MEDS Gallery

WHAT IS MEDSGALLERY?

The aim of MEDS Gallery is to showcase works of international creators. During these exhibitions we like to bring together creatives with different cultural and interdisciplinary backgrounds. We are a family of friends who want to take you on a journey towards a changing future.

The initiative started in 2018. The first edition took place as MEDS exhibition in Milan (Italy) during the Milano Design Week 2018 in the Isola Design District. It was followed by Minsk Design Week 2019 and a charity exhibition in Zagreb 2019 after MEDS travel croatia 2019.

HOW TO ORGANIZE MEDS GALLERY

Introduction

There are two guides how to organise MEDS Gallery: Track A and Track B. Difference is slight but crucial.
Track A is a path that MEDS Gallery team, assembled during MEDS Forum 2019 in Basel, should follow to make exhibition happen.
In a case when MEDS Gallery team won't be able to find time and be able to work on Gallery tasks regularly, a new MEDS Members team should to be assembled. MEDS Gallery team is responsible for the members celection.
Track B was created as a guide for MEDS Members team.

Track A

STEP 1: Space/Place

Description:

· The MEDS Gallery team should find a pace which the gallery could take place in.

· Taking into account different factors of why this is a good location and what is going around this.

Desired outcome:

An idea of a place where MEDS Gallery could take place.

People you need to talk to before starting to work on this task:

People who have done the galleries in the past.

People with insight to talk to:

MEDS Gallery team.

Suggested methods of work:

Researching different events and expos happening around which our work would fit into.

STEP 2: Proposal for MEDS Gallery (GC)

Description:

When proposing a MEDS Gallery we need to consider the following:

· A location where the gallery will be held.

· Details about the festival/ expo it would be held at if this is the case (application deadlines etc.)

· Dates of the proposed gallery

· Cost details (gallery space, materials etc)

· Information on sponsors if there are any

· A concept for the exhibition

Desired outcome:

To come up with a strong proposal for a MEDS Gallery.

People you need to talk to before starting to work on this task:

MEDS Gallery Team.

People with insight to talk to:

Anyone who participated in a MEDS Gallery.

Suggested methods of work:

· Research different options to come up with the most ideal proposal

· Create the concept in relation to the space

STEP 3: Open Call

Description:

After the proposal theme was announced, exhibitors call should be started. Let’s say it should last for 1 month. Fixed number of the projects which will be exhibited will be chosen through vote inside of the MEDS Gallery Team(from this moment it will be called “The Team”). So first The Team announces the dates of open call, probably 2-3 month before it starts. The Team prepares the google form for the possible exhibitors. In the google form, together with the information about the name, date of birth, country of origin and so on a motivation letter of for example 100 words should be asked. The projects could come from any design or architectural field, this also could be paintings, sculptures or even some kind of contemporary art installations.

The proposed projects should fulfill the following criterias:

· Project should be strongly connected to the announced theme of the exhibition

· Exhibitor should be a part of MEDS Family

· Project should be completed(?). Probably we could also choose the projects done by the firma in which a potential exhibitor works, but only if he or she was involved enough in the main processes of the developing of the project.

· Apart from the main theme the projects should carry the ideas of sustainability(arch/design), should have their own outstanding features to be recognisable.

· Highly recommended for the projects to be present at the exhibition as much as possible. That means if it is a furniture, some product design work, work of art or installation - it should be at the Gallery itself. For the big scale projects it should be the examples of materials and skaled 3d models.

· Motivation letter will be taken into account, as an important criteria for us during the vote.

The proposed project should have the following components(architecture/industrial design):

· Description of the project & idea behind the project

· Local organisation or partner you worked with

· Professional pictures

· Technical drawings

· Project location (pin-point it on google maps)

· Material samples (so people could feel the project without being there)

· Scale model

· Renders and photos of the building\creational process

The proposed project should have the following components(art pieces/product design):

· Description of the project & idea behind the project

· The project itself

· Local organisation or partner you worked with

· Professional pictures

· Sketches

· Material samples

· Renders and photos of the building\creational process

Important note: It is strongly preferably to bring the authors of the projects to the exhibition place, so they could present their work to the visitors.

After the end of exhibitors call the volunteer call should be held.

