Open for holidays: Summer of creativity in Valencia
05 Jul 2022 /

Open for holidays: Summer of creativity in Valencia

World Design Capital Valencia 2022 does not stop during July and August. During this time the city will continue to bring design closer to people of all ages, whether they live in or are visiting the city, through workshops, talks, screenings, presentations and artistic exhibitions that take place throughout the city.

A wide range of leisure, culture, fun and reflection on design initiatives, among which the following stand out:

Lighting installation in Àgora València
Everyday at 22h, Plaza del Ayuntamiento

The creative studio Radiante Lab has conceived the Agora Valencia light installation with the aim of highlighting the architecture of the space, creating a connection with citizens, energy efficiency and sustainability. It is an immersive and extensive piece of light art that pays tribute to design every night at 10 p.m., illuminating the Agora on the occasion of World Design Capital Valencia 2022.

The projections take the form of laser sculptures and evoke graphic and editorial design on the pavement of the Agora, which takes on three-dimensionality, generating elements with a solid appearance. This illusion of materiality makes it possible to construct a language with light that is understood by all audiences and appeals to participation and physical interaction. In the same sense, the design of the architectural lighting responds to the desire to enhance the value of the ceramic skin of the Àgora. Radiante has chosen to light in such a way that the very arrangement of the elements generates the rhythm of chiaroscuro. A linear source of hard, highly concentrated light emanates from the floor, achieving a texture rich in nuances and volumes. 

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Exhibition “Casas para jugar” (Houses to play with)
‘González Martí’ National Museum of Ceramics and Sumptuary Arts
Until August 28

The exhibition “Casas para jugar” (Houses to play with) explores a traditional type of toy, the house, in the current social context. The exhibition, which can be visited until 28 August at the ‘González Martí’ National Museum of Ceramics and Sumptuary Arts, features products from Spanish and international companies, as well as innovative projects from designers, focusing on new concepts that add value either through their ideas, their materials, their production methods or because they respond to the particularities and needs of the society they are aimed at. Around the exhibition, the organisers Beatriz García Prósper and Patricia Rodrigo Franco have designed a children’s workshop that, from 12 to 17 July, invites visitors to play with experimentation and creativity through digitally created objects made from kraft cardboard and PLA in 3D printing.

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Exhibition “Play with Design”
Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània (CCCC)
Until October 23

The Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània opens the doors of the exhibition “Play with Design” until 23 October. This initiative, co-ordinated by Milimbo, is an approach to design through play and is designed  as a programme that shows and provides materials with which to engage in a constant dialogue between play and design. Challenging the visitor to take an active part in it as a creator, “Play with Design” sets out to show that design is not alien to anyone and that, in addition to being very present in our lives, it is a tool for learning and human development.

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“Design Fruits”
Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània (CCCC)
Until September 11

“Design Fruits” is open until 11 September at the Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània (CCCC), after its visit to Madrid. Co-produced by CentroCentro and the CCCC, the exhibition brings together the graphics of fruit brands and their evolution since the 1950s. Through more than 250 tissue papers, 120 boxes and 360 labels, “Fruits of Design” provides a closer look at illustrations and graphics that often go unnoticed in our daily lives but which have evolved in terms of printing techniques, colours and fonts.

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“Ron Arad 720°” artistic installation
La Marina de València
Until August 28

With the support of the Hortensia Herrero Foundation, La Marina de València is hosting an immersive art exhibition created by the Israeli designer and architect Ron Arad. Ron Arad 720º is a proposal that unites art and technology through a monumental structure called Curtain Call. A huge circular curtain eight metres high houses projections by outstanding artists such as Mat Collishaw, Mariscal or Greenaway & Greenaway, among others. Originally created for the Roundhouse in London, and after passing through Jerusalem and Singapore, the Hortensia Herrero Foundation brings this installation to Valencia, which will remain open to the public until 28 August.

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Family lettering workshops: “The art of letter design”
Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània (CCCC)
9 and 23 July

Calligraphy is probably one of the most obvious links between the field of graphic design and education. On 9 and 23 July at the Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània (CCCC), different playful workshops for children between 8 and 13 years old will provide an entertaining and fun way to learn about basic concepts, such as the different styles of letters and how to play with them to make their own letters and compositions.

The workshop will be given especially for children, although the adults who accompany them will also take part, thus forming part of a family activity in which they are sure to learn. It may even spark their curiosity too. The workshop will be provided with the notebook “The art of designing letters”, special edition of RUBIO with World Design Capital Valencia 2022.

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Exhibition “Earth: a Retrospective”
Bombas Gens
Until June 2023

Within the framework of World Design Capital Valencia 2022, the Fundació Per Amor a l’Art presents “Earth: A Retrospective”. The exhibition takes place at Bombas Gens Centre d’Art under the artistic supervision of Sandra Guimarães and is designed by El Ultimo Grito based on the Per Amor a l’Art Collection.

With this project, El Ultimo Grito looks at the Earth from an indeterminate point in a future space-time. A point where our memory of the Earth is broken and our only link to it is a collection of images where meaning and significance are blurred; where our gaze romanticises them in narratives that seek to find meaning beyond their historicity. In the exhibition, on view until June 2023, design operates as a conceptual and material narrative as well as a curatorial device, outlining a kind of language of interlude and engaging in a dialogue that opens up a speculative approach to the nature of this collection and its individual works. 

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Screening: conferences of the first edition of creativity festival “Paradís”
Àgora València
July 21, at 19:00h

Àgora València will host the screening of the first edition of Paradís festival. A great opportunity to deep dive into creativity and the projects of great professionals such as Ana Gea (graffica.info magazine), David Ruíz (Ruiz + Company), Ana Hernández (Masquespacio), Dídac Ballester, Rocío Martinavarro and Ana Criado.

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Screening of the documentary “TiposQueImportan”
26 July- Colegio Territorial de Arquitectos de València
28 July- Àgora València

“TiposQueImportan” is a research and cataloguing laboratory of the Valencian typographic archives, with the aim of spreading its graphical heritage and reinforcing the identity of the city; contributing to the improvement of people’s quality of life through design. A documentary about the initiative, directed by its promoter Miguel Maestro, aims to show and publicise a forgotten visual landscape that has in many cases disappeared, giving recognition to the importance of local history, especially the importance of the graphical city of Valencia as a modern and cosmopolitan city. Always with a global objective: to safeguard and protect all the commercial signs of our streets as graphic heritage. By registering, documenting and publicising it. 

The screening of the documentary “TiposQueImportan” will take place on 26 July at the Colegio Territorial de Arquitectos de Valencia (at 7 pm) and on 28 July at Agora Valencia (at 8 pm).

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Cycle of exhibitions in galleries “Today is tomorrow”
Art Galleries of the Valencian Community (LAVAC)

The project “Today is Tomorrow” continues in July, a collaboration between World Design Capital Valencia 2022 and the Association of Art Galleries of the Valencian Community (LAVAC). This initiative gives exposure to the activities of contemporary art galleries in the Valencian Community, all of which are events that converge with the values of the New European Bauhaus. The cycle includes exhibitions such as “Learning to dream” -by Victoria Iranzo, Cristina Ramírez and Gema Quiles-, until 5 September at Jorge López Galería (Valencia); the show “Roto Abierto” -by Cristina Anglada-, until 30 August at Galería Luis Adelantado (Valencia); and the photographic tour “Solastalgia”, by Diana Lelonek, until 30 July at Set Espai d’Art (Valencia).

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“Life Wins!” installation, by Cachetejack
Jardí Botànic de la Universitat de València
Until October 9

The installation “Life Wins!” by Cachetejack, a duo of València-based illustrators formed by Nuria Bellver and Raquel Fanjul, produced by the Jardí Botànic de la Universitat de València and World Design Capital Valencia 2022, can be visited until 9 October. This event is part of the activities designed to spread the values of the New European Bauhaus promoted by the European Commission with the aim of bringing the Green Pact to the places we live in and promoting a sustainable, inclusive and beautiful future for all. Some twenty exuberant and colourful images emerge from the trees and plants in a sensory experience designed as a celebration of the creative energy of nature in a living museum in the heart of the city.

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Exhibition “20 Years of Nude”
Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània (CCCC)
Until October 10

World Design Capital Valencia 2022, Feria Hábitat València and Feria València are organising an exhibition to showcase some twenty designs presented at the nude show over its two decades of existence: “Nude. 20 Years. 20 Designers”. The exhibition can be visited until 10 October at the Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània (CCCC) and brings together some twenty success stories that not only include the pieces produced but also the prototypes, sketches and models that were exhibited at Feria Hábitat València’s platform for new talent. 

The selection committee, integrated by Pepe Cosín, Alejandro Benavent, Silvia Flórez and María Fontes, has taken into account the quality, level of innovation and diversity of the designs as the basic criteria. In its 20 years of existence, the Salón nude continues to be the national platform of reference for the internationalisation of emerging design and is one of the great nurseries of Valencian talent.

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