rayastefanova.com ︎ UNDER  CONSTRUCTION ︎

Mark

Raya Stefanova is Bulgarian designer whose work circulatеs between disciplines aiming to create and make responsibly. In her practice she has been involved in projects exploring contemporary design from various perspectives — from objects and spaces to materials and methodologies; from design as form organisation to educational and social initiatives.

Shortly after graduating from Design Academy Eindhoven, she served as artistic director of the international festival of contemporary design One Design Week 2016 — Can I help you?.  Her biggest challenge in this position was to identify and understand the themes that are truly relevant to society today by making interdisciplinary links and reacting to the rapid evolution of design in general. More about Raya︎




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PROJECTS

︎  Soil Objects
      An on-going exploration of designing with raw soil. Can earth, the oldest building material, be applied to objects and furniture which will eventualy turn back to earth?


EVENTS
  
PASSED
︎  Europe’s designing women / Designsalon Linz
      Exhibion, @Landesgalerie Linz
      27.09 — 29.10 

︎  Found in Kuchuk Paris / International Design Forum Khow-How Show-How
      Forum moderator,  Plovdiv      
      12.10    

︎  Entwined: Paths of experience
      Exhibion and discussions, @Oborishte 5, Sofia
      11.09 — 18.09 

︎   KODEX (10)
       An exsercise on display part of a series of experimental art book workshops organised by TI-RE. 

︎  United Spaces
      A weekend-long programme of projects by Curatorial School 2018, Swimming Pool, Sofia

Mark

Soil Objects 
2014 — on-going


Soil Objects is a collection that explores the possibilities of soil as material for creating functional pieces for the home and continues Raya’s desire to design objects that have minimum environmental impact.



The devastation that extreme weather is wreaking globally makes climate change impossible to ignore; at every level of production and consumption, things must change. Thus the work and ethos of design is important to contribute to such a push. As is the investigation into new materials that have the potential to replace those that are destroying our world.

Unlike clay soil pieces do not require firing in a kiln, air drying instead. The raw soil is unstable, so the forms will degrade with time, however, they will turn back to earth without leaving any harmful traces.
In this case the short life of the object is seen as a positive feature, if compared to the rather negative impact of more common commercial materials, that take hundreds of years to decompose.

As per Roland Barthes “The essence of an object has something to do with the way it turns into trash”, Raya will add the responsibility of being designer in a worrisome times.




Mark