"My orientation has always been reflected in my work," says designer Zdeněk Vacek, who will present his personal exhibition DARK'n'LUSH at this year's Designblok as a celebration and balance of life
Jewellery designer Zdeněk Vacek is celebrating an extraordinary milestone this year - 25 years of his work - and this is the central motif of his exhibition DARK 'N LUSH, which will be presented at Designblok 2025. The exclusive exhibition will take place at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague (UPM Prague) as part of the festival, whose theme "Courage" resonates with his personal journey and artistic metamorphosis from jewellery to experimental installation work. The exhibition will run from 7 October to 2 November 2025.
The DARK'n'LUSH exhibition is one of the three main projects of this year's Designblok. What does it mean to you personally?
It has a huge significance for me. Two years ago I was supposed to exhibit at Designblok in the beautiful premises of the Prague Castle Riding Hall. When my colleague Maria and I were there for a tour, I thought, Wow, I want to be here. But then it was 2024, and I realised that in 2025 I would have a major anniversary - I would be 45 years old, it would be 20 years since I first attended Designblok and 25 years since I graduated from high school.
That's why I postponed my participation and decided to connect this big event with this year. In the meantime, however, major personal things happened to me - my mother died, my long-standing relationship with my therapist Jirka ended and a new personality, Galina, replaced him. My life has changed. And all this was reflected in the preparations for the exhibition. I realised that this was not just another project, but a real milestone, an ideal opportunity to look back at what I have been through so far and what defines me.
So it's also a kind of celebration and a balance sheet. What concept did you choose for the exhibition?
Yes, it's a celebration and a balance. I already drew up the concept last year and divided the exhibition into two parts. The first one is a retrospective, to show what I have created so far, what milestones I have achieved. But I didn't want it to look pathetic or to be just a showcase of things from the archive. That's why the second part is dedicated to the present, i.e. the period since 2020, when I started creating under my own name again. In those five years, a lot of new work and projects have been created, from custom jewellery to diverse collections. And the longer I work, the more I have the desire to move towards larger formats than jewellery. So I am also showing brand new free works as part of the exhibition.
How did the title actually come about?
It took a long time to form. I designed the architecture of the exhibition myself, I think of it as a journey through my own life. I wanted the visitor not only to walk through professional milestones, i.e. jewellery and projects, but also personal and private moments. When I was thinking about the title, I figured it should also capture the fact that I reveal myself a lot. The viewer is literally getting under my skin.
And I also wanted to show what we are normally afraid to reveal. HenceDARK'n'LUSH. My life has sometimes been dark and at the same time rich, exuberant, for some it can seem almost decadent. However, the dark is transformed into something beautiful in my work, which is also the best kind of therapy for me. In the end, the title also served as a key for me, inspiring me how to make or display certain things, how to give them a new language and expression.
The connection between darkness and beauty is often present in your work. Do you perceive it more as tension or harmony?
Sometimes I think about the places and situations I have been in in my life. And I don't understand how I've survived it all. It's been a rough experience. For those closest to me, too! But I'm glad for everything. I'm learning to live in the present with an eye on the future, I feel that's the only way to move forward. I am lucky to still be doing what I enjoy and creating freely.
Five years ago, I formulated my personal motto that all my work is "luxurious and weird". I decided for myself that things are somehow irritating, displaced, so that they don't just come from tradition, but also bear the imprint of my life. The darkness and beauty come together naturally.
You founded Studio Zorya together with designer Daniel Posta. How do you perceive this era in retrospect?
We worked and lived together intensively for ten years. We were not only partners at work, but also in our personal lives. We even planned a wedding. But in the end, we started a company and a brand instead.
Zorya was actually our "daughter". We took the name from Slavic mythology - Zorya is a triune being. She is born a virgin in the evening, becomes a mother at midnight and dies an old woman in the morning. In the night sky, she is the first shining star, the evening star, or Venus. It was perfect symbolism. We made jewellery exclusively for women. And it was the synergy of the two of us that made Zorya so special and incomparable to anything else. To this day, I still remember that time fondly and I devote a significant space in the exhibition to it.
