09/05
Exhibition in Valencia: COCOS. Copies and Coincidences
The MuVIM, Valencia’s Museum of Illustration and Modernity, will be hosting an exhibition entitled COCOS. Copies and Coincidences. A Defence of Innovation in Design.

Open from 8 September to 2 October, the event is part of the series of activities programmed to coincide with the FIM, Valencia’s annual International Furniture Fair.

After visiting Madrid during its Design Year event in 2003, and Barcelona in 2004, the exhibition will now coincide with the FIM, which will be held at Feria Valencia from 19 to 24 September, as part of the FIM’s Cultural Programme aimed at boosting the city’s involvement in the event.

Organised by designers Ramón Úbeda and Juli Capella, COCOS. Copies and Coincidences, defends innovation in design and copyright, condemns plagiarism in creativity and design and analyses the complexities involved in distinguishing between copies and coincidences with the help of numerous examples that highlight the differences between the unfair and illicit practice of copying and the mere coincidence of ideas or forms.

In 2003 the Industrial Design Protection Act came into force, providing a framework for the defence of original designs, copyright and patent rights, as well as the promotion of creative innovation. Within this context, Spain’s Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade saw this as an ideal opportunity to set up the COCOS exhibition through FAD, an association for the promotion of decorative arts, in order to address issues affecting the design profession in particular and creative activity in general.

The exhibition was organised jointly between the DDI (Spain’s State Agency for the Design Development and Innovation), IMPIVA (Valencia’s Institute for Small and Medium-Sized Industries) and FAD, in collaboration with FIM and the MuVIM, and is sponsored by Lacoste, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office and Tous. A number of other companies have also provided support for the exhibition, including Cemusa, EMS, Morillas Brand Design, Pioneer and Signes.

In addition to the exhibition, the book entitled COCOS (Electa) has been reprinted. This work takes an in-depth look at the problems and issues involved in copies in the fields of design and creativity, discussing the problems of distinguishing between imitation and coincidence, tributes to the work of others and plagiarism. This 256 page work features over a thousand illustrations, as well as texts by Fernando Amat, Alessandro Mendini, Zaida Muxí, André Ricard, Raquel Pelta, Álvaro Sobrino, Philippe Starck, Vicente Verdú, Jaume Vidal and Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, amongst others. It also includes a chapter providing full details of how to go about protecting yourself from piracy and a dossier on patents in Spain drawn up by Patricio Saiz.

source: Textiles para el Hogar