It should happen after the announcement of the vote result.

Volunteers will be explaining the meanings and the goals of the projects, so they should have talks with the authors.

For this reason the prepared google form should cover following aspects:

· Motivation letter - 150-200 words

· Option - to write down thoughts about a random picture of architecture/art work/design work, that shown in google form(5-7 sentences)

· Option - to describe the latest exhibition they’ve visited

· Option - to describe their view about the perfect exhibition

· Arch/design background is welcome

As long as volunteers should explain the projects The Team must carefully choose the smartest ones, based on their texts.

Desired outcome:

Projects should match the main theme of the exhibition, volunteers should be reliable and able to tell about the main topic and the details of the projects.

People you need to talk to before starting to work on this task:

MEDS Gallery Team, people who have written open calls before.

People with insight to talk to:

MEDS Gallery Team, people who have written open calls before.

Suggested methods of work:

· After the announcement of the MEDS Gallery(theme and place) the participants call should be also announced

· Period from the announcement of a call till the start should last about 3 month

· Experience of the people who made such calls before is necessary to take into account

· The most important criteria to choose projects is accordance to the announced theme

· Bring the exhibitors to the Gallery, if possible

· Super important to exhibit as much 3d objects as possible, so visitors can even touch them and experience deeply

· Amount of volunteers should be as small as possible, as long as they are not really productive workers usually

STEP 4: Curating the exhibition

Description:

After the open call the MEDS Gallery Team decides(has a meeting) on what they want to include in the upcoming Meds Gallery.

Desired outcome:

To have a varied amount of projects that all in sync with the open call. We would love to have projects that represent the interdisciplinary work that MEDS stands for.

People you need to talk to before starting to work on this task:

MEDS Gallery team, people who have curated exhibitions before.

People with insight to talk to:

MEDS Gallery team, people who have curated exhibitions before.

Suggested methods of work:

· Have a look at all the submissions that you got from the open call

· Make a list of different projects that apply to the criteria that were specified in the open call

· From this list you make a selection of projects that are varied, come from different field and could make one cohesive exhibition.

· Inform all the people that are involved with these projects.

· Get a confirmation that these people are able and willing to be part of the Meds Gallery.

STEP 5: Scenography of the exhibition

Description:

Either with in the gallery team or find someone specialised with in MEDS who can scenography the gallery to a professional level.

Desired outcome:

A well designed and aesthetic gallery which look professional.

People you need to talk to before starting to work on this task:

The MEDS gallery team, scenographers.

People with insight to talk to:

The MEDS Gallery team.

Suggested methods of work:

· See all the work which has been selected and see If common themes

· If the Gallery has specific theme research will need to be done to this on how this can influence and be incorporated into the design of the gallery

· Will need room plans on how the work will fit in the room

· See how it can be made more of an experience with the scenography design

· Get a confirmation that these people are able and willing to be part of the Meds Gallery.

STEP 6: Bootcamp and Build-up of the exhibition

Description:

Before building up the exhibition it is necessary to invite all the participants to a small bootcamp. This bootcamp could be small and should not take more than one or two days. The bootcamp is necessary because in the past we had problems with volunteers and participants not knowing about each others projects. You always want to spread the same information for everyone. The build-up of the exhibition could take up three days up until a week. This depends on how big you scenography is of course. Make also sure that the exhibition could be equipped to host small events like network drinks, talks, etc.This makes that the exhibition will be more appealing for people to come to.

Desired outcome:

To have everybody that is involved knows everything about the projects exhibited. If you are prepared well enough to exhibition will be finished on time.

People you need to talk to before starting to work on this task:

MEDS Gallery team, people who have curated exhibitions before.

People with insight to talk to:

MEDS Gallery team, people who have curated exhibitions before.

Suggested methods of work:

· Invite participants before the exhibition (have in mind that you might need to help people with getting the right visa).

· Check of they all have access to accommodation.

· Collect all the materials for the exhibition scenography before the bootcamp/build-up.

· Check with the owner of the exhibition space about the do’s and don’ts of the exhibition space (even of you already have, he/she might already changed her mind).

· Inform everybody about the content of the exhibition, run through the finished exhibition with them, so knew what they need to talk about.

