
A jury of experts led by Götz Gramlich (100 Beste Plakate e.V.), Prof. Sigmar Willnauer (HfG Gmünd), Tulsa Beyerle (Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden) and others awarded a total of 5 prizes in 4 categories. Positions were selected that focus on moments, ideas and constructions of hospitality and put them up for discussion by means of objects, products, installations and initiatives.