From the 26th of to the 3rd of April the DA! festival is taking place for the 7th time. DA! is a festival of architecture, design and art organized by students and for students since 2011. with the aim of demonstrating student abilities, public affirmation, networking, and acquiring new knowledge and skills in an interdisciplinary environment. The organization team comes from the Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb, consisting of design students Nola Bokun and Luciana Medić, and architecture students Romana Dusper, Gita Grah, and Rea Novaković Matošić. This multi–day festival will offer lectures and workshops, an entertainment program, and exhibit student works in a big online student exhibition.

This year, through the theme of the Medici Effect, the project aims to achieve communication and smaller projects with numerous student and professional initiatives in Zagreb, Croatia, and beyond. Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures, argues that innovation comes from the overlap and collaboration of different industries, cultures, and disciplines, bringing ideas from one area to another.

This year the festival is held in a hybrid mode – lectures will be available online via Zoom, while workshops and entertainment will be held live in several different locations: in partnership with the Zagreb Architects Association, events will mostly take place in the Association’s space on the square of ban Josip Jelačić 3/1, while the rest of the program will take place on the Faculty of Architecture, the Academy of Fine Arts and AKC Medika.

The authors of the already recognizable visual identity, which received a new look this year, are graphic designers Tana Jeić and Silvia Marinčić.

The exhibition of the student works will be held on the official website of the festival in several categories: architecture, urban design and landscape architecture, graphic design, product design, film, photography, and fine arts. The expert jury consists of: BIRO in the category of Architecture, Tea Truta for the category of Urbanism and Landscape Architecture, Davor Bruketa for Design of Visual Communications, Nikola Radeljković for Industrial Design, Nives Milješić for the category Film and Photography, and Sabina Oroshi for the category Fine Arts.

The festival workshops are: A hammer and a chisel – basics of wood carving by Marko Hrastovac, From industrial to unique glass by Anton Vrlić, How to sell your work, but not yourself by Damjan Geber, Introduction to generative design by Mihael Miklošić, Graffiti and sticker workshop by Mane Mei, Say it with yarn by Ivona Martinčić and Jere Kuzmanić and Ivana Stančić will hold a two–day urban planning workshop called SEMINAR in the weekend after the festival closes.

Lectures, which will be held through the Zoom platform, will not be required to register, as in previous years. It will be held mainly on Saturday and Sunday, April 2 and 3, and lecturers come from a variety of fields. The festival will host many well–known individuals, associat,ions and collectives – during the week lectures will be held by Blanca Valdivia Gutierrez, Nikola Olić, Ivana Stančić, and Natalia Qadreh. On Saturday you can hear from RIsort group, Sekcija, Kuća Klajn, Kontejner, Marin Čosić / Roko Crnić and Jeremy Landes, and on Sunday lectures will be led by Lovorka Magaš Bilandžić and Patricia Počanić, BIRO, KONNTRA, Irena Gajić, Dora Bilandžić, Nemanja Jehlička, and Niko Mihaljević.

Every evening, from the opening, March 25th, to the closing of the festival, April 3rd, you can enjoy the late–night program of socializing, an interactive lecture by Nina Bačun, screening of winning films by FRKA, a panel discussion with Kružok, a workshop with the Tristotrojka magazine, a quiz and a collaboration of students of the Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Faculty of Architecture.

All information about the schedule, lectures, the entertainment program, locations of various programs can be found on the official website of the festival, https://da-festival.com/,
and Instagram and Facebook pages of the festival:
https://www.instagram.com/da.festival/
https://www.facebook.com/festivalDA