The Mediterranean Design Workshop is a new international design and cultural event that will take place annually on the Greek island of Tinos. It’s organized by design professionals, encouraging a global view on everything design-related, and anything design can find common ground with for a creative intercourse.

MDW is based on the concept of a series of lectures and hands-on workshops, at the end of which an open dialogue between lecturers and participants will be established. The activities of MDW will always be under the umbrella of a common theme that will be different each year. In parallel to the workshops and lectures, there will be exhibitions, shorter presentations, and thematic excursions exploring the rich historical and cultural heritage of the island. Tinos, due its century-long tradition in the arts and architecture and diversity of landscape, is considered an ideal place for field trips linked to the intellectual and artistic explorations of MDW.

The theme of the inaugural MDW is Hand Vs. Machine. Through the lectures and workshops we will explore to what extend our artistic practice and human existence are dependent on machines and anything mechanical, be it a computer, a car, or a mobile phone. Is the machine a substitute for human touch? In what ways do machines define our happiness, how much do they “steal” from it, and, ultimately, what can we design, create and accomplish using only our hands? The first MDW will take place at the Cultural Foundation of Tinos, who generously doanted the use of their space for our activities. A part of our program will be the international exhibition Voices in Freedom, shown for the first time in Europe, and presented in collaboration with the International Poster Biennial, Mexico. The 115 limited edition posters, created by some of the world’s leading poster artists, celebrate the bicentennial of the Mexican Independence.

A couple of words on how it all began: Internationally acclaimed American artist and designer Luba Lukova and award-winning Greek graphic designer Dimitris Karaiskos, having met and collaborated at international design exhibitions in Paris and Athens, had a mutual idea about a multi-cultural meeting of design practitioners on a Greek island, aiming to bring together design and art-related people from the Mediterranean and beyond. The island chosen was Tinos, a Cycladic island situated close to Mykonos and Delos, and the event was baptized “Mediterranean Design Workshop”. The time of its first realization was decided to be mid-September 2010, and it seems this is going to become the first time such an event is taking place in the Cycladic and Mediterranean region.