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Lodz will host its fourth International Design Festival from 14th to 30th October 2010 based on the theme AMAZING LIFE.

The organisers invited Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka, design curator, and Oskar Zieta, innovative formmaker, to curate works for two exhibitions as part of the main festival programme. Crumple Zone and Underpressure will present different stages of the design process, the uses of untypical materials and ways in which artists search for and gather ideas.

As explained by Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka:

Every year the Lodz Design festival touches upon the relation between a human being and an object. The theme of this year's edition of the Festival is AMAZING LIFE. Immersed in the everyday humdrum, we fail to register the obvious phenomena: the sun, rain, clouds and wind, warmth, cold, melting and stretching - aren't those extraordinary? Most of us can only admire them but some are able to make use of them and benefit the society.

The Crumple Zone exhibition curated by Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka will present furniture that have a deformed or crumpled aesthetic suggesting vulnerability but actually offer strong and rigid support.

Works on show will include the frail and rickety looking 3Devils by PLecy AZE Design + BETON, the chaise lounge and table designed by e27, the Rubens Collection by Frank Willems and the Lazy Bastard and Cluster light by Bertjan Pot.

The 3Devils chair by PLecy AZE Design + BETON

The LOLL Lounger by e27

Frank Willems chair from The Rubens Collection

The Underpressure exhibition curated by Oscar Zieta will present inflatable products and furniture that break the stereotype and presents various pieces that include the Blow Sofa by Malafor, the infamous Fotel Blow chair by Zanotta, Eric Stehmanns Inflating Lights and Oscar Zieta's Plopp chair collection.

Blow Sofa by Malafor

Erik Stehmann's Inflating Lights

Oscar Zieta's Plopp Stool

Ceramika Paradyz will be sponsoring the festival, and in addition to these two main exhibitions there will be a range of special and accompanying exhibitions that will each interpret the AMAZING LIFE motif. They will include bicycles designed by leading fashion designers, Kenzo Takada and Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, and the Portfolio Review, an opportunity for young designers to show their work to journalists, curators and experienced designers for their critique.

More information can be found on the Lodz Festival Website