Mapping What Matters Conference

Sold out. First edition. No door tickets. See you today — rain included 🌧️

Three days to gather, listen, and rethink what matters in contemporary graphic design🗺️ Find tickets via the link in our bio. May 16, 2026 | Bratislava, Slovakia

Swipe right to view the conference schedule. You can also find the schedule on our website—link in bio. This Saturday, May 16, starting at 10:00 a.m. at the Aréna Theater (Viedenská cesta, Bratislava).

After the conference, the night continues with a free after-party at Ostblock in the city center, starting after 10 PM. Expect a proper underground electronic vibe with hardgroove, hard house, speed garage, and UK-influenced sounds from Slovak DJs kub0 and dorothyyy. kub0 blends everything from house and light UKG to harder club styles as part of the PLAYYARD collective, while dorothyyy brings underground techno energy mixed with reggaeton, liquid, and experimental influences inspired by Arca and Sega Bodega. 📸: Barbara Koll See you! May 16.🤺

Accept our invitation to next Saturday’s conference alongside this year’s curator. 📯 The organizers, together with Ľubica Segečová, have selected designers they’ve known for years—designers whose work has remained truly relevant throughout that time and continues to be so today. Another common thread is their shared role in the independent scene. See you on May 16, 2026, in Bratislava. You can find a few tickets via the link in the bio.

After a day of listening to talks or browsing publications at the Temporary Library and Small Book Fair, you’re invited to shift from words to sound with a curated DJ set by @chliebahry (yes, the curator) and @seafur . 🪕 chlieb a hry’s selection moves in an anti-trend, timeless register, drifting through left-field electronics, heavily processed dub, echoing bass lines, and slow-burning atmospheric textures. 🎷 seafur’s curatorial approach connects geographically and temporally distant musical contexts, tracing links between seemingly disparate genres—from hyperpop to salsa, reggaeton to synthpop, as well as baile funk and digital remix cultures. The result is a dynamic, dance-driven set infused with subtle irony, playfully dismantling the notion of “guilty pleasures.” 🎺 See you with a drink in hand. May 16, 2026.

Thank you to all contributors—editors, illustrators, architects, and other figures from the visual culture and publishing scenes—who helped shape and create the Temporary Library exhibition at the first edition of the Mapping What Matters conference. May 16, 2026—see you there.

About 50 places remain for the conference, and the list is slowly closing. 🤾‍♀️ You can find the presale in our bio.

The first edition of Mapping What Matters would not have been possible without the support of our partners and donors. Special thanks to Nadácia Tatra Banky, Pixel Federation, the Academy of Fine Arts and Design (VŠVU), the Slovak Arts Council, LITA – Society of Authors, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Bright, and the Goethe-Institut. @tatra_banka @pixelstopixels @vsvu_afad @fond_na_podporu_umenia @lita_autorska_spolocnost @nl_netherlands @bright_printing_solutions @goetheinstitut_slovensko @dennikn @czechdesign.cz @hmota_mag @swinedaily

𝙊𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙧 𝘼𝙣𝙣𝙚 𝘽𝙪̈𝙩𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙧 - 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧’𝙨 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙚: “I first became aware of the work of @anne_buettner more than a decade ago, encountering a practice attuned to visual languages that hover just outside dominant cycles of revival. These are forms and typefaces that have circulated relatively recently, yet somehow slipped from view before they could be fully reabsorbed into contemporary design trends. Büttner reactivates them without using sense of nostalgia but through an acute, almost radical sensitivity. Büttner revisits them with a distinctive sensitivity, creating conditions in which they can be seen again, recontextualized and reconsidered. At the core of her approach lies a distinctly critical position. What might at first appear as a kind of “shelter” for discarded typefaces reveals itself as a precise intervention into design discourse. Büttner constructs spaces where visual forms deemed obsolete or unfashionable are not merely preserved, but examined, reframed, and reinserted into circulation under new conditions. She has developed visual identities, publications, websites, and cross-media projects, with a primary focus on the cultural sector.” May 16, 2026 | Bratislava, Slovakia

𝘽𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙝𝙞 𝙃𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞 selects 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨: “I chose The Tinklers Charts and Stories for its raw, playful approach to publishing and storytelling. The work embraces a 𝘿𝙄𝙔 𝙨𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙨, 𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙨, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙧𝙖𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨. It feels loose and uncontained, like it could have been made at a copy shop on a random stack of colored sheets, assembled as it went. It holds onto that rough, 𝙨𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙮 where making feels playful, intuitive, and unpredictable.” Tinklers Charts and Stories is published by @rollo.press . Temporary Library is a collectively curated exhibition in which contributors from different fields related to visual culture select publications from the past five years that mattered to them and deserve renewed attention. @bardhihaliti is a Kosovar graphic designer and researcher working between Prishtina and Amsterdam, known for his precise, typography-driven work for arts and cultural clients. In his lecture, he presents a long-term research project mapping sports halls in Kosovo, showing how their changing names and architecture reflect the country’s political and social transformations. He is also the co-founder and program director of REDO, an international graphic design event in Prishtina. May 16, 2026 | Bratislava, Slovakia

𝙎𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙧𝙖 𝙆𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙖𝙖𝙧 selects 𝙈𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙈𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙨: “I selected the book ‘Mothering Myths – An ABC of Art, Birth and Care’ edited by Laurie Cluitmans & Heske ten Cate. The book reads as 𝙖 𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙪𝙢 𝙤𝙣 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙙, 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙨 – spanning history and cultures. Beside it being a fantastic read, it is 𝙖 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙪𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙗𝙟𝙚𝙘𝙩 by my dear friend Bart de Baets.” Mothering Myths is published by @valiz_books_projects Temporary Library is a collectively curated exhibition in which contributors from different fields related to visual culture select publications from the past five years that mattered to them and deserve renewed attention. We are honored to have @sandrakassenaar as 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚. You can learn more about her and the conference on our website. Link in bio. May 16, 2026 | Bratislava, Slovakia