SINGAPORE - FIND- DESIGN FAIR ASIA was held at the end of September this year. The extraordinary international event, aimed at presenting foreign companies involved in interior design and furniture, was held with high interest of professionals and the general public. Our companies presented themselves in the Czech national exposition under the banner of DESIGN CENTRE CZECH TRADE.
Held at the MARINA BAY SANDS exhibition space in Singapore, the event offered participants the opportunity to showcase their work and develop collaborations with Singaporean partners. Among the six Czech masters of their field was, for example, BOMMA from Světlá nad Sázavou, which presented its unique lighting fixtures at the fair, and especially Jiři Pačinek with his family company Pačinek Glass from Kunratice in North Bohemia.
A representative of high-end handmade work
Jiří Pačinek presented himself and impressed as an artist and glass artist, following in the footsteps of such names as his friend and collaborator, the world-renowned architect and craftsman of fragile beauty Bořek Šípek or René Roubíček, also a renowned personality of world glass art and design.
Jiří Pačinek creates technically demanding decorative sculptures of various forms and utilitarian glass objects - lamps, vases, bowls, plates and other objects. His works are part of private art collections at home and abroad, including design companies, museums and galleries. Unique are his works in the field of glass garden architecture, not forgetting his masterpiece - sixty monumental sculptures in crystal for the film dream factory - Hollywood.
Ambassadors of fragile beauty
The art of our handmade glass production in Asia, specifically in China, was first introduced in 2008 by Bořek Šípek, a top Czech artist, architect and designer who was known for his sympathy for Asia. In that year he participated in the installation of the first exhibition of Czech artists in Beijing. After its success and high attendance of the public and experts, Šípek was offered by the Chinese side the opportunity to build his own gallery in Shanghai according to his own design and exhibit his best works there. However, Bořek's presentation there was terminated by death. The talented glass artist Jiří Pačinek, who has been following in Šípek's footsteps for ten years, took over his Asian baton, so to speak.
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Singapore, whose full name is the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state in Southeast Asia that has a constitution enshrined in its constitution that enshrines the multinational character of the state? However, the majority ethnicity here is Chinese (74%), followed by Malays (14%) and Indians (9%). The prestigious FIND- DESIGN FAIR ASIA, where 8 Czech companies presented their products in the national stand, is a major event in the field of interior design with a rich participation not only from Singaporean visitors, but also from Southeast Asia and other parts of the Asia-Pacific region. The event targets retailers and interior design professionals, as well as journalists and bloggers, as well as those interested in luxury products.
In Singapore, Pačinek had the opportunity to show what he and his team are capable of creating and to present his work with dignity. The three-member Pačinek Glass team here was made up of father Jiří and son Jan Pačinek, the third being Vivian Charvát, a Chinese living in the Czech Republic, who is the new addition to Pačinek's team for the eastern market. Her knowledge of the language and the local people, their customs and social norms and behaviour was indispensable, and brought a lot of benefits in business negotiations. Pachinek Glass representatives thus had a number of important business meetings and negotiations, which were conducted in a friendly and friendly spirit with mutually beneficial plans that exceeded all expectations.
Jiří Pačinek himself was satisfied with the whole course of the three-day event, he highly appreciated the excellent organization and the friendly approach of the Asian partners. Just as Bořek Šípek himself praised in Shanghai. Senior Jan Pačinek, who was also in charge of media relations, was also delighted with the results of the Czech glassmakers' pilgrimage presented in these lines and stated:
"We are very keen to return to Singapore as soon as possible, but this time with an even bigger force. But we would also like to take the opportunity to showcase ourselves in China."
It remains to add that the Czech glass industry has recently gone through very hard, in many cases even liquidation years, marked by American embargoes, prohibiting trade with Iran, Russia and other traditional trading partners from many countries of the Far East and the Orient. This was followed by a wave of the covid pandemic and, most recently, dramatically rising energy prices, on which glassmakers are totally dependent. However, the reputation of Czech glassmaking, the art of golden Czech hands and immense ingenuity have shown that we are a glassmaking power with deep roots that can get through difficult times.
Ivan Cerny
PHOTO - archive of Pachinek Glass
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