Speakers at the opening of the exhibition included Slovenian ambassador to the Republic of Austria Mr. Aleksander Geržina, deputy chairman of the Austrian chamber of commerce Mr. Richard Schenz, director of the Ljubljana Museum of Architecture and Design Mr. Matevž Čelik, and president of the management board of designforumWIEN Mr. Alexander Szadeczky.
"Silent Revolutions" portraits Slovenia as a country with an exceptional history of design, which, however, has not yet found its place as an important and influential design location. The "silence" referred to in the title is among the motivators for the concept of the exhibition that is based on a broad array of recent products set up in a dialogue with five iconic artefacts from the history of Slovenian design. The second aspect, that of the "revolution", points out the fact that several select products embody breakthrough innovations that have set new standards on a global scale. These certainly include select innovations from Gorenje which are the results of in-house development, while design is the work of the Gorenje Design Studio.
The exhibition's hosting in Vienna is organized by SKICA which issued a special publication for the occasion, titled "Design in Slovenia. No design is an island." which deals with direct and indirect relations between Slovenia and Austria.
Since the London première in September 2011 at the London Design Festival, the exhibition has been featured at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, Netherlands; at the Triennale di Milano in Italy; in Ljubljana as a part of the Slovenian Innovation Forum; in Belgrade (BDW); in Maribor (ECOC); and in Helsinki as a part of the Design Week.