What specific things can visitors expect in your exhibition?
I would like visitors to come without expectations and be surprised. But I will reveal a few things. For example, I managed to borrow my thesis from my apprenticeship - it's a nearly 27-year-old piece that I didn't even know had survived. I'm also including a piece of jewelry I made for my dad in my sophomore year. There are more moments like that - I've chosen things that are both essential and diverse to me.
It was almost touching for me to hold them in my hands again. I was immediately reminded of all the steps of making them, as if I had gone back in time. You think you've forgotten, but when you hold the things, you suddenly know exactly how they were made.
So the exhibition will be a combination of jewellery, free art and body work. For example, I have previously used scans of my mother's face and hands, which were used to create jewellery objects. So working with the body for the first time, scanning it and transferring it into jewellery or objects opened up new possibilities for me. Therefore, the exhibition will include videos where the works come to life on my body or on the bodies of other performers. In this way, viewers can get a much deeper insight than if they only saw the object itself.
Currently, you mainly make custom jewelry. What is key for you in creating them?
I always need to formulate their own brief together with the client. I want to know what is important to them so we can tune in. My ambition is always to create their dream piece of jewellery, not just something I make up myself.
The way it usually works is that they come in with a wish - "I want a ring" or "earrings" - and then we work together to find the content behind it. Three parameters are important: what the meaning should be, how much they want to invest, and when it should be done. Every customer is different, every story is different. That's what I love about it. And when I think about how many different personalities I've met through my work, that's great.
What kind of materials do you work with?
Mainly gold and precious stones. And if it fits the content, I like to work with titanium and similar special materials that are used more in industry and medicine.
And has anyone ever wanted to use a completely unconventional material?
Basically every piece of custom jewelry I make is a bit of an experiment and a technically challenging thing. For example, if a customer has a special stone that is personally important to them, I can change the cut design for the better. Or if they want something really specific, I look for a way to make it. The possibilities are vast, that's the magic of custom jewellery.
And I can actually think of a few unconventional materials. I've made rings out of bakers twine, baby hair, dog whiskers, cat teeth and claws, human teeth.
And one, the most precious to me, is being reimagined in my current piece for the show.
How difficult is it to prepare for a big exhibition like this?
It's extremely challenging. I myself am a perfectionist and megalomaniac in this, I need to have a clear skeleton and concept, whether it's a ring or an exhibition. I want it to be more than just an object or a room of things, I want my work to have an impact on people. I love creating an experience. It doesn't matter if it's a small piece of jewelry or a big space.
And then, of course, there's the phase where everything has to be fine-tuned, organized and realized. It's a huge amount of hard work, often to the point of exhaustion. For many people in my team, too! But at the same time, I find this kind of work fulfilling. I surround myself with great people who help me with the project, and I enjoy the group of talented people that pack around the project.
Do you use modern technology in your work?
Yes, a lot. I enjoy crossing over into other fields. I've been working with industrial manufacturing technologies for a while now - using 3D printing, scanning bodies, then printing objects in rare alloys as well. In the past, I have worked with companies like ONE3D, which specializes in additive manufacturing - that is, 3D printing from metal. This has opened up completely new possibilities for my thinking and production.
But at the same time, it is crucial for me that the human hand remains imprinted in the work. Anyone can do plastic 3D printing nowadays, children print toys at home. That's not good enough for me. I'm fascinated by the combination of materials - luxury plastics with leather, wax, magnetic dust. Human creative intuition and hands are something that technology will not replace for a long time.
For example, the Eidolon series I created six months ago as a teaser for the exhibition was made from scans of my body in motion. But it's not about the body itself, it's more about expressing a certain mental state and emotion. And I would never have achieved that without touching my own hands and moving my own body.
Where do you get inspiration from besides your own life?
Almost anything can inspire me. Some would say that a creator looks mainly to nature for inspiration, but for me it works differently. An idea can come to me in the shower, or even on the dance floor - dance is a huge source of energy and inspiration for me, and this is also reflected in the exhibition. I believe that when one is sensitive and open to possibilities, impulses come from all sides.
