Ondřej Vicena

Czech Republic °1988 

výzkumné zájmy: research interests: genesis of eyewear design, fashion, fine arts

affiliation : Umprum Prague 

Ondřej Vicena, is a Czech artist and a graduate of the New Media Studio I at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He is currently continuing his doctoral studies at the Product Design Studio D3 at UMPRUM in Prague. He is fascinated by historical styles and fashions. He works both in the field of applied art, mainly thanks to his collection of luxury Optiqa glasses, and on the other hand, in fine art, where he is known for his sensitive installations. In 2021, he won an award at the Designblok international festival in the category of Extraordinary Achievement for the exhibition project Brejle a Okuliare, Eyeglass Design in Czechoslovakia. This project was subsequently exhibited in Cheb, Prague, Bratislava and Prostějov and a publication of the same name was published.

You don't necessarily have to wear glasses to appreciate the latest exhibition at the UM Brejle a Okuliera Gallery, Eyeglass Design in Czechoslovakia. The exhibition will introduce you to the history of the Czechoslovak production of spectacle frames and introduce you to the further direction of this craft, which was particularly neglected in the past. Ondřej Vicena managed to map this industry and prove that, despite many limitations, designer treasures comparable to world production were created in former Okula Nýrsko and in other factories of Czechoslovak glasses manufacturers.

CZECHOSLOVAK EYEWEAR EAST

Glasses are an unfairly neglected chapter of design and fashion in the land of the former Czechoslovakia. This is mainly due to the fact that for a long time they were considered a corrective tool, a defect that is better to hide and not look for beauty in it.

"Brejlařina", as the field related to the production of spectacle frames was called here in the past, has thus become a forgotten stage of the craft, about which very little has been processed so far.

Nevertheless, there are extensive sources from which the tradition and quality of Czechoslovak design in the field of optical optics can be seen, even in comparison with world production.

What the shapes of the glasses looked like, which were exported from Czechoslovakia at the time to the whole world, and how high the level of glasses design was in our country, currently remains completely unexplored territory.

However, we have to look at Czechoslovak eyewear design from a broader perspective. Our glasses were an integral part of the glasses industry of the former Eastern Bloc, which drew heavily on Western production.

In the socialist bloc there were companies such as Czechoslovak OKULA Nýrsko together with DIOPTRA Turnov.

Ondřej Vicena's project thus aims to map and highlight the tradition associated with the development of eyewear craft in Czechoslovakia and to put it in context with the heritage of eyewear design in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc from a contemporary perspective.