Cooking, talking, reflecting, conceptualizing, philosophizing – the “What Now! KitchenTalks” combine culinary delights and discourse in a new evening format that is a fixed point in Design Month Graz 2024. Visions and ideas as well as models and theses for a better life are developed while cooking together in a specially equipped kitchen at the festival center. There will be “recipes” for the prepared dishes at most, everything else may remain processual, fragmentary, raw – the important thing is that it is said, heard and reflected upon!
Creatives, designers, institutions, producers, curators and experts from all disciplines are invited to present their ideas, across the board and across the table, so to speak. The focus is on experiencing, thinking and enjoying together.
Time: 18.00 – 22.00 hrs
Cost: 49€ per person
Participation only possible after ticket purchase
Included are 4 courses + drinks
Supported by THE UNDERGROUND KITCHEN //
Dates and registration
May 8 | Io Tondolo & Itshe Petz – Absteige zur bärtigen Therese | for kings and queens and liminal queers
The designer duo itshe+io invites you to talk about queer visibility in design at their KitchenTalk. With their Absteige zur bärtigen Therese, the first queer hotel in Austria, they combine design and queerness. In order to stand up to the current debates about dominant culture and gender bans in public authorities, they would like more support from the design scene. “We need allies from the entire creative industry; as trendsetters, we have to work together to counter this worrying development.” Design is an elementary factor in making a diverse society visible and that’s why itshe+io invite you to the table to think the world a little further with good food and wine in a convivial atmosphere and with humor.
May 14 | Christian Tippelreither – Weitzer Woodsolutions | Wood if… We reboil wood?
Easy to work with and enormously versatile, wood is a companion for a product’s lifetime that knows no limits. Properly processed, the raw material does not splinter, meets the highest fire protection requirements and is extremely durable. It is not without reason that wood was and is used in all climate zones to enrich our lives. The advantages are obvious: regional availability, low density with good mechanical values, sustainable product cycles and efficient costs.
Let’s think together about a recipe for future sustainable material design and think laterally about where the journey can take us.
May 21th | Sigrid Mayer – EIGENSINN – Veränderung RAUM geben | MEIDLINGER L KitchenTalk
With a wine tasting from the Dreisiebner parent company, Designmonat wine partner
The MEIDLINGER L KitchenTalk invites urban developers, city users and lateral thinkers to try their hand at cooking. In a creative and culinary atmosphere, we want to develop a recipe that makes you want to take the urban transformation into your own hands.
What if… city administrations, politicians and homeowners worked together to efficiently implement climate change adaptations?
What ingredients are needed to fine-tune cooperation and participation? Which spices could increase momentum? Which ones are better left out?
May 29 | Bas van Bentum and Falk Kremzow – What if? lab (Amsterdam) | Rethinking shared spaces
Space&Matter’s Research and design lab
Cities have long been pushing industries away, distancing work and living areas, leading to social and economic challenges. Just societies require mixed-use neighborhoods for job access, energy transformation, and circular economies. Through stakeholder engagement, involving the municipality, local businesses, and residents, we asked: “What if industry stays in the city?” Introducing THE THIRD ZONE concept—an innovative approach that introduces intermediary spaces between industrial and residential areas.
This KitchenTalk will be held in English!
May 31 | Tomislav Bobinec – I say no to cheap design | Boris Bućan – between art and design
Boris Bućan (1947-2023) was a Croatian artist and designer whose works can be found in renowned museums worldwide, including the MoMA and the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York, the Munich City Museum, and the State Library Victoria in Melbourne. As part of the New Art Practice generation, he combined visual art with new technologies. The exhibition of Boris Bućan’s works as part of Design Month 2024 is the first major tribute after his death outside Croatia and features around 100 works of art from the Dagmar Meneghello Private Foundation. As part of the KitchenTalk, Tomislav Bobinec, one of the driving forces behind the exhibition, will talk about Bućan, his work and the process of creating this homage to a great graphic designer.
WHAT NOW!? KitchenTalks
May 8 | 14 | 21 | 29 | 31
each 18.00 – 22.00
Festival Center Hornig Areal
Waagner-Biro-Straße 39 | 8020 Graz
The Underground Kitchen stands for modern cuisine at the highest level. Tobias Graf and Andreas Bacher present special culinary creations for unique experiences throughout the entire Design Month Graz in the Hornig Areal festival center. Eating is not just about satisfying a basic need, but a social act that brings people together and creates wonderful moments and culinary highlights. This is how gastronomy works in Design Month Graz 2024!
