Design & Social Innovation
RECIPROCITY design liège is an initiative of the Province of Liege and the Provincial Centre for Arts and Crafts of Liege (Office Provincial des Métiers d’Art de Liège - OPMA). Formerly called the International Design Biennial of Liege, which started in 2002, the first edition of RECIPROCITY design liège took place from 4 - 28 October 2012 and presented 25 exhibitions, and a range of other activities, attracting more than 40,000 visitors.
RECIPROCITY 2015 will encompass two new fields of vision: architecture (focusing on systems to reuse building materials) and graphic design (focusing on activism in visual communication).
"The ‘designer’ should no longer be regarded as an isolated and specialised professional figure but indeed as a variety of persons who work together on the co-creation of more mature, practicable and repeatable solutions". (Ezio Manzini, DESIS - Desis Newsletter 3: Design as agent of sustainable changes).
The second edition of RECIPROCITY design liège takes places from 1 October until 1 November 2015.
Now a triennial, Wallonie Design is responsible for general management, artistic direction entrusted to Giovanna Massoni and general coordination to Stéphanie Vessière. The content extends throughout the city and the province of Liege.
For the first time, the Triennial also moves beyond the city and the province, creating a proactive partnership with other centres in the Meuse-Rhine and Belgium. Under the banner of RECIPROCITIES, seven organisations from Genk, Hasselt, Mons, Aachen and Maastricht share the spirit and cross-border mission of RECIPROCITY and have developed exhibitions and events specifically for the occasion.
The RECIPROCITY meeting point returns as the pulsing hub of the event, acting as info- and press point, a space for partners and sponsors, and as local food & drinks cafeteria. In addition, the 2015 venue will be home to Liege’s FabLab (RElab), running its own activities dedicated to ‘makers’ culture and featuring a special 3D printing food experience, located in a container on the Place.
RElab’s focus lies in the use of salvaged materials as raw material and in the study of new social processes related to creative and economic upcycling, in conjunction with new means of manufacturing and digital communication.
The meeting point also incorporates ‘the meeting room’, where RECIPROCITY and its partner organisations will host a series of events (dates and times to follow) focused on social innovation, open design and DIY, in a setting furnished with Artek’s Alvar Aalto collection.
Elsewhere, RECIPROCITY and RElab actively share & exchange their agendas with a number of European cities’ cultural activities via Café Europa, a project on social & cultural cohesion interactivity launched by the European Capital of Culture, MONS 2015.
This exhibition is the result of an international call for entries addressed to schools, students & designers (product design, graphic design, interior architecture, service design, design for social innovation).
The Taste of Change encompasses changes of habits, lifestyles, food consumption, conservation, production & distribution, and bio- and cultural diversity.
Through tools and ingredients we use on a daily basis to feed ourselves, collectively it reveals how today’s design questions and provides objects, services and systems which foster innovation.
For RECIPROCITY 2015, two curators were commissioned for the Welcome to_ project: Nik Baerten, associate founder at Pantopicon, an Antwerp-based studio aiming to guide its clients, both public and private, to see, design and act upon the future starting today, and Virginia Tassinari, philosopher, Assistant Professor at MAD Faculty, Researcher Social Spaces | CUO, Executive Board Member at Cumulus International School Network Association and Coordinator of Philosophy Talks at DESIS Network.
Eriges (Eriger Seraing) is the autonomous municipal authority of Seraing, a local public body that has its own areas of jurisdiction distinct from that of the town. Eriges is responsible for the successful implementation of the area’s master plan: an urban redevelopment and renewal project covering some 800 urban hectares.
From January 2015, a design laboratory for social innovation was launched: during two workshops, an external group of experts in design for social innovation (Virginia Tassinari, Nik Baerten, Pablo Calderon Salazar, Henriëtte Waal, Yara Al-Adib and Elisa Bertolotti), along with the Euregion FabLabs and a school (MAD Faculty Genk) have been working in partnership with the residents and local organisations.
Welcome to_ is an invitation to discover design’s potential for social innovation and join in on the discourse fuelling it. To this end, the exhibition space will also feature a temporary ‘public innovation place’ and ‘room for debate’ to discuss and actively engage with the designers, inhabitants, visitors and a select handful of international experts.