The important thing is to be able to channel them and use only what fits the work. I tend to inflate everything first, but then it is necessary to reduce, to cut down everything superfluous in order to express as much content as possible from the least amount of material and detail. One gesture, one shape to tell the whole story. That's art for me.
Designblok is primarily a design showcase. But you yourself take it very personally. Do you think it's more of a platform for design, or is it also a platform for free art?
You'll see for yourself when you come to my exhibition. The format we've chosen is not a common one. It's not a classic curated design show. It was important for me that the visitor feel drawn directly into my story, that they could look beneath the surface, that they could blur the line between artist and viewer.
That's why I deliberately let some very personal things into the exhibition. It's a risk, because of course people don't necessarily react with understanding. Friends have even warned me: be careful how much you show, so that you can bear the weight of misunderstanding and disapproval. But I feel that I cannot do otherwise. If I let people into my private life, they have a chance to really understand my work.
Are you prepared for any criticism?
We'll see. But seriously - I've had a lot of major turning points in my life and I think it's the difficult and painful experiences that shape you the most. When you're having a good time, paradoxically it doesn't lead to much creation. For me, pain and darkness have always been as important a source of inspiration as beauty or pleasure.
Besides jewellery, do you express yourself through other forms of art, such as writing or music?
Yes, writing has also been important to me at certain times. I don't want to profile myself as a writer by any means, but there are moments in my life that I needed to capture in text. Those texts have now become part of the exhibition - I'm showing excerpts in it that I wrote years ago. When I re-read them recently, I was surprised at how powerful they still are. They accurately describe the period when they were written.
The exhibition is actually an opportunity for me to look at those periods again, to process them. Sometimes you think you have things figured out, and then you find out that you don't at all. It comes back. But at the same time it opens up new paths, new perspectives and ideas.
Even though I'm very emotional and sometimes I come across as unapproachable and I deal a lot, I'm still a very cheerful person. I love black humour and I'm not afraid to throw myself down - it's a way for me to keep my feet on the ground. In the end, everything is intertwined - life, pain, joy and creation. The exhibition is simply a picture of one life.
Does your personal experience, like your orientation, reflect in your work?
Absolutely. It has shaped me since I was a child. I was very ill, I suffered from asthma and was often in hospital. And at the same time, I realized very early on that I was attracted to boys - I knew it practically from the beginning. So my first encounters with myself and with boys were set in the environment of hospitals, where I spent a large part of my childhood until I was thirteen.
Then, when puberty and the question of coming out came along, I found it ironic that I actually had to 'come out' to someone. To society." I've always known that about myself. Coming out was not a problem for me, but for others - they "had to deal with it". Yet it was, and is, entirely my business, no one else's business.
I remember in high school - when I was outed there, the reactions were mostly fine, though of course not always. But I remember a classmate saying to me: Look, I'm fine with it. And I realized then how absurd that was - why would Tito mind? It's my life.
So it's not just a question of orientation for you, but more a question of accepting yourself?
Exactly. Over time, I've come to understand that it's not primarily about who's sleeping with whom. That comes last. It's about the ability to accept yourself, to stand up for yourself, to stand up for your identity and to say things about yourself out loud.
I'm actually still learning that - to be at peace with myself. And that translates into the show. It's much deeper than design. It's an attempt to say out loud: Here I am, this is who I am, this is my life.
If you were to introduce the exhibition in one sentence to a person who doesn't know you at all - how would you entice them?
I would say: 'DARK 'n' LUSH'. That's the title and the essence of the whole exhibition. The visitor gradually goes through my life - professional and personal milestones - and at the end he gets to the question: who am I? I'm not just a guy, I'm not just a designer, I'm not just a partner. I'm still exploring who I really am.
And that's the journey of a lifetime. As my mother used to say just before she died, " So what?And how interesting it all is, isn't it? So the exhibition has an open ending. Come and see.
