Artium by KKCG, in collaboration with the Prague international design festival DesignBlok, is launching a long-term curatorial project called Vázy (Vases) at its headquarters in Prague’s Bořislavka. The main goal of the project is the systematic support of Czech design, alongside the cultivation of Artium’s public space for both employees and visitors attending local cultural events.
Every month, a unique original object—a designer vase—will be presented here, selected with an emphasis on originality, craftsmanship, and its ability to stand alone as a solitary piece in a space. The curatorial selection is prepared by DesignBlok Director Jana Zielinski and journalist and DesignBlok Advisory Board member Andrea Běhounková.
The project opens with a vase from the Burned Landscape collection by the DECHEM studio, founded in 2012 by Michaela Tomišková and Jakub Janďourek. Their work stems from a deep knowledge of the Czech glassmaking environment and the continuity of its technological and formal principles, which the designers systematically reinterpret within contemporary design. A defining characteristic of the studio is the close connection between design and production; they work with traditional hand-crafted glass techniques, using them not merely as references, but as active tools of creation.
In creating the Burned Landscape vase, the designers followed up on their popular Bandaska, first presented at DesignBlok in 2014, which arose from the authors’ inner need to work with the archetypal shape of a traditional milk can. This vase immediately gained attention and has long been one of the studio’s most successful products.
The authors continued to develop the object, primarily in terms of color, creating several limited editions over the years. The newest addition is the Burned Landscape vase, which the studio introduced last autumn. What began as an experimental drawing with molten glass on paper found its continuation in a three-dimensional interpretation, pushing the now-iconic Bandaska into a new, more expressive form. Every piece from this edition is an original, carrying its own landscape, as characterized by the authors themselves—a panoramic trace of fire, air, and human gesture.
The method of installation also plays a crucial role in the Vases project. The floral compositions are not created by florists, but are prepared by figures such as jeweler Zdeněk Vacek, who approaches them with his own, discipline-specific mindset. He perceives the flower as a piece of jewelry adorning the vase—as its ephemeral yet meaning-making layer. He has long been dedicated to this medium in parallel with his signature jewelry work. Under his own brand, he creates objects on the boundary between jewelry and artifact, combining organic materials with metal and developing not only a distinctive creative signature but also craft techniques. Last year, Zdeněk Vacek celebrated twenty-five years of his work with the DARK’n’LUSH exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, where he presented his transition from jewelry to the creation of free-standing objects and site-specific installations.
Every first Wednesday of the month, a new realization will be created—a dialogue between an object and living material, between design and nature. The individual installations will be continuously documented by photographer Eda Babák, winner of the 2025 Czech Grand Design award in the Discovery of the Year category. Both the DECHEM studio and Zdeněk Vacek are also Czech Grand Design award winners, all boasting success in the main Grand Designer category.
The Vases project will gradually present a wide spectrum of creators, from the upcoming generation of designers to established figures of the Czech scene, observing the vase as an object that transcends its function and enters the space as an autonomous form.
Head out to Artium by KKCG in Bořislavka to catch the fleeting beauty of the floral arrangements along with a modern, timeless icon of Czech design in the form of the Dechem vase.
Find out more at artium.kkcg.com.