Participating schools:
ESA Saint-Luc Liège - teacher: Pinky Pintus (BE), MAD Faculty Genk -teacher: Virginia Tassinari (BE), ABK - Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design - teachers: Chequita Nahar, Maarten Baptist (NL), ENSAV La Cambre Brussels - teacher: François Jégou (BE)
Collaborating designers:
Yara Al-Adib (SY), Elisa Bertolotti (IT), Pablo Calderon Salazar (CO), François Jégou (FR/BE), Thomas
Lommée (BE), Henriëtte Waal (NL).
Euregional FabLabs: Liege, Maastricht, Genk and Aachen
Founded in 2005, Rotor is a collective of people with a common interest in the material flows in industry and construction.
On a practical level, Rotor handles the conception and realisation of design and architectural projects.
On a theoretical level, Rotor develops critical positions on design, material resources and waste, through research, exhibitions, writings and conferences.
Starting from a thoroughly empirical observation of deconstruction and reuse practices, it will launch a series of reflections: about how cost of labour and of materials relate in Europe, about the complex relations between architects and the building materials industry, or even more poetic questions such as tastes and colours.
Teresa Sdralevich is graphic designer, illustrator and silk-screen printer, who has taken part in numerous international poster events, had her work exhibited in Belgium and abroad, and has also organised shows on the poster.
For RECIPROCITY Sdralevich collaborates with Nawal Bakouri, a consultant and independent curator since 2011, who was previously director of the Galerie Anatome, renowned in France for its dedication to contemporary graphic design.
Realised in three parts (posters in town, workshops, exhibition), the project emphasises graphic design and visual communication as a channel of civic expression for social change, addressed from the perspective of an intervention in public space and a collaborative act that also shares tangible know-how.
Invited guest designers will each run a workshop open to students and the public, where the language of graphic design is considered a dynamic tool in the city, and not as a pure technique.
Agenda of workshops and conferences:
28-29-30/09/2015 - workshop Homa Delvaray at ESA Saint-Luc
30/09 and 1-2/10/2015 - workshop Malte Martin at ESA Saint-Luc
30/09 - conference Homa Delvaray and Malte Martin at ESA Saint-Luc
22-23-24/10/2015 - workshop Tom Henni (public space / venue to be confirmed
RECIPROCITY design liège
Rue des Croisiers, 15
4000 Liege – Belgium
+32 (0)4 237 97 46
PRESS SERVICE
BELGIUM
Giovanna Massoni
M. +32 (0)476 349 594
Stéphanie Koch
T. +32 (0)4 237 97 36
INTERNATIONAL
Nicoletta Murialdo – COMUNICO, Milan M.
+39 339 531 8579
Fotografia: Maria Rosa Sirotti
In the framework of the Wallonia-Brussels Week organised by Wallonia-Brussels International (WBI), Wallonia Export & Investment Agency (AWEX) and Wallonia-Brussels Design Fashion (WBDM) in the Belgian Pavilion at EXPO MILANO 2015, has been presented the RECIPROCITY DAY, an event entirely dedicated to the International Triennial of Design & Social Innovation.
Two round tables have attended by prestigious names from design and architecture, coming from Belgium and Europe.
In the late afternoon many journalist attended the International Press Conference.
After the press conference, dinner was served in the lawn in front of the pavilion, with a choreography based on bags and containers for trash. A crow was searghing for something to eat and someone was rummagin in a container. Some people came with the remains of the restaurant's food in little boxes, and began to distribute to participants. It was, actually, our very good dinner.
This performance wanted to show us that food must be considere a resource and it must not be wasted. In this way Laurence Soetens, a culinary artist, proposes a reflection on food waste and on its possibily to be redistribute.
A very interestin conference and a very interesting reflective dinner too.
Maria Rosa Sirotti
Fotografia: Maria Rosa Sirotti
Fotografia: Maria Rosa Sirotti
Fotografia: Maria Rosa Sirotti
Fotografia: Maria Rosa Sirotti
Fotografia: Maria Rosa Sirotti
RECIPROCITY DAY at Belgium Pavillon EXPO2015 Milan