· Inform journalists, designers, compagnies about MEDS and what the Meds Gallery will be about (this includes the theme and the selected designers, etc.) might be interesting to advertise your events at your exhibition.

· Create the proposed scenography.

· Create the infopoint (physical place with all the information about the exhibition and its content.

· Create the time-schedule for the exhibition (at what time volunteers and participants need to be at the exhibition).

· Spellcheck every text that will be visible.

· Make sure you have enough postcards, business cards, etc. of all the participants and their projects.

· Create a visitors guest book, a book where people can leave their businesscards, comments, etc. about the exhibitions.

STEP 7: During the exhibition

Description:

The aim of task during the exhibition is that the participants and volunteers know exactly their tasks and follow the timetable that has been approved. During this time there is many flows of communication with in the network with the media team, exhibition space and participants.

Desired outcome:

A professional running of the schedule of the show.

People you need to talk to before starting to work on this task:

Roisin leavey, MEDS gallery, the exhibition space owners.

People with insight to talk to:

The MEDS gallery, MEDS Media team.

Suggested methods of work:

Events:

· An option having a launch preview night (before open to the general public for invited guests)

· Opening night launch party – organisation of drink, music etc..

· Tours

· Performances

· Talks

· Video

Infopoint:

· One person will always be there to answer question and help

· This is the space for selling items such as t-shirts, totes etc…

Media:

· Contact the media department

· Person in charge of creating content throught out the exhibition (MEDs volunteer who is in contact with media department) Documentation

· The official professional photos and videos of each day and event (one volunteer)

Communication:

· Interior communication = the communication between the meds gallery team, the volunteers and participants

· Exterior communication = the communication between the meds gallery team and volunteers with the exhibition space owners throughout the event.

STEP 8: Breakdown and Feedback (GC)

Description:

After the MedsGallery has taken place, the following factors need to be discussed with the MedsGallery team, and the Meds Family:

· The space (size, location, layout)

· Time of year

· Concept

· Scenography

· Bootcamp

· Exhibition outcome

Desired outcome:

To collect feedback which can be worked upon, for future galleries to work out better.

People you need to talk to before starting to work on this task:

The MEDS gallery team.

People with insight to talk to:

Anyone who participated in a MEDS Gallery.

Suggested methods of work:

· Take note about what is going wrong and right during the whole process of the Gallery.

· Speak to everyone who was included in organizing the Gallery.

· Discuss the exhibition during MEDS Forum.

PREVIOUS EDITIONS

MILANO DESIGN WEEK '18

Review

General

Milano Design Week 2018 was the first edition for the new initiative MEDSgallery. The exhibition took place in the Isola Design District (IDD) which was also the organizer for the different exhibition spaces and responsible for the communication between the exhibitors and the Design District itself.

Exhibition

The exhibition took place in the Isola Design District, in a courtyard of a housing complex next to the “Bosco Verticale” (vertical forest, green tower in Milan). The location was very well connected with the metro line and pretty close to the centre of Milan and other exhibition districts. The space was a small garage room called “box”, which was given by a contact communicated by the IDD. The 20sqm-box was divided by MEDS and DSGN (one wall for MEDS, the other one for DSGN and one wall for a beamer, which was organized by the owner of the box) and exhibited different personal works from MEDSpeople (Maja Jandric, Florian Van der Voorde, Franci Kaucz and many more). It was planned that a couple of days before the start of the exhibition additional things were bought to pretty up the space and the wall for MEDS, volunteers helped to manage this. The DSGN wall was fixed by their members. There were no problems with buying and printing stuff in Milan. The point of this MEDSgallery edition was to mainly exhibit work of MEDSpeople and not to promote only MEDSworkshop. During the exhibition, volunteers, organizers and exhibitors explained their work and MEDS to some interested people. A few problems: The exhibition at Isola Design District was mainly there to exhibit furniture and products, so it might not have been especially for networks such as MEDS. Also people have maybe been confused a little bit about the exhibition because there wasn’t no real united format/layout in between the box and the walls(Where is the product? What is what? Who is who?). The communication between MEDS, DSGN and the district wasn’t good either. MEDS wasn’t mentioned during a press conference of the IDD and also expectations of getting some divulgation on social media weren’t fulfilled. The IDD even put a wrong MEDS link on the website. A next problem at the location itself was that the box wasn’t that accessible for people because the gate to the courtyard had always to be closed and volunteers had to “catch” people in front of this gate. Also the residents from the housing round the courtyard were making some trouble during the exhibition. Last thing: A lot of things were planned last minute which caused some problems.

