IN CHARGE (preliminary title) is an interdisciplinary project comprising various activities - research, exhibitions, symposiums as well as a publication - that reexamine the usually overlooked role of designers in regards to the far reaching transitions from totalitarianism to democracy in Eastern Europe.Focusing on the European situation, the aim is to compare it with examples from Asia, the most dynamically changing continent at the moment. How much did the creative work and products of designers contribute to the change in Eastern Europe? In which way do their "counterparts" in Asia "render" democracy with visual means? How political art and political design are intertwined?As the specific designers, who are on focus in this project, were deeply concerned about the political repressions, social exclusions and poverty in their countries, the project aims to generate communication models that resist against the mentioned grievances through the language of design. The aim is to provide insight in and access to creative tools, strategies, and aesthetics of expression to a wide public.In the sense of case studies, the various activities will focus on a specific choice of outstanding designers from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Korea, Thailand and India. Through their works the project will explore1. The influence of designs in courses of political changes 2. The relationship between designs and local aestheticsThe project will be organized by the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart, the Trafo Gallery in Budapest, and the Wyspa Institute of Art in Gdansk, and be realized in close collaboration with additional partners, curators and researchers from Eastern Europe and Asia.The exhibitions and discursive programs will take place in Stuttgart (WKV), Budapest (Trafo) and Gdansk (FWP). From place to place they will be adapted and "translated" according to the different local contexts and specificities.