Cybercafé morning
A few days ago SPES launched a Cultural / Educational / Vocational Cybercafé morning session. This premiere was a grand success and extremely interactive, as we projected to over 35 proud young Craftspeople collaborators (who produce Designer-products in various fields), the UNESCO Video depicting the spectacular Catwalk of the 98 Laureates of the UNESCO / Felissimo Fashion Competition DESIGN 21-II, that took place on June 7th at the International Lisbon Expo 98.

At our Cybercafé the SPES High-tech Unit also presented its 98 Laureates Virtual montage of over 120 digital photos of costumes at the Lisbon Museu Nacional do Traje (Museum of Costumes) display of the Costumes of the 98 UNESCO/Felissimo Laureates exclusive clothes and Accessories, which lasted for 3 months, during which public visitors attributed votes to designate the Best 21 Costumes and, 16 countries had the honour of winning 21 Medals.

'Design 21 Medal' presentation to A Mauritian Designer 		Thanks to a sponsorship from the Mauritian Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Cooperatives, one of the Mauritian Medal Winners flew over to Lisbon to attend the UNESCO/Felissimo Competition Prize-Giving Ceremony held at the Lisbon Museu do Traje on 24th September 98.
Extreme left:
Mr. Jean Michel Jarre, the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Youth presenting a Medal to Willcey Affoque, who collected also the Medal of Designer Ginette Guillaume. On the extreme right: Mr. Indrasen Vencatachellum, Chief, Unit for Crafts and Design, Division of Creativity, Cultural Industries and Copyright 		prize giving ceremony
Mauritian Designer/Weaver Willcey Affoque proudly holding her glass medal
To be noted that the UNESCO Design 21-II Medals were made from Blue glass, a reminder forever of this UNESCO / Felissimo Fashion Competition inspiring theme: A United World for Future Generations: Beyond Time, Beyond Oceans.
At our SPES Fashion Cybercafé we surfed through the new Web Page of our Design collaborators in Lisbon (who, incidentally, had kindly emailed us straightaway the digital photos of UNESCO Medal Prize-Giving Ceremony two of which are depicted above).
Lisbon collaborating Apartment Gallery
"O Pomar dos Artistas"
new Web Site 		What a surprise and coincidence as their Apartment Gallery, "O Pomar dos Artistas", in September 98 was displaying an Exhibition depicting Ming Porcelain, and believe it or not, SPES Silkscreening Workshop had just reproduced some antique designs mostly from Ming porcelain debris, picked up recently on the Mauritian Albion beach which, up to this day, still wash ashore from the Dutch Banda ship, that shipwrecked in the year 1615.



It so happened that SPES had on show, during our Fashion Cybercafé, the Ming Designs Card collection (extreme top right), we hand printed specially to mark the 400th Anniversary of the Dutch arrival in Mauritius.

So cybernauts friends, you can imagine how animated and interactive our SPES special Cybercafé morning was thanks to the illuminating work and lives of so many Artists/Craftsmen and hardy Navigators of the past four centuries, which the Oceans and the World Wide Web link up to our contemporary Painters, manual Product-Designers, and informatics / Designer / technicians. According to the VIPs and Craftspeople present, it was a real State of Art Cybercafé "unlimited" space Treasure hunt!
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