What to do better?
- Get in contact with Design District for the next time, more adapted for our network. We are not selling design but promoting an organization and its people!(happened in 2019 with “Futura Ventura Design District”, but they didn’t accept our request for exhibiting at their district)
- Thinking of exhibiting mainly MEDSworkshop and less personal works for the next time!
- The best exhibitions are always installations. Focus on that and make people curious and willing to ask about the work and the network behind it!
- Don’t overdo it with too many different small and confusing installations and panels on the walls, stay minimal and simple!
- Promote MEDSgallery during the exhibition!(Print more panels, sheets or flyers to get people on our website and on our socials)
- Prepare handbooks with designers standing behind MEDS!
- Exhibit has to be planned a lot more in the future!(during MEDSforum)

Teamwork

The gallery was mainly organized by MEDSnetwork member Franci Kaucz and her team at MEDSforum 2017 in Zaragoza. Franci, together with DSGN (Ally Brook, Jack Lehane, Sean Colan Smith and Jason Ladrigan) managed to organize the box of the Isola Design District. Due to the bad communication to the district it wasn’t that easy to organize different things. After the volunteer call with more than 45 applications - most of them last minute - there were about ten volunteers for the whole week, organized in different schedules to work for the design in the box before the Design Week, to stay in the exhibition space to explain during and to clean up after the Design Week. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that well because most of the volunteers just didn’t go to the days to help, didn’t know what to talk to people visiting the space and weren’t able to tell people how to reach websites or look up info. Summarized the communication between MEDS and DSGN organizers was good, but the communication between MEDS, DSGN and the volunteers was poor!

What to do better?
- Make a volunteer camp before the gallery, so the people know what to do and how to do it!
- Think about the application process. Make them clear that they are responsible for their work schedules and tasks!
- Keep a good communication between the gallery organizing team and the volunteers!
- Maybe organize an accommodation where everybody can be together during the week (sponsored hostel for a better offer)!

Money

For the given conditions by the Isola Design District the exhibition was too expensive. 2000€ for the box itself and 300€ for “communication” specials with the district (logo on website, mentions on press conferences which didn’t even happen,...). With the help of MEDSforum Zaragoza, MEDSworkshop Gent and some well done crowdfunding money was enough for the box and other tools and materials for the exhibition. Sponsors for the materials are normally possible to find but a sponsor for the exhibition space itself was very improbable.

What to do better?
- Continue with crowdfunding and motivate people to donate some money for MEDSgallery!
- Keep getting some donations from the last MEDSforums and MEDSworkshops as well as from MEDSstudio in the future if possible!
- Collaborate with finance and sponsoring department to keep working on solutions for future MEDSgalleries!
- Avoid high exhibition space costs (changing Design District)!
- Work together with home universities to get some support!

Accommodation and Visa

Visa is fixed with an invitation by the accommodation in Milan (hostel, friend,...). During Milano Design Week 2018 a few people have be hosted by other MEDSpeople and others slept in a hostel organized by DSGN. The prices for hostels and hotels in Milan are increasing during the Design Week comparing to other times in the year.

What to do better?
- Keep solving the accommodation problem with MEDSpeople-couchsurfing. But there are different conditions every MEDSgallery (also in visa things)!
- Find a solution with a cheap hostel to make a special offer for as many volunteers as possible!

MINSK DESIGN WEEK '19

Review

General

MEDSgallery in Minsk was different from MEDSgallery Milan because it was there mainly to represent how the MEDSnetwork is working. MEDSpeople designed pavilions, gave some talks and a lot of people during the Minsk Design Week was told about the network. For promoting the network there is also a MEDS logo on the official website of Minsk Design Week.

Exhibition

A lot of pavilions were designed by MEDSpeople. The beginning plan was to have a special pavilion by Alperen Sahin and his friend Jack (similar installation as in MEDSByblos 2018) and use it as main pavilion and as a platform for a lot of talks, presentations and so on. Also planned was an additional structure around this design. Because of organizing problems and difficult working conditions there was happening only one presentation during the city celebration in Minsk on the 9th of May with a light show, videos and pics about MEDS in the city center. Due to this performance a lot of people were attracted and wanted to know what this show is about. Other installations from MEDSpeople have been a covered staircase project by Franci Kaucz, a pavilion by Artur Nitribitt and a pavilion by Wei Lesley Yang. There was also a pavilion dome, designed by MEDS and EASA people. An important point of the exhibition was also the use of different panels for showing MEDS and its initiatives to the people. It was planned to print 20-30 A2-panels which could be attached and presented in the pavilions. Due to image quality problems the print shop didn’t want to print them, but MEDS volunteers fixed it, even if it was a last minute thing.

What to do better?
- Thinking about and organizing the use of different pavilions (time, what can happen there, different events, when is it in use)!
- Check out for some (cheap) printing offices and tools shops for additional material before the exhibition!
- Be on time with organizing to design and print panels or similar things, nothing last minute! (do it at MEDSforum!)!
- Use good quality pictures and material!

Teamwork

The workshop was mainly organized by MEDSnetwork member Sasha Sudnikovich, who was also part of the organizing team of the Minsk Design Week itself. So it was difficult to for her to organize both the main Design Week and the MEDSgallery at the same time. Creating an extra team from Belarus, the motivation in the beginning was at a good point but was decreasing during the workshop with the result of not having a real responsible group for the MEDSgallery exhibition. The initial tasks like application form, presentations, videos and so on were managed by the Belarusian team. After that, MEDSpeople like Dimitri Leimgrübler, Franci Kaucz and Eduardo Crespo were helping with other organisation things and the design of the panels.

What to do better?
- Form a small and efficient team which will be motivated and responsible to do its work (organizing and going through the main points of MEDSgallery before, during and after the exhibition), this team has to run the whole gallery (curator)!
- People are the most important part of an exhibition → as many good and motivated volunteers as possible!
- Make clear everybody who works for MEDSgallery is always on time and is doing his work in a responsible way, do your job!
- Be clear what is to do and divide the tasks in a clever way to people who have time and are motivated to do it!

Money

Money wasn’t as problematic as in Milan Design Week 2018. The pavilions’ materials were paid by the Minsk Design Week’s sponsors. The exact prizes of the constructions aren’t known (Alperen Sahin and Jack’s pavilion costed around 150€, Artur Nitribitt’s pavilion about 2000€, Wei Lesley Yang’s one was the most expensive one because it was built in metal and constructed with some help of craftsmen from Minsk), just that materials like metal are more expensive than a construction in wood. For MEDSgallery in Minsk also fundraising was a option to get some money. The achieved amount of money was 350€, which was enough money to pay the printing of the designed panels. Unfortunately it was (is) always difficult to find sponsors, especially for the MEDSgallery itself in Minsk.

What to do better?
- Try to achieve more money with fundraising by reaching more people and firms willing to help!
- Try to get some money from other initiatives like MEDSforum (MEDSstudio in the future) and the MEDSworkshop!
- Try to work together with the branding, sponsor and finance department if the costs are high!

Accommodation and Visa

The Accommodation in Minsk during Design Week was offered by belarusian friends and volunteers. So there haven’t been any problems. Visa was a special thing because of the country Belarus itself. Belarus is visa free for 30 days when entering the country by airplane but has different visa rules when entering by bus (for example from Poland, it’s gonna be a bit more complicated and less time to be visa free)

What to do better?
- Try to keep solving the accommodation problem with MEDSpeople-couchsurfing. But there are different conditions every MEDSgallery (also in visa things).

ZAGREB '19

Review

General

Zagreb ’19 was a concept of MEDS gallery which was developed for the participants of MEDS travel Croatia for them to showcase the trip and MEDS as an organisation. The exhibition was held in ‘Siva’ gallery and the event for the opening was held in ACC Attack in partnership with NGO Imagon. All proceeds were donated to charity.

