The idea of starting a systematic new mass production of Slovak toys, which would rouse interest by their authentic design, emerged at the beginning of 2013, when under the umbrella of the civic association just plug_in, o.z. we brought the hravo brand into existence. As curators we are interested in testing the potential of a variety of creative approaches. Equally, that is the main reason why we have collaborated...
[ full text ]The original wooden toy traces its art-craft tradition in Slovakia roughly from 1890. Craftsmen specializing in the manufacture of furniture, kitchenware and other domestic equipment began also producing, mainly for their own children, simple objects for play, which they later began offering for sale at the regular fairs or the seasonal Christmas and Easter markets. With demand growing, the master craftsman was no longer able to meet the required production...
[ full text ]I see the hravo project as a very necessary initiative. It could be the logical connector which gives a designer’s proposal access to the manufacturers’ and sellers’ milieu. As a means of promoting high-quality design, combined with a fully worked-out communication and marketing strategy it could be one of the best ways of making a wider public aware of local design. The wooden toy, historically and culturally well-founded in Slovakia...
[ full text ]A toy, used as an aid and means for a child’s playing, fulfils the most varied functions. It stimulates the motor, mobility, mental and emotional development of the child, and it also plays an important role in socialisation. Furthermore, it may be a means of reducing and removing a harmful excess of psychic tension in a child. And therefore we need not think of the toy merely as a means for children’s playing. It renders important service also as an object...
[ full text ]It often happens when I meet some acquaintance or stranger and we get talking about our toystore, that the sentence is spoken: „Oh, that toystore of yours, that’s with those wooden toys“. I must then correct him, pointing out that most of our products are not wooden. I take this association to be some sort of nostalgia, a longing for something that has been lost. I think people do carry within them a yearning to return to fundamental values...
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