W: Andre Bailey
Jan Stuchlik UMPRUM I: Julie_Petrujova
The world is drowning in textiles, and the pace of mass production has become entirely unsustainable. At Milano Design Week’s Alcova platform, students from Prague’s Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design (UMPRUM) confront this crisis with Wasted Waste, an immersive, performative installation. The exhibition draws visitors into the repetitive, inescapable atmosphere of a textile sorting facility, highlighting the consequences of global consumption that quietly accumulate in the Czech Republic’s Broumov region.
The project gives a voice to a region that was once a textile powerhouse but has since been transformed into a graveyard for unwanted clothing. Since 2024, UMPRUM students have conducted unparalleled artistic research here, seeking to transform waste into lasting value. As Michal Froněk, head of the Studio of Product Design, warns: “Recycling at any cost is a road to hell.” Instead of offering hollow global promises, the school focuses on a locally grounded approach, partnering with the social cooperative Diakonie Broumov to find meaningful ways to mitigate environmental impact.
The exhibition transcends disciplinary boundaries to reflect diverse perspectives. Students from the Studio of Product Design treat textiles as raw material, creating functional objects through innovative technology, while the Studio of Fashion and Footwear Design elevates discarded garments into upcycled high fashion. These works are set against stark audio-visual material from the Studio of Fine Art IV, which captures the tension between the region’s unspoilt natural landscape and the harsh reality of industrial sorting.
A functioning conveyor belt serves as the installation’s centrepiece, relentlessly carrying piles of clothing. The painstaking, ant-like efforts of the creators, who operate the belt as part of a performative act, evoke the immense labour required if humanity is to save the planet. Currently situated in the former Baggio military hospital, the installation continues UMPRUM’s legacy of success in Milan before it returns to the Czech Republic for Designblok this autumn.
Concept: Simona Rybáková, Michal Froněk, Jiří Thýn
Project Cooperation: Vojtěch Novotný, Michaela Vrátníková, Václav Kopecký
Exhibiting artists and designers: Kryštof Bača, Matyáš Bálek, Šimon Bečvář, Laura Beretová, Olivia
Dorušková, Anna Dunděrová, Alica Grebáčová, Markéta Hájková, Miloslav Chytil, Jiří Královec, Hana
Kubrichtová, Natálie Krišťáková, Julie Petrůjová, Kateřina Puchmertlová, Vojtěch Smrž, David Stejskal, Filip
Jurný Vojta, Šárka Zejdová
Exhibition architecture: Miloslav Chytil, Jáchym Kubů, Mikuláš Procházka, Šimon Bečvář, Natálie
Křišťáková
Graphic design: Jan Stuchlík
Photos: Julie Petrůjová, David Stejskal, Jiří Královec, Hana Kubrichtová
Production: Michaela Kaplánková
We wish to acknowledge the realisation team: Zuzana Jirsová, Miroslava Slabá, Michaela Malinová,
Anežka Svobodová, Rostislav Doleček, Michal Malášek