“Being Water: How we flow and shape ourselves collectively” is Fernando Brízio’s theme for the Porto Design Biennale
The Porto Design Biennale is an event that has been promoting debate, welcome concerns and multiple perspectives, driving new discourses and practices that increase the prospective capacity of Design, to outline innovative solutions to collective problems.
the event
Design is an active and influential discipline that plays a fundamental role in creating new social paradigms, politicians, cultural and environmental issues in contemporary society, having handed over to you today 80% of future circularity, being recognized as having the most important place in collective life and environmental preservation to date.
The Porto Design Biennale takes place this year, from 19 October to 3 December, in a collaboration between Porto and Matosinhos, aimed at promoting dialogue between civil society, a academia, industry and national and international cultural institutions. The Porto Design Biennale is committed to valuing the territory and local identities, prioritizing manufacturing and materiality. This event encourages comprehensive and engaging thinking, drawing on local dynamics to generate debates on global issues.
other editions
The first edition of the Porto Design Biennale attracted 50.000 people during 81 days, presenting 300 projects and 60 events. The editing of 2021, carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighted the resilience of the event and involved hundreds of participants under the theme “Alter-Realities” and the motto “Design the Gift”. Em 2023, the Biennale focuses on the theme of Water, elected by its curator, as an essential natural resource, bringing together national and international voices around this issue.
The set of exhibitions, conferences, Workshops and publications that make up the Porto Design Biennale program aim to leave a continuous legacy of discussion and reflection on Design, as a discipline with increasing protagonism and responsibility in collective life and environmental preservation. Although it is an event concentrated in time, aims to promote lasting reflection.
the theme and curation
The theme chosen for this year is relevant to the present, and raises concerns about the future. Curated by Fernando Brízio “ Being Water: How we flow and shape ourselves collectively” aims to encourage reflection on the deficit of 40% of water in relation to demand.
“Water is everywhere, shapes everything, It is vital and without it life would not be possible. It can take many forms, expressing them simultaneously. It is a powerful lens through which we think about the world and the adaptability of design to the rapid and incessant transformations that have been taking place in “reality”., where the world we know is disintegrating and we still don't know what the next one will be like.” this is how designer and professor Fernando Brízio begins the text that presents the theme “Being Water“.
Fernando Brízio was born in Angola and studied Design in Lisbon, city where he lives and works. Has developed products for the industry, limited series, exhibitions, scenarios and spaces for companies and organizations, como Droog Design, Amorim Cork, Experiment with Design, Nike, Adidas, Authentics, Bordallo Pinheiro Factory, The Shard, Arena Ensemble, The Sound and the Fury, Serralves Museum, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Galerie Creation, between others. His work has been exhibited and published internationally and is sometimes developed independently, blurring disciplinary boundaries. Find out here over your entire journey.
the program
The program kicks off with the Pioneering the Future of Furniture Conference and extends to the most diverse initiatives such as Exhibitions, installations, Conferences, Conversation, Workshops, Performances that include a Tour and finally a Film Cycle
To know everything, just download the Program and schedule all the initiatives that interest you most and not miss!
Image Credits – www.portodesignbiennale.pt
