February in Valencia: all the activities to experience design in the city

The month of February will emphasize the way in which good design is present in our daily lives. Cultural centers and spaces throughout the city will host more than 25 free activities open to everyone.

Different exhibitions, conferences, meetings between professionals, masterclasses or audiovisual projections will unite design with other disciplines such as architecture, art, music or urban planning.

Would you like to know more? You can now download the February calendar with all the activities.

Festivals

A new edition of Paradís arrives as one of the most significant events of the beginning of the year. The festival of design and creativity, curated by Yinsen Estudio, offers us a complete program of speeches to ascend to the Eden of creativity and inspiration; always from humor, enjoyment and with a carefree approach. On this occasion, the cycle of conferences will focus on communicating from a perspective of improving society and opening up the profession to the general public.

Leading figures such as Óscar Guayabero, Javier Jaén, Teta & Teta, Lina Vila, Inma Bermúdez, Fernando Beltrán, Íngrid Picanyol and Wences Sanz will be present at this paradise of creativity, which will take place on February 19th at 6:00 p.m. in La Rambleta. Admission will be free and open to the entire city, prior registration and download of tickets from the cultural center website.

The inspiration and international case studies’ review arrives one more year at the EASD of Valencia with various dates for the Dialogues 2022 cycle. Students and profiles related to design will have the opportunity to approach benchmark projects from around the world.

Exhibitions

Additionally, the launch of ‘Per què sóc així?‘ (‘Why am I like this?’) will occur: an exhibition curated by the divulgator Juli Capella that can be seen at the Centre del Carme de Cultura Contemporània (Carme Center for Contemporary Culture) (CCCC). This ode to the objects we find in our daily lives explores how they work and highlights their importance, despite their small size.

As they tell themselves…

“We are small objects, but we offer you great benefits. From a clip to a funnel, through the light bulb, the telephone, the easy opener, a flip-flop or a coffee maker. Some of us are more beautiful than others, but we all have something in common, the aim to serve you. Come see us and we will tell you why we are like this. From now on you will see us with different eyes.”

Another of the debuts will arrive at the Chirivella Soriano Foundation with the exhibition ‘Through post-truth’, a sample that includes the most recent artistic work by Pepe Gimeno, National Design Award 2020.

For its part, the Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) will bring us closer to the work of two great pioneering artists of modernity in the 20th century. The exhibition ‘Anni and Josef Albers: Art and Life’ will collect approximately 350 works including paintings, photographs, design and textiles, films, documentary material, and a selection of pieces of furniture from the Bauhaus stage, with the fundamental milestones in the career of this couple of artists.

We will also have the opportunity to enjoy a renewed ‘Illustrated Season’ exhibition, located in the MuVIM cafeteria. Aitana Carrasco will be in charge of capturing its panache in a new fascicule of the illustration cycle.

And from Valencia to the world, and vice versa: for its part, the Territorial College of Valencian Architects (CTAV) will bring a more international perspective with the exhibition ‘Lina Bo Bardi a Bahía’, gathering one of the most creative periods —and at the same time less known— Italian-Brazilian architecture.

The Design Capital will put its flag in Madrid with the exhibition ‘Fruits of design’, located in Centro Centro. This graphic recovery project will highlight designs which were created since the end of the 50s; The image that surrounds the fruits has been part of the daily graphics of consumers in Spain and Europe for decades.

Masterclass

LABA Valencia School of Art resumes the BLABLANIGHTS cycle, this time to celebrate the arrival of the year 2022: a milestone for Valencia that has shaken the city and is flooding the streets of Cap i Casal. Marisa Gallén and Miguel Arráiz will be in charge of recounting how has been  the process that has brought us here, as well as which are the challenges that the city faces.

Another of the key conferences this month will be given by the artist and Doctor of Fine Arts Marusela Granell, under the title ‘The aesthetic experience, bridges to the future’. It will contemplate the phenomenon of art and aesthetics in a panoramic way, to clear up which are the bridges that connect us between different periods of time, and which launch us into the future.

Encounters

The project ‘Perspectiva 2030: imagining the València of the future’ reaches one of its peak moments in Las Naves, with the presentation of various images that imagine the city in different futuristic settings. After sharing a summary of the last months of work by five local and international work teams, there will be a debate will held under the title ‘What can we expect from Valencia in the future?’, as well as the opening of the exhibition with these images.

Within Las Naves and with the help of the Carpe Via studio, we will also celebrate the first architecture hackathon, consisting of three workshops that will take place throughout the year. The event will be understood as an ‘experimental garden’, in which the participants will contribute ideas that can be materialized in a creative way.

We will continue rethinking the future urban landscape of the city with the urban design and furniture workshop within the framework of SUC (Sustainable Urban Commons), a co-creation project led by La Marina de València.

Finally, music and design will build bridges with the meeting between two National Awards: Marisa Gallén, as winner in the design category, and Joan Cerveró, as winner in the music category.

Presentations

For its part, the Valencian Community Designer’s Association (ADCV) will present the ‘ENCIRCULAR’ report. The results of this research project allow us to have a real information base on which to define innovation plans and strategies to move towards more sustainable and competitive models, both for creative and business profiles.

Facing the creative community, the presentation of the new book published by the Gràffica magazine will take place. Written by Ana Gea, co-founder of PalauGea and editor of Gràffica,  the name of this new publication is: ‘Living off Design. Instructions to manage your creative business (if you want)’. The event will take place at the Veles e Vents and will be attended by the designer Eduardo del Fraile.

Fallas

The relationship between design and Fallas warms up in February with different activities that will explore the relationship between the two disciplines. From graphic design in posters or booklets to experimentation in construction, the link is infinite and, throughout the month, we will have the opportunity to discover it.

We highlight:

• New screening of the cycle ‘Celluloid Fallas: fiction and reality of the fallas’, at the Science Museum of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències.
• Presentation of the publication ‘A call to the party. Guide to the fallas posters (1929-2021)’
• Presentation of the “Dissenyar Icones” (‘To Design Icons’) booklet, which has the participation of professionals in design, architecture, illustration, top-level national and local artists, of whom seven national award winning individuals stand out.
• Encounter ‘Experimental Fallas exhibition, experiment with Fallas’ in the multipurpose space of the Central Board of the Fallas. 

Remember that month after month, we will have available to consult and download the program poster with all the activities included in the program. See you in the city!