Exhibition

The exhibition was held in Gallery Siva which was founded in 2012 as an initiative of graffiti and street artists active as part of ACC. The gallery program is of a presentation, education and DIY production nature, directly connected to various styles of street art, design, comic art, illustration and other visual arts, with the base criterium of unconventionality and originality. ACC Attack is is a non-profit, non-governmental citizen association active in non-institutional and youth culture. The association acts by D.I.Y. principles, creating and sharing cultural, political and economic alternatives, providing a public space to all and any wanting to create and act beyond the mainstream while participating in changes at a local level and towards a f ree society. ACC exists and supports the independent cultural scene since 1997 via organizing in(ter)dependent projects realized all over Croatia and beyond – art festivals, alternative music events, film and theatre productions, gallery, library and hacklab programs, including a plethora of diverse educational events. Since 2009 ACC runs ACC Medika – a cultural community centre, aimed to enable civil society, subversive arts, activist education and knowledge exchange. It was held on the 7th of June (opening night with the event ) and it was up for 2 days in the gallery. The exhibition space was chosen by the organising team of MEDS travel Croatia as the best space for a pop up / diy exhibition. Siva gallery and acc attack are two separete spaces that share a yard , for the exhibition participants had the two spaces and the yard in f ront where they put up a pavilion designed by Santiago Rubio which was chosen during an intern competition for MEDS travel participants for a garden pavilion . The materials were donated and the pavilion was built by a construction company (ime). The pavilion was painted by a famous croatian street artist Mane Mei. All the proceedings f rom the entrances to the event / exhibition, ramaining food f rom the trip, collected clothes and everything else gathered during the trip was donated in assotiation with Imagon to "Srednja škola - Centar zaodgoj i obrazovanje" a highschool for children with special needs.

What to do better?
- In case of this kind of exhibition, work on PR more and start sooner
- prepare panels,flyers,posters and everything beforehand as there won’t be enough time during the trip
- involve the participants more beforhand to prepare the exhibition better (During MEDS travel Croatia Connor de Burca made autoCAD sketches of the boats used for the trip which were presented on the exhibition.)
- More networking
- Make handbooks and flyers about MEDS and the Exhibition so people can find out more if they don’t get the chance to network with the participants

Teamwork

The gallery and construction of the pavilion was mainly organised by MEDS travel Organisers Ana Čajić and Tjaša Ćordaš .The exhibition was successfully conducted by the help of MEDS travel CRO team Dina Bartolić,Marta Badurina,Maja Jandrić and the 14participants of Meds travel Croatia. Ana organised the space at acc and gallery siva, young artist Franjka Prša that made art projections and 7DJ-s for the event .Due to the acc bad organisation the organisers didn’t get the key in time that was previously arranged, some pr materials weren’t posted and issue with the entrance price wasn’t solved in time. Tjaša handled the construction of the pavilion. Marta, Dina, Maja organised the exhibition space with the 14 participants (Roisin Leavey, Conor de Burca, Joe Murphy, Matthias Brenner, Bhumit Shah, Tea Sinovčić, Barbare Kacharava, Lorik Lloncari, Lindrit Zogaj, Ereza Emini, Katia, Ciara Phelan, Andrew Galea) while the organisers printed materials for the exhibition (in an architecture firm on roll printers). As the team had limited time (2 days) to gather materials and put up the exhibition everything went well. Thanks to team efforts the exhibition was put up as planed.

What to do better?
- pay someone to print / don’t do it yourself
- help organisers by commenting, giving ideas beforehand during videochat while still in process of organisation not when everything is already done and there is no time to correct /make better
- handle your own PR as well as the one given by the space
- take more days to make the exhibition to have time to solve problems/make materials
- involve participants in the organisation of the exhibition before the trip

Money

The exhibition space and event space were 300 euros. The money was donated by Imagon (Ana and Tjaša). DJs donated their time because of charity.

What to do better?
- Try crowdfunding
- find sponsors

Accommodation and Visa

2 rented apartments in the centre of the city Zagreb. 17 min walking distance f rom the exhibition space. (booking.com) Accomodation and visa were a part of MEDS travel Croatia initiative.

What to do better?
- Try to solve centalations on the renters side somehow / reserve plan B and C beforehand to have more cheaper options