“Alter-Realities: Designing the Present”
June 2–July 25, 2021
Porto Design Biennale returns on June 2, 2021 and invites citizens, visitors, designers and other creative professionals to experiment, debate and celebrate design as a way of being into the world.
Proposing “Alter-Realities: Designing the Present” as its central theme, PDB’21 intends to stimulate the debate around design’s ability to outline new solutions for collective problems, at a time when the world faces new challenges and uncertainty regarding the usage, planning and sustainability of urban centers, citizens’ mobility and the way in which public spaces can remain as a catalyst for experiences. In addition to the usual formats, such as exhibitions, conferences, workshops and publications, Alastair Fuad-Luke’s curatorship responds to the challenges of programming under the current context and across the territory of both cities. Intertwined with Alastair Fuad-Luke’s curatorial proposal, PDB welcomes Ana Jara, Alberto Altés, André Cruz, Carlo Ratti, Inês Marques and Fran Edgerley as guest curators.
The guest country for PBD 2021 is France, which will have a dedicated program, in line with the general theme of this edition. Turning the focus to the value of design practice, revealing its ability to question reality, challenge complexity and propose concepts and adaptations for a closer and fairer world: such is the curatorial proposal developed by Caroline Naphegyi and Sam Baron. The curators will be leading France’s program, developed in partnership with the Institut français du Portugal and the French Embassy in Portugal.
In a response to the open call launched by Porto Design Biennale, eight projects will integrate the Satellite Activities of the event. Having as its central theme a reflection on alter-realities, the selected applications draw a map of activities, installations, workshops, and creations that, between digital and public space, propose to reveal new connecting lines between local communities.
Porto Design Biennale 2021 will co-create a dialogue platform between society, academia, industry, institutions, national and international cultural agents, building bridges between identities and the sense of belonging from a local to a global scale, as well as championing Design as an indispensable tool in rethinking “glocalization,” the circulation of goods and people, different modes of production and consumption and the growing presence of technology in human life. The event, promoted by the Porto and Matosinhos municipalities and organized by esad—idea, Research in Design and Art, will be activated in both cities between June 2 and July 25.
Find out more about Porto Design Biennale 2021 on our website.
