The renowned “Tolerance” traveling exhibition by Mirko Ilic, alongside his lecture on “Design Activism,” will take place on December 5 and 6 at the Faculty of Architecture in Skopje. The event is organized by Vidi Vaka Storytelling Studio and the IDEA Southeast Europe Foundation, with support from Bubblewrap Design Studio, the Faculty of Architecture UKIM Skopje, ProMedia, and New Moment.
The lecture, Design Activism, will be held tonight, December 5, at 20:30, while the “Tolerance” poster exhibition will open tomorrow, December 6, at 19:30.
“Tolerance” is the world’s largest poster exhibition, with over 600,000 viewers across more than 40 countries, including the US, Brazil, Japan, China, Germany, Slovenia, and many others. The project began in 2017, inspired by the “House of Tolerance” film festival in Slovenia, when Mirko Ilic invited 28 artists to create posters on the theme of tolerance, with the only requirement being that the word “tolerance” be written in their native language. Since then, Ilic has taken the exhibition on a global tour, with local designers continually contributing new works. The Macedonian designer Nikola Vojnov created the poster for the exhibition in Skopje.
Mirko Ilic, born in 1956 in Bosnia, is a legendary comic artist and graphic designer based in New York. He gained recognition in the 1980s as a key figure in the Zagreb New Wave movement and designed iconic album covers for Yugoslavian bands such as Bijelo Dugme and Prljavo Kazalište. Ilic later moved to New York, where his work appeared in prestigious publications like Time, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He went on to become the art director for Time International and The New York Times Op-Ed.
In 1995, Ilic founded Mirko Ilić Corp., a design company focusing on film opening titles and visual identities for luxury brands. His works are housed in renowned collections such as MoMA, the Smithsonian Institution, and SFMOMA.
Ilic continues to influence contemporary design and visual culture globally, and in 2023, he was named an Honorary Professor at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. His “Tolerance” project remains a powerful symbol of unity and the importance of inclusivity in today’s world.
