For the first time in 2004-05 Publikum Publishers invited an international design studio to design and illustrate its PHENOMAN Calendar. New York-based designers, Hjalti Karlsson and Jan Wilker of karlssonwilker, inc, accepted the invitation to design the Publikum's 12th artistic calendar for year 2005. The launch of Publikum PHENOMAN: karlssonwilker Calendar in USA will take place at the One Club’s Gallery in New York on November 17, 2004 along with the Publikum Calendar retrospective exhibition.

Inspired by visual material and footage collected during their trip to Belgrade (Serbia), the idea behind karlssonwilker’s trip to Serbia was to explore “live” Serbian design and culture, process it and offer a modernized image and interpretation to a Serbian and international audience.

“Not only did they bring an innovative approach to the traditional medium, they came up with a new creative genre all together. It’s called “performance design.” It requires that designers go to Serbia, see what happens, follow their guts, hunt from the chaos and find 12 concepts, one each day during 12 days, for a 12-page calendar,” writes Laetitia Wolff/futureflair, guest curator for the 2005 Calendar.

On a journey entitled karlssonwilker vs. Serbia the two creatives met members of the Serbian creative community, were exposed to Serbian design and culture, got face to face with the monuments of the former communist regime and the ruins remaining from the 1999 NATO bombing in Yugoslavia. They also went to traditional taverns, visited the farmer’s and flee markets and inhaled the feel for everyday life of ordinary people in Serbia, until recently one of Europe's most troubled countries.

ONE CLUB